Monthly Archives: November 2011

If you conduct even the briefest of Internet searches, you will discover all sorts of blogs, newspapers and magazines recommending wines for Thanksgiving. I’ve seen articles recommending Beaujolais (ideally Cru) and rosé Cava, for example, both of which sound lovely and not nearly alcoholic enough for a major family holiday. I decided it was time to dust off my mixologist cap.

A pumpkin or pumpkin pie martini sounded too much like dessert, and neither turkey, gravy, stuffing, nor green bean casserole offered a flavor profile I wanted to recreate in a drink. That left cranberry sauce.

Since I’d never worked with 100% unadulterated cranberry juice, as distinct from the cranberry juice cocktail used in Cosmopolitans and Cape Cods, it seemed like a fun challenge to use it as my inspiration.

Because 100% cranberry juice tastes extremely tart, it requires some sweeter ingredients for balance. I tried mixing two parts bourbon and one part cranberry, but the bourbon couldn’t begin to balance out the cranberry on its own. Simple syrup seemed like a cop-out; why not just use cranberry juice cocktail?

Then I remembered when an old roommate of mine decided to make cranberry sauce for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Wanting to be sure to cook enough for the ten of us, he filled an entire stockpot with the stuff! Fortunately it tasted delicious, with orange zest adding an extra layer of sweetness and flavor. Fresh-squeezed orange juice could be just the thing for this cocktail — juicy and sweet, but not too sweet.

But even with two parts bourbon, one part cranberry and one part fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice, the cocktail didn’t sing. The flavors were all too high; I needed some low notes to feel satisfied. Some Angostura Bitters did the trick. Four dashes, and the cocktail tasted well-rounded at last.

I had a quick look around to see if anyone else had stumbled upon this concoction. Cocktail chronicler Eric Felten came close when he described the Bardstown Sling, a drink of bourbon, triple sec, cranberry juice cocktail and lime, which is essentially a Cosmopolitan with bourbon instead of vodka. The blog Cold Glass gets even closer, substituting 100% cranberry juice and Cointreau for Felten’s cranberry juice cocktail and triple sec.

But since my cocktail indeed seems to break new ground by using bitters and fresh-squeezed orange juice, I will offer up a name: The Thanksgiving Helper. Here’s the recipe:

Thanksgiving Helper

–2 Parts Bourbon

–1 Part 100% Cranberry Juice

–1 Part Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice

–4 Dashes of Angostura Bitters (or other standard bitters)

To get the proportions right, squeeze half an orange first and use the amount of juice you recover as the measure of one part. The juice of half a small orange should be about right for one cocktail. Combine all the ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a martini glass, and if you must, garnish with an orange slice or a few fresh cranberries.

Don’t be fooled by the beautiful deep pink color of this cocktail. It’s quite strong and tart, but the dash of bitters keeps its feet on the ground.

It came as a great shock to me, years ago when I was deciding which college to attend, that Iowa has much more to offer than just corn. Set on a hill over the Iowa River, pedestrian-friendly Iowa City has charm to spare and a palpable buzz from the University of Iowa’s large student population. I still make a point of visiting every year or so, because some friends understandably simply didn’t want to leave (despite the region’s lack of creativity when it comes to place names).

On a recent visit, I discovered there’s a well-regarded winery between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. I didn’t have a chance to take a tour this time around, but I found a full range of Cedar Ridge Vineyards wines at the New Pioneer Co-op, the apotheosis of granola-chic grocery stores.

In the mood for a light red to pair with some pizza, I cracked open the non-vintage Marechal Foch, made with estate-grown fruit. This variety, according to The Oxford Companion to Wine, is a French hybrid of Goldriesling (a cross of Riesling and Courtiller Musqué) and… something else. The Companion makes no guesses, but Wikipedia posits a Vitis riparia/Vitis rupestris cross or a variety known as Oberlin 595.

So there’s a fun tidbit to trot out at your next cocktail party.

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Because of my recent travels, I hadn’t cooked a thing in at least three weeks. My sanity demanded that I return to the kitchen. I knew I wanted to use up the last of some bread my husband baked and the luscious dates I brought back from Dubai, so I cooked up some Pappa al Pomodoro (Tuscan tomato-bread soup) and Moroccan tagine with lamb and dates.

Deciding on the recipes was easier than choosing a wine — I had trouble figuring out what red would pair well with both of these dishes. A Bordeaux might have worked, but it’s hardly odd, so I opted for a 2009 Big House Red. This wine blends no fewer than 12 different varieties, and I figured something in there would surely pair well with each recipe.

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Guests arriving at Six Senses Zighy Bay, a resort on the coast of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, can descend the mountains to the hotel by road, or, for those inclined to flinging themselves off a cliff strapped to nothing but a piece of fabric and a Bulgarian fellow, by paraglider. I found myself in the latter camp the day we arrived, and after catching an array of “awesome thermals” followed by a death-spiral descent to the beach, a drink seemed to be in order.

I later learned that the resort tries to avoid “common labels” when stocking their cellar, so it comes as no surprise that the house rosé was something unusual — a 2010 Fantail Pinotage Rosé from South Africa’s Stellenbosch region.

Now, I have long tried to like Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault (also known as Hermitage), but I usually find them rather off-putting. It’s been a while since I’ve had one, to be honest, but I recall an overheated quality, with notes of heavy red meat that weren’t to my taste. It was a bit of a relief then, to read Tom Stevenson argue in The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia that Pinotage “does not have half the potential of either [Zinfandel or Shiraz].”

But the variety certainly worked in this particular rosé. It had an herbal, almost oregano-like nose, and bright, fruity flavors giving way to some spiciness and a minerally finish. I liked the journey this rosé took me on — just the antidote for the more adventurous journey I had just undertaken.

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