Join the Brew Tang Clan
A quality beer not only represents a value over wine but can be as adept at bringing out the best in your food. Drinking imported beer might be sacrilegious on this day so stick with some good old American craft beer. Ommegang Witte ($8) from Cooperstown, New York is a bright and fresh so-pale-it-almost-looks-white-colored beer with flavors of lemon, orange peel and spice. Bottle fermented and sold in a 750ml Champagne bottle, this is an outrageous and versatile brew.
Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale ($8)
This full-bodied red ale is for those of us who like our beers strong, bitter and delicious. With complex heady flavors of caramel and nuts it resembles a Scottish Ale, only with a lot more flavor.
Be Adventurous
If you’re not having a traditional Thanksgiving, go ahead and experiment. Try a new recipe or an unfamiliar wine. I find an obscure wine more interesting because it represents a better value than a more mainstream juice. These are two of my favorite food-friendly-obscure-indigenous-varietal wines that you may not have tasted:
Try the Terras Gauda O Rosal ($19) made mostly of the Albarino grape grown in the lush green hills of Rias Baixas in northwestern Spain, this white wine has notes of yellow apples, honey and minerality. The elegant structure and crisp acidity ensures it’s great with food and the cache of knowing Albarino comes from Rias Baixas will win points with foodies and impress the rest of us.
If you choose to go with a red, try this zany wine from the heel of the boot in Italy’s Puglia region: Rosa del Golfo Primativo del Salento ($15). Intense tart red cherry and herbal notes on the nose give way to a refined but rustic palate.
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