Holiday Wine List

Paul over at the WINE PRO group on LinkedIn was asking:
What are you drinking over the holidays?
Usually I leave these things to the wine review blogs. But I started thinking about it and got all warm and fuzzy so I wrote something like this:

For the 'go-to' have-on-hand wine I'm going to search out some Cotes Rotie and other Rhonish varietals. There seems to me more of these grapes available to us each year. Best to get some research done.

The wife and I like to sip on cava as we chore, errand and task about the house with all the seasonal duties. Scrubbing the bathroom fixtures seems almost glamorous with a flute of bubble at hand. We tend to like some of the inexpensive Australian sparklers like Wolf Blass. The price is right at $13.99. We'll crack a domestic like Sumac Ridge's Steller's Jay or my own Township 7 Seven Stars if company is coming over and I have to pull on a clean shirt.

We aren't travelling for Christmas so the big turkey feast will be next year. We usually do duck for when it's just me,she and the boy. Duck is one of the few things in the world he likes. Probably team it up with Pinot Noir. I don't have an '05 Sokol Blosser (the link is to the '06)which is undeniably wicked cool. I will probably open a Black Cloud 2006. Black Cloud? Coming soon. Available in the early New Year. You read it here first.

New Year's Eve? I'll be a guest and drink whatever is put out. New Year's Day, however, is different. The plan is to fire up the outdoor grill and have a few folks over for mixed grill and pasta for a mid-day brunch kind of thingy. Maybe the Thomas Fogarty 2004 Fiddletown Barbera. Hope it's sunny and mild. We like to start the year like that and send photos to friends out east.

Any given night, with the snow swirling outside and the fire embering nicely, we'll pop an NV Port and crack some walnuts while we congratulate ourselves for another great year of us.