Alder on America: Thanksgiving and Wine

At a certain point in my childhood, Christmas faced a stiff challenge as my favourite holiday. Never mind that I am technically Jewish. For whatever reason, we ended up with a Christmas tree and presents instead of a menorah and the eight nights of chocolate coins for Hanukkah. But at a certain point, as much as I loved getting presents, there was one thing I enjoyed almost as much as ripping the wrapping paper off brightly coloured packages, and that was eating meat.

While other kids saw the months between the beginning of the school year and the Christmas holidays as a long, bleak stretch of rapidly shortening days, I saw a shining light on the hill, a beacon of hope that would sustain me in the cold winter months of Colorado. I loved Thanksgiving.

You see, I grew up the son of a single hippie mother, whose cooking repertoire, bless her heart, consisted of about six dishes, four of which contained both brown rice and pinto beans.... Continue reading this article on JancisRobinson.Com.

This article is my monthly column at JancisRobinson.Com, Alder on America, and is available only to subscribers of her web site. If you're not familiar with the site, I urge you to give it a try. It's only £6.99 a month or £69 per year ($11/mo or $109 a year for you Americans) and well worth the cost, especially considering you basically get free, searchable access to the Oxford Companion to Wine ($65) and the World Atlas of Wine ($50) as part of the subscription costs. Click here to sign up.

Posted by: Alder on November 21, 2011 9:53 AM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Comments (2)

Chuck Hayward wrote:

11.21.11 at 12:15 PM

Loved this, a great intro to the trials of Thanksgiving dinners in America for those who have never experienced it.

Also loved your comment: "...writing about what wine to serve with Thanksgiving dinner has become one of the three required subjects (along with sparkling-wine coverage in December, and the annual flogging of rosés in early summer) assigned to every living American wine writer..." But there should be four, you forgot my favorite (which made you cringe in a post you wrote a few years ago) called "Summer Sippers"!! Gotta love that one...

Tia G wrote:

11.25.11 at 1:50 PM

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hope you did, too! Great Post!