What’s Your Wine Tradition?
Black Friday, The Times Square Waterford Crystal Drop, fruitcake and Hanukkah presents are uniquely American holiday traditions that, by nature, are a bit odd.
Hailing from a super dysfunctional family (who doesn’t?), I remember weird traditions that focused on food before my foray into culinary school. Dad, divorced when I was 11, had a unique ability to burn everything he put on the grill. His best friend was Stouffer’s in a box. Mom was never a good cook. She tried her darnedest, but salt was only used on special occasions, and for dishes that never struck my fancy, like this frightful holiday tradition: Chicken fricassee; necks, livers, gizzards, hearts and backbones, simmered in green pepper-flavored water, served over white rice. The muted colors of the dish would make even the oldest of military uniforms look bright.
I enlisted some of the wine industry’s colorful characters to share their holiday traditions of both food and wine.
Bruce and Barbara Neyers
They’ve been in our lives since the late 80s. Bruce worked for Joe Phelps in Napa, then passionately ballooned the domestic wine sales for Kermit Lynch as his national sales director, all the while developing the Neyers Ranch and their own line of California wines. Barbara should open her own Culinary School, wicked with veggies, proteins and fire. Christmas dinner at the Neyers home is always a roast prime rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding served with Neyers Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. They typically drink an aged magnum of Cabernet Sauvignon and serve it with a magnum of red Bordeaux wine from the same vintage. It is a delight for them to eat dinner and drink the wine while looking out at the dormant grape vines. After picking the grapes, fermenting the wine and aging it, they are thrilled to enjoy a glass with family and friends.
Jon-David Headrick
Our Loire Valley and Champagne Guru importer holds a tradition from his 93-year-old grandmother. He drinks dry Chenin Blanc with the Southern-style cornbread dressing that she’s made for 50 years at Thanksgiving. For Christmas morning, it’s country ham and biscuits with red-eye gravy and more older Chenin. For New Year’s Eve, magnums of Champagne accompany the chilled sea: oysters, crab, shrimp and when times are really good, or even in a pandemic to share a treat. a little caviar for the family.
Steve and Jill Klein Matthiasson
A true labor of love , their winery is a family affair. Steve and Jill both have had lifelong careers in sustainable agriculture. They apply those ideals of balance, restraint and respect for the individual and the whole to their wine. One of their most fun traditions is at Thanksgiving, when they get together with the extended family. Jill’s cousin, a wine collector, and Steve are in charge of the wine. They bring wine for every taste, plus geeky stuff to surprise each other – and everyone else, too: a new California rosé for the niece who normally drinks Provençal rosé; a Meursault for the buttery Chardonnay drinkers; and Matthiasson Cabernet for those who just want a Napa Cab (and the bright Linda Vista Chardonnay is always fun to give to Sauvignon Blanc drinkers who think they don’t like Chardonnay). Jill’s cousin might bring an old Bordeaux and an old California surprise. There’s plenty of wine for everyone! Nothing wrong with bringing too much and leaving it for the hosts, they say.
Michael and Stephanie Honig
Their Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc have graced the shelves at Wolfe’s for two decades. They’re two of our favorite people in the business, bringing an infectious energy when they travel and hawk the new releases. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the whole family drinks a glass of their late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc and eats 12 raisins, one for each month of the year, as they make 12 wishes. At the end of 2019, they replaced the sweet wine with champagne since they didn’t have any late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc where they were partying. Maybe that’s why 2020 is so messed up, laments Stephanie.
As I write this, a tradition just came to me. We have collected birth-year wines (2003 and 2007) from all over the world for our boys. The idea was to drink a bottle on their birthdays. With the oldest itching to get to college a year from now, and the younger in that phase of “it’s alcohol,” I will propose for Turkey Day that we drink something from the year we started our family. Then for Hanukkah, we’ll drink 2007s with latkes and caviar; for Christmas, 2003s with crown rib roast; and for New Year’s Eve, we’ll drink what Joy Sterling from Iron Horse Vineyards calls delicious: Ketel One and bubbles. No matter how odd, just enjoy time with family and friends. That’s how you make traditions.
