Beaujolais for Turkey Day

Its coming up on Thanksgiving here in sunny Seattle, and every place that sells wine is trying to sell you the perfect wine to pair with your Thanksgiving turkey.
 
There are many fantastic choices and popular favorites, and it seems to me that the wine that seems to cause the most confusion is Beaujolais (BOH-zho-lay). 

Beaujolais? Beaujolais Nouveau? Aren't they the same? Kinda? Sorta? 

Well, no, not really.

Manchego: A Spanish Classic

The story of Don Quixote takes place in La Mancha, a hot, arid plain in south central Spain. The novel mentions cheese 13 times, and the cheese on Don Quixote's mind was Manchego (Mon-CHAY-goh), one of Spain's iconic cheeses.

Brown Ale for Thanksgiving

I'm back to blogging after taking some time off to prepare for the Craft Beer Institute's Cicerone certification exam - just in time to talk about beer to serve with Thanksgiving dinner.

I know what you're thinking: Thanksgiving is a special celebration so you should pull out the wine, right? 

Don't think that you have to, because there is historical precedent for serving beer instead. Do you think that the Pilgrims ran down to the corner store for a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau? No, they did not. They drank the beer that they had brewed. 

Honor the Pilgrims by serving beer!

There are plenty of great beer choices for Thanksgiving dinner, but I'm going to suggest something that isn't terribly sexy, esoteric, or beer-geeky: Brown Ale.