Thanksgiving Day Pours

Wine lovers are generous sorts and their admirable, even laudatory, instinct is what might be called an evangelical openhandedness. We’re so enraptured with the beauty of wine that, like all believers, we lose sight that others, ahem, might be less enthralled. Hence this well-meant (and time-tested) advice: Do not trot out your best wines for the Thanksgiving feast. Save your very best bottles for another occasion.Having gotten this public service announcement out of the way, let’s get down to the delicious business of what you should serve. They should be fine wines, to be sure. But more than that, they should be sit-up-and-take-notice wines, preferably with good stories attached. The two wines that follow are just the ticket.HERE’S THE (GOOD STORY) DEAL:Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs Champagne Non-Vintage — Every year I sift through an ever-larger assortment of sparkling wines and Champagnes looking for what, for me, is the deal of the year. Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs is this year’s winner.As is well known by now, the real action in high-quality Champagne is with what are called “grower Champagnes.” Unlike the big, industrial Champagne brand names that you see everywhere, grower Champagnes are the equivalent of estate-bottled Burgundies: small production efforts of real individuality created only from grapes grown by the producer. These grower Champagnes can — and usually do — have real character. Diebolt-Vallois, for example, has only 25 acres of vines, from which the family produces several different Champagnes. That labeled Blanc de Blancs is a jewel, coming as it does exclusively from the family’s holding in the 100%-rated grand cru village of Cramant. (Champagne’s vineyards, uniquely, are officially ranked, point-by-point, on an ascending scale of quality from 80% to 100%. Only 17 villages in France’s Champagne region are awarded a 100% rating for their vineyards.)Cramant grows only chardonnay grapes. Indeed it’s one of the two best chardonnay villages in the entire Champagne region. (The other is Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.) Not surprisingly, this 100% chardonnay Blanc de Blancs from Diebolt-Vallois is a stunner.Creamy-textured and rich for an all-chardonnay Champagne, this is exquisite Champagne with the faintest whiff of honey, allied with scents and tastes of lemon zest, chalk, and even a touch of peach. The price is terrific for the exceptional, individual quality: $42 at Moore Brothers Wine Company (33 E. 20th St. at Broadway, 212-375-1575). Half-bottles are also available ($27), as well as magnums ($91).Colomé Malbec “Estate” 2004/2005 — One of the pleasures of serving good wines (but not necessarily your cellar jewels) at the Thanksgiving feast is the ability to trot out something different that will please almost everyone and also has a good story attached to it. This extraordinary malbec from Argentina is one of the best on both counts.Colomé is a wine of extremes. Not only is it the oldest winery in Argentina, founded in 1831, but it still retains about 10 acres of malbec and cabernet sauvignon vines brought from France in 1854. These vines are still bearing fruit, which are included in this Estate bottling.More extreme yet is the location of the Colomé vineyards: In the Andes Mountains, at levels between 4,800 feet and an astounding 9,849 feet in elevation, they are the highest vineyards in the world. What’s more, the vines are farmed biodynamically, an ultra-orthodox form of organic, sustainable agriculture.Colomé, situated in northern Argentina, was purchased by the Hess Group (created by the Swiss water magnate and art collector Donald M. Hess, who owns the Hess Collection winery in Napa Valley, among other properties) in 2001. With Hess’s money and ambition, Colomé is now an expanding empire comprising not only an array of vineyards, but also a small hotel and restaurant in what can only be called its improbable (for tourism, anyway) location.Colomé Malbec “Estate” includes grapes from the original 1854 vineyard, although most of the grapes inevitably come from much newer plantings. A blend of malbec (85%), tannat (8%), and cabernet sauvignon (7%), this is an intense, lush red wine with powerful notes of black cherry, coffee, blackberry, and violets. There’s oak here, to be sure, but the fruit intensity and dimensionality is such that the oak is well-incorporated. The texture is dense, even velvety.This is a rich, liquorous, striking red wine that will accompany turkey beautifully, as well as take on all the trimmings, too. And it will pair beautifully with chestnuts, by the way. $29.95 at Zachys (16 E. Parkway, Scarsdale, N.Y., 800-723-0241) and Morrell & Company (1 Rockefeller Plaza, 212-688-9370), among other wine purveyors.

Thanksgiving Day Pours

Thanksgiving Day Pours

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