LAYNE’S WINE GIG PRESENTS
Thanksgiving Wine Picks
By Layne V. Witherell
Master Knight of the Vine Layne V. Witherell shares his Thanksgiving wine picks to please any crowd from the venerable Trimbach Estate in Alsace, France.
HUBERT TRIMBACH (1938-2023)
Hubert was the face and front of the house person for the venerable Trimbach Estate for fifty years. He was their road warrior, traveling from market to market, carrying on the family tradition that spans twelve generations going back to 1626. Hubert joined the family winery in 1963, when Alsatian wines were less than a blip in America.
I knew Hubert as a kind, caring ambassador not only of their wines, but all of Alsace. In Oregon in the 1980’s, I was Vice President of their largest distributor in sales in the United States. Not New York, LA, or San Francisco, but Oregon. We took their wines to heart.
Here are a list of their remarkable white wines for this Thanksgiving.
Maison TRIMBACH PINOT BLANC, 2021, Alsace, France, $23.99
Full bodied, dry with apple flavors and hints of spice. “A full bodied, confident white. A lip-smacking halfway house between pinot gris and pinot grigio,” says Jancis Robinson. Great way to carry through the meal.
Maison TRIMBACH GEWURZTRAMINER, 2017, Alsace, France, $31.99
A multi-purpose Thanksgiving wine. It works with all the dishes and people. The intense floral fruit makes the novice drinkers think it is sweet while the lack of residual sugar makes the pros at the table think its dry. It is dry. Note the vintage. They hold their wines back several years to allow complexity in the bottle to develop as the classic lychee, nectarines, and apricots the grape is famous for.
Maison TRIMBACH RIESLING “VIELLES VIGNES,” 2017, Alsace, France, $49.99
This is when the connoisseurs show up for dinner and you want to blow them away. The mineral laden richness of “old vine” Riesling is a combination of flavors seldom encountered. “Elegant, dry precise,” Trimbach.
