Sommelier Shops For Holiday Wines: Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve

Hey, I'm sommelier Andre Mack, and today,

I'm gonna help you pick out the perfect bottle

for any holiday events, from Thanksgiving

to New Year's Eve and everything in between.

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There is a method and some logic and reasoning

on picking the perfect bottle for an event.

Today we're in Williamsburg at RWG,

and we're gonna check out and see what they have to offer.

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So for each of these scenarios, we actually get a card.

This one says, I'm thankful for you.

All right, a small family Thanksgiving.

You've traveled home for a small gathering

with just your parents, siblings,

and maybe a couple of close relatives.

Ooh Do I like those relatives?

[laughs] Do I like them?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

It's tons of food, but there's lots of different flavors

on the table from turkey to collard greens to yams,

and you want one wine, at least for me,

one wine that will fit the bill for all of them,

and generally, I like to go to Pinot Noir.

For this particular occasion,

we're gonna go to the other side and hop over to France.

I like Pinot Noir for this because of its versatility.

It's medium body, has really great acid.

It allows for it to go with a lots of different things.

Turkey being mild, Pinot Noir being mild,

a lot of times those things go together.

And then the flavors, it's not over the top fruity,

doesn't have a lot of tannin, that it pairs with everything.

There's lots of different ones to choose from here,

but in my opinion, small family gathering,

six people, one bottle of wine would work.

I would tend to spend a little bit more money and,

to me, in that sweet spot, so of like from 30 to $40.

One of the great producers here,

this is Joseph Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge from 2019.

This is a classic Burgundy producer, earthy flavors,

cranberry, a little bit of dirt, really great acid.

The idea of like me sitting at home

and drinking this whole thing by myself is cool and great,

but the idea of like turning other people onto it

and sharing with them is the big thing about wine.

All right, next card here.

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So this is a huge family Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving with your extended family

at a relative's house, kids running around everywhere,

and all the classic foods.

Lots of people,

I feel like you'd wanna bring more than one bottle,

maybe more than one bottle of the same thing.

I love Pinot Noir, but let's do a New World version.

So we're gonna go right over here to the United States.

We're here in the Pacific Northwest.

What I love about Oregon wines and Pinot Noir,

it's the best of both worlds.

It has that fruit that you associate

with California meets that terroir taste of the Old World,

the taste of the land.

When you think about Old World wines,

we talk about less heat, less sun,

and you get more of these earthy flavors in the wine,

and so it's like a mashup of two different regions.

Also, we wanna think about price point.

So it's a lot more people.

We wanna provide wine to make sure

that most people get a glass, not the kids.

I'm looking to spend $15 or under.

So we're gonna select the Underwood Pinot Noir

from Oregon, 2019, and this wine fits perfectly.

At 14 bucks, I think it over delivers.

If this is something that you really like,

maybe buy six bottles and get a discount.

You don't have to take all six to Thanksgiving,

but generally, it would be a mixed case.

So you can shop for all the holidays all

in one swoop and save.

All right, next card, the cooking all day wine.

So you're stuck in the kitchen all day prepping

for a massive Thanksgiving meal and you're thirsty.

Yes, cooking always makes me thirsty.

I think if I'm cooking all day

and gonna be drinking at night at dinner,

I would generally lean towards a high acid,

low wood white wine and maybe from Germany or Austria.

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So you definitely want something with lower alcohol.

You don't wanna be blitzed.

This is a German Riesling from 2019.

This is Feinherb, and this is 10% alcohol.

That's pretty low alcohol.

This is probably what I would select. This is $19.

Flavor wise, we're looking like pear, some stone fruit,

great acid, and maybe a little bit of lime.

All right, so we have the next one here, the Friendsgiving.

15 of your closest friends with all the classic food.

They like to drink, and this could be a long night.

Wow. 15 people, my friends.

I wanna do something that's fun and energetic,

but also I'm thinking about budget.

I'm thinking that I would venture out

maybe somewhere in Italy.

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So we're in the section that says Italian reds.

For here I'm thinking of something

that like flows through the whole night.

You don't have to give it a lot of thought to it.

It's good. It's tasty.

I'm thinking of Barbera. This is Barbera d'Asti.

Everything in Old World countries are named after the place,

so this is called Barbera d'Asti.

Asti is a place.

This definitely will be a crowd pleaser.

Medium bodied, decent acidity, fruit flavors, round, rich.

This is what most Italians are drinking.

Sometimes if we wanna get too geeky

and go down the rabbit hole,

you might exclude a few people,

but I think this is something that everybody

could all give a thumbs up to.

This is one of these scenarios

that maybe I'd buy a six pack or at least four bottles.

At $13, I always felt

like Italian wines really over deliver.

There's no inherent land costs

with a lot of these wines from Europe.

They've owned this land for over hundreds of years.

So if you think of New World wines, a lot of times,

the price point is caught up in the land,

and this is why I like these particular wines.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving.

Your sister like really cares about the environment

and everyone's health this year.

Lots of vegetables and lighter fare.

I would tend to lead more to the natural wine.

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When we talk about natural wine,

there's no legal definition of what it is.

It sounds like your sister wants

to spend her money where her values are.

A lot of the wines aren't filtered or fine.

You tend to let the wine do its thing on its own.

All right, so we have No Es Pituko Chilean Chardonnay,

and the translation just means it's not fancy.

This is like medium body Chardonnay

with some decent acidity and pretty natty,

and natty is just a short term for being natural.

Actually, it looks like there's crystals floating

in the bottle.

They looked like sea monkeys, like from backwash.

There is this thought within the industry

when you filter and fine a wine,

you strip some of its flavor from it,

and so this is a full-flavored Chardonnay from Chile.

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So it's the holiday season.

We all know the drill, the rigmarole.

You're packed with events and you're trying

to do something fun,

but alcohol and wine always make those events bearable.

Season's Greeting. The white elephant gift swap.

You must submit a gift to be fought over

at your annual holiday gift swap.

$20 maximum.

Gonna have to say that if it's alcohol,

generally that seems like the thing

that would be fought over.

I think the main thing here is $20,

and I wanna do something that's maybe slightly unique

or slightly different.

Sparkling seems right. Sparkling red seems cool.

[lips sputter]

We're in the Italian section. We're looking at Lambrusco.

Price point, everything's under $20

or right around 14 or 15.

What caught my eye and possibly thought

that this wine could be sweet, have some sugar to it,

is the alcohol level is at 8.5%.

The sugars are turned into alcohol,

so if you have lower alcohol levels,

that means that you would have some sweetness to the wine,

some sugar left in the wine.

I would tend to wanna go more towards the dry.

This is Soliera Lambrusco.

I think this would be attractive to me.

I think this would be like, Oh wow,

what's going on over there?

There's a bottle of wine. It has a champagne stopper on it.

Looking at the bottle and open it up,

they get their attention like,

Oh wow, this is red and it's got bubbles and it's sparkly,

that kind of thing.

Actually, I recognize the importer,

which is really funny, right?

It's okay to shop back label.

And when we talk back label,

we're talking about the importer who brings the wines in,

and I love the wines that they select,

so I think this is something that I

would elbow somebody out of the way for.

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Let's see what this is about. This is the boss gift.

You really want that raise from your boss this year.

Get them on your good side.

We're gonna head over to this glass-walled room.

Not many wine shops have them, but when they do,

that's where they hide the good stuff,

and that's where you wanna go

if you wanna buy a gift to impress.

Look at this place, the world's treasures in wine,

and the fact that it's in this room

means that it's age worthy.

This is an investment.

This is not for your boss to drink right away.

This is something that can be laid down

for years and still be enjoyable.

We're looking for something that's great

but also has some type of name recognition.

So Caymus is a Napa Valley legend. This is $105.

Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa California wines

are world renowned.

This is one of the great ones here.

Spending a C-note on a bottle of wine seems

like the proper thing to do,

but you want to give them something that's impressive

or a name, and a lot of that is the story.

You just didn't go out

and plunk down a whole bunch of money.

You actually did some research

or a wine that you've enjoyed in the past.

Telling the story behind it and why you selected it

should help you out.

All right.

You're spending a big holiday dinner

with your new partner's parents.

You get the sense that they're skeptical of you.

Wow.

I'm looking for wine that maybe they recognize or know,

maybe less of a producer name but more of a region,

depending on how old their parents are.

Just something that puts them at ease.

You don't wanna pick a Ferrari

for this particular thing but not a Volvo either.

I think we might head back to that special room

in the wine shop.

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Bordeaux, some of the most collectible,

most expensive, exclusive wines in the world.

If it's dinner, generally speaking,

their parents are gonna pay for it,

so I would just spend the money

that you would've spent on dinner on the bottle of wine.

But my choice would be Chateau Calon Segur.

This is for the new relationship that you're in.

There's a heart on the label.

This is something that their parents

can lay down in cellar for years

or reopen when you have grandkids with your partner.

It just has a lot longer life

than just being a gift at dinner.

All right, next up the feast of the seven fishes.

An Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition:

enjoy a meal of seven seafood dishes and a bottle of wine.

You can pair wine with every single fish.

You can pick seven wines,

but I think for this particular thing,

if I had to drink one wine with this from start to finish,

I'm thinking coastal wines from Spain.

Spanish whites.

These are some of the really great values

in the wine world right now.

Several different things to choose from,

but one of my favorites is a grape called Albarino.

This is called Fento.

This is Albarino 2020,

really renowned for its stone fruit and salinity.

This is from the Rias Baixas region within Spain,

so the Iberian Peninsula.

It's a coastal white.

So cooler climate means lower alcohol wines.

Higher alcohol-style wines will taste really big

and overpower a lot of the seafood dishes.

And at $20, I can get a couple of these

and not break the bank.

The ugly sweater party.

You're attending a large holiday season party

with some old friends, some new friends,

light snacks, and desserts.

So the ugly sweater party,

I think this is where lots of people get really drunk.

Generally, if there's lots of desserts

and cookies and things like that,

I would tend to lean more towards dessert wine

or sweet wine, something like port, port-esque.

Port is what we like to call a fortified wine.

So basically, they start making wine,

and at a certain point they add a distill

or neutral spirit to it.

It stops the fermenting process.

So it has a level of sweetness

and high alcohol all at the same time.

You wanna make sure that the wine is sweeter

than the actual dessert that it's going with,

otherwise you get like this bitter aftertaste to it.

This is Porto Kopke. This is a fine ruby port.

This is probably what people expect

when they are drinking something made from grapes.

It's like leather, it's plums, cassis and currant,

and it's coating, mouth filling with a pretty long finish.

Generally, I'm a Tawny guy,

Port that's been aged in barrels,

and then if you do Colheita,

that's all from one single vineyard,

and then you have what's called vintage port,

which is all from one particular year.

This is from several different years, but at 20 bucks,

it's gonna hit the spot and people are gonna enjoy it.

So now we're moving on to New Year's Eve.

All right, here we go.

The all-night New Year's Eve rager, part one.

You're starting early at a wild New Year's Eve house party

with all your friends.

What do you start the night with?

So 15 of my closest friends,

I think we're just gonna go right in, champagne,

and hopefully we don't drink it all before the ball drops.

[Auld Lang Syne]

New Year's Eve, big party, I'm looking for a big bottle.

Nothing says festive or a party like a magnum.

This is a double-sized bottle.

They look great, age well,

and who wouldn't wanna drink from this?

So this is Pol Roger. This is classic champagne.

It referments in the bottle. They trapped the bubbles.

It's all done naturally.

But then also you're talking about the terroir.

Nothing really tastes like champagne like champagne.

This is 130 bucks. To me, I think it represents value.

You think about champagne at $65

and just times two for the larger bottle.

All right, the all-night New Year's Eve rager, part two.

The ball dropped two hours ago and you're still partying.

What do you open now? That's a hard question.

Generally, I like to take a break.

I wanna do something a little bit more mellow,

so I might move on to like a light body red.

[Auld Lang Syne]

We are in France.

We're in a region called Beaujolais,

made from the grape called Gamay.

They're known for making these really great,

crunchy, just lively style wines.

This is Chateau des Tours Brouilly,

which is one of the Grand Crus.

They've been deemed worthy enough

to be called this one particular place.

This is affordable burgundy in a way.

Prices are starting to be on the rise

in this particular region as it gains more popularity,

but I think this is a fair price for what this is.

This is a great way to be able to open up my palate,

cruise along into the early morning.

Hello, New Year. This is the quiet New Year's.

A low key intimate celebration with a loved one,

or maybe you're just treating yourself to a bottle.

Champagne wins again.

One of my favorite producers, Billecart-Salmon.

This is a brut rose.

Rose champagne is actually rose champagne,

so it's a champagne that's a little pink

so with some skin contact.

So that does add another dimension to champagne

that you normally wouldn't get.

Really beautiful color, salmon pinkish color,

tremendous minerality, a little bit of raspberry,

a little bit of strawberry.

I don't know to me, this is like a special bottle.

I think there's not a lot of rose champagne in the world,

so it does cost a little bit more,

but this is a quiet, intimate celebration

and also a way of treating yourself to a great bottle.

Happy new year. January 1st, recovery brunch.

Last night got out of hand. You went to sleep at 6:00 AM.

Why did you commit to brunch with your friends?

I think the best thing from my experience

is to keep the party going.

Mimosas, sparkling, cut it with some orange juice,

and keep heading down that path.

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So this is sparkling, and I guess more precise,

this is the Prosecco section.

This is generally made with injection method

where they're injecting CO2 into the wine.

This is more light and fruity.

We're talking about brunch, mimosas.

We're just gonna try to find the cheapest thing

that we can get because we're actually

gonna pour orange juice into it.

I think this Savino would work.

If you're just gonna drink this straight up,

then maybe you wanna give it a little bit more thought,

but for the main purpose,

I wouldn't waste your money or time trying

to pick anything else.

Just go for the cheapest thing that they have

and keep it moving.

Dry January is over.

You took a month or a few days off from alcohol.

That calls for celebration.

Being in the business, I think it's always a good thing

to know that I can walk away from it if I need to.

I don't think you wanna go jump right back in.

It's like being on a cleanse for like two weeks

and then going to eat barbecue.

But I think I'm looking for Sauvignon Blanc,

something a little grassy, herbaceous.

France, the Loire Valley,

lots of different things to select there.

We are here in the French white section.

We're looking at a region called Sancerre.

Sauvignon Blanc, I believe,

is one of the most distinctive grapes in the world,

the minerality, lots of acid,

gets your mouth watering, lower alcohol

so you can ease back into drinking.

There's three different examples here.

The one I'm probably gravitating to

that I hadn't had before, and this is from Michel Girard.

I'd never heard of the producer. I don't know much about it.

You look at a label like this that looks more classical

versus this other label here of Sancerre

that has a big X on it.

That doesn't look as traditional to me,

so I might be a little leery.

I wanna check some other things out.

That's why you would wanna talk to somebody in the store

to help you choose a particular producer here.

I think the purpose of today was to really help you navigate

through a wine shop and less about those specific bottles

of wines that I purchase.

I want it to provide guidelines

to help you narrow down your choice.

At a really knowledgeable wine shop,

the staff there is to help guide you.

You should really lean on them,

and finding the right bottle that you feel confident with

can really help accelerate the night.

[bright jazzy music]

This is for your drunk uncle who you find

at the dinner table who consumes way too much.

I have the perfect wine for them. It's Fre Chardonnay here.

Look at this is non-alcoholic Chardonnay

for your drunk uncle this holiday season.