Yes, it’s tragically cliched to offer Riesling and/or magnums for the Thanksgiving table, the narrative at this point being so tired it’s less like kicking a dead horse, and more like kicking at the spot where the horse died a decade earlier.
Still, I guess cliches (sometimes) exist for a reason, so despite my desire to evade all the trappings of our hyper-polished consumer culture, I will have a Riesling magnum on my damn holiday table. You probably should too.
But we are going beyond this today. What we are offering below is very simple: 10 short stories on 10 unique bottles, three of them being magnums. At the very best, each bottle will provide a singular brightness to your gathering.
At the very least, they will irk someone in your family who really just wants to drink “Cakebread,” or anything really that has the words “cake” or “bread” on the label.
As with all our email offerings, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to buy. If you’re a wine lover and just want help finding a bottle or two, email orders@vomboden.com and 1) tell us which bottle(s) and 2) how many you want of each and 3) where you live. We’ll find someone who can sell you the wine. It’s that easy.
It’s all about giving thanks.
2018 Beurer Trollinger Rosé MAGNUM – $50-$60 approx. retail
Clearly we aren’t supposed to have magnums of 2018 rosé in stock. This was all pre-sold and then, somehow, when the dust settled after the commotion of the summer, there they were. However, just as clearly, this wine is stunning and one of the most perfect foils for the Thanksgiving table (or any damn table really). If I were to have a financial / business adviser, she or he would say: “It’s not smart to tie up cash in this wildly seasonal inventory, made from grapes no one really knows, from regions that may or may not even exist.”
But honestly, **** that. I am NEVER going to close out or even discount this wine because it is superb and beautiful and will only get better over the next 5+ years. Also this bottle will offend your Uncle Udo because he read that one fashioney-lifestyle article about never drinking rosé after Labor Day.
2018 Vollenweider Riesling Goldgrube Kabinett MAGNUM – $65-$80 approx. retail
If Egon Müller came from Switzerland and his last name was Vollenweider, well, he’d make a wine like this. A serious step up from the Barrel X (below) in terms of plushness, amplitude, power, fruit and mineral, this wine is basically liquid fireworks… you’ll wonder how a wine can have so much tension, and I have the answer for you: MAGIC. Also your father will tell you he only drinks “dry wines” so this will be a great, passive-aggressive payback for all those times he acted like a self-righteous, know-it-all jerk.
2018 Lauer Riesling “Barrel X” MAGNUM – $50-$60 approx. retail
This is Lauer’s canonical, off-dry Riesling – an uncanny blend of textural fine-ness, layers of Granny Smith apple blended with stone fruit and quivering shards of slate. This wine is so ****ing good it’s silly and honestly, I’m not sure how or why we have any magnums remaining. Only a few 6-packs so good luck. I don’t think this wine will annoy anyone in your family. Sorry.
chapter 2: 7 other ways to Irk your Family
2018 Brand Pet-Nat Blanc – $30 approx. retail
Bubbles are so sophisticated! In this age of ballooning costs for higher education, consider just drinking this bottle in lieu of that graduate degree in Art History. Coming from someone who has a degree in art history, trust me. The Brand brothers studied in the Loire with the likes of Jousset and came back to Germany to make the country’s first Pet-Nat. They are sort of the Dom Pérignon of Pet-Nat in Germany. Limestone soils in the cool northern Pfalz offer this wine intense aromatics and a lithe, lithe structure. This is one of grandma’s lacy, delicate doilies in vinous form, shaped from Pinot Blanc and Sylvaner. You can say something like this to grandma, as she looks off into space, drooling ever so slightly, talking about how all the kids care about these days is sex and destroying democracy with social media.
“In the good old days,” she’ll say, “all we cared about was sex.”
2018 Les Pervenches Chardonnay “Le Couchant” – $50 approximate retail (available only in New York market)
Yes, it’s Chardonnay. That much alone will make Aunt Edna very happy. But it’s from CANADA!!! That will make Aunt Edna fume; you know she’s still pissed about the War of 1812 and our inability to capture Montreal. In my perverse view of the wine world, in total honesty, I think this is one of North America’s greatest Chardonnays. It is so detailed, so linear, so petite and mineral-intense. This wine makes Chablis seem overweight and a little lazy. Les Pervenches is perhaps Quebec’s greatest estate; it is certainly one of the oldest. This Chardonnay, “Le Couchant,” comes from what are likely the oldest vinifera vines in Quebec, planted in 1992. Skip the turkey and pair with scallop crudo.
2018 Migot Auxerrois – $25-$30 approx. retail
No one at the table, and I mean no one, including yourself, is going to be able to pronounce the name of this grape properly. We’d suggest you say it slightly differently every time you’re asked what the hell this is by Uncle Udo, just to keep the confusion level as high as possible. Feel free to tell people the grape is a clone of Sancerre and Copenhagen. That’s fine. Yet, you can sit back comfortably, knowing full well that this textural, waxy and floral wine is made by none other than Camille Migot. You can be downright smug, knowing that he’s located in the Lorraine. You can choose to share, or not, the fact that Camille is farming a scant four hectares on his own and that the farming is certified organic and that his father makes (by hand) many biodynamic preparations for Camille. You alone will know that the wine is a ****ing steal, because no one, and I mean no one, including yourself, really knows where the Côtes du Toul is within the Lorraine. Let’s keep the confusion level as high as possible.
2017 Joiseph “Mischkultur” – $25-$30 approx. retail
When there is such a variety of foods on the table, might as well have a cornucopia of grapes in the bottle and from Austria. Why not? “Mischkultur” translates, roughly, to a “mixed culture” (you didn’t see that one coming, did you?). This is a field blend, a white wine made from many different grapes. This is a semi-mindblowing wine; I mean, it is deceptively simple, yet when you dig a bit deeper… for example, it’s a richer wine, with broad shoulders and some power and momentum. Yet, the minerality and lift is potent, with a brisk acidity that balances and integrates the herbal freshness. It’s citric, with delicate peach and even some ripe tropical undertones… I guess you call this complex? But it’s also energetic and deeeeeeeelicious. Only about 1,500 liters made – you should have 750ml for the big day.
2018 Stefan Vetter Pinot Noir Rosé – $30 approx. retail
This wine makes no sense at all on so many unique levels that it even confuses us. Our best guess is it confuses Stefan Vetter. This is a Pinot Noir, made into what really appears to be a white wine, that is then called a rosé. Marcel Duchamp would drink this wine smiling with his friend R. Mutt (y’up – art history y’all).
For all the linguistic confusion, this is a stunning wine that is only now coming into its unified, brilliant and shimmering form. Vetter is famous for his crystalline Sylvaners; this is a rare Pinot that has a similar looking-glass-into-soil thing. Probably too angelic and high-toned for the crude Thanksgiving day table, you should buy this wine with every intention to bring it to the big dinner. And then, spontaneously, you should NOT bring it to the big dinner, but rather drink it alone, over many hours, watching Fleabag or whatever show is the hot new thing in two weeks.
2018 Beurer “Rotgut” – $20-$25 approx. retail
I’m offering you the chance to buy something called “Rotgut” and put it on your family table. It’s biodynamic, so it’s basically good for you and probably part of the solution to the global climate crisis. You’re welcome.
2018 Quantum Cabernet Sauvignon “Bastard of Grapes” – $30 approx. retail
Florian Schumann is a quiet, considered, thoughtful winemaker in the northeastern part of Austria, only about 25 minutes from the Czech border. Here, in a region infamous for commercial farming and young-vine clones trained for quantity and not quality (the Weinviertel), Florian seeks out the old-vine parcels, the oddballs and misfits. Here’s a perfect example: in a sea of Zweigelt, Florian has found a tiny parcel of 20+ year-old Cabernet Sauvignon, planted and tended by an older man who treats the site as if it were his garden. The resulting wine is dark-fruited and deep – punchy – with perfumed red fruit and a pronounced saltiness. This wine can’t help but hint at the volume and power of the 2018 vintage, even though it remains a lighter-style red wine. The type of red you can chill down. Honestly a perfect wine for the holidays. The type of Cabernet Sauvignon that exists in only a few eccentric corners of the world and will really upset people expecting “The Prisoner.”