What’s the single MOST important part of a great Thanksgiving dinner?

It’s NOT the 18-hour brined turkey or the brioche leek bread pudding stuffing you have planned.

It’s the wine. Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy a spoil of riches with your friends and family – and we have you covered with a no-brainer that goes perfectly with turkey, stuffing, football, your annoying aunt Kathy, and all the other fixings. Oh, and did we mention the 92 points, or the 41% discount? We did now.

This bright, piquant, Pinot-like Zinfandel comes from the husband and wife team behind Dashe Cellars. They draw on a wealth of experience, having worked at some of the world’s most renowned wineries: Lafite-Rothschild and La Dominique in Bordeaux, Cloudy Bay in New Zealand, Schramsberg, Far Niente, Ridge Vineyards, and Chappellet stateside. Today, Michael & Anne mostly focus on vineyard-designate expressions such as this.

The grapes come from Signal Ridge Vineyard, the highest elevation in Mendocino at 3,000 feet and the only appellation in the country designated on the sole basis of altitude. Modeled after the Grand Cru wines of the Beaujolais region, this is all about freshness. Light red in color, medium-bodied, and only spending about five months in large oak foudres it’s the PERFECT accompaniment with so many dinners. Brimming, nay SINGING with bright red raspberry and pomegranate, cranberry, and wet river stones with a sprinkling of savory spices.

If you are familiar with the magic of Dashe, you already know what’s up. Round out your locker with a bottle or ten of this, and maybe throw in a big baller Cabernet (got a good one coming in a few days!), to get you all set for turkey day, and beyond.

Some eye-popping praise along those perfect-for Thanksgiving lines, by none other than Eric Asimov of The New York Times, one of the most respected wine critics of our time, “Some people love to serve Zinfandel, seeing it not only as American but free of any entangling foreign heritage. Forget that the grape originally came from Croatia, it surely has been naturalized by now. Ordinarily, I find Zinfandel to be too big and alcoholic a wine to drink over many hours, but some of the lighter, more elegant versions would make good choices. One that I tried recently, but which might be hard to find, was Les Enfants Terrible from Dashe Cellars, a super-light, deliciously drinkable wine that I would be proud to serve at Thanksgiving, if I could find enough of it…”

Could it be said better? We don’t think so.

Buy extra in case you forget the cranberry sauce!

92 Points – Wine Enthusiast

“This wine is nicely ripe and nicely dry, bracing its focused raspberry and black-plum flavors with firm tannins and full body. Hints of cedar and rosemary in the aroma and on the finish add interesting complexity.”