American wines to give thanks for
Tesco Finest Zinfandel, Lodi, California, USA 2022 (£9.50, Tesco) One of the many things that Donald Trump’s opponents are fretting about in the months between now and his inauguration in January is the promise of swingeing tariffs (do tariffs do anything but swinge?) on exports to the US. The concern goes beyond foreign businesses trying to sell their products in the US. For American wine producers, it’s hard to see how the inevitable tit for tat responses in the EU and elsewhere would be anything less than disastrous for their exports, if only because their better wines are already, how to put it, kinda expensive. Certainly, the point where US wine gets really interesting is considerably higher than almost any other major wine-producing country in Europe and beyond: there is very little that causes more than a flutter of interest below £20, and decent under-£10 bottles are rarer than a Democrat voter in rural Wyoming, with Tesco’s lushly blackberry and blueberry-juicy red being an usual sighting of this endangered species in the wild.
M&S Collection Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA 2022 (£25, Marks & Spencer) For the time being in the UK, at least before the promised orange chaos begins, there is a lot of pleasure to be had in US wines if you are willing and able to spend over £20. And for any readers looking to splash out in celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday, my US recommendations would start with an example of the country’s most famous combination or region and grape variety: cabernet sauvignon from California. In a style that is generally rather more fulsome and richer than the Bordeaux producers that originally inspired them, the finest, most in-demand California Cabs (such as the extraordinarily deep, plushly velvety stylings of Napa’s Harlan Estate or the graceful Ridge Monte Bello from the Santa Cruz Mountains) are every bit as luxuriously priced as first-growth Bordeaux. But M&S’s cherry, cassis, and black-olive-scented example from the variety’s Napa Valley heartland offers plenty of suave, sun-filled California-cabernet vibes for comfortably less than the three (or even four) figures you’d need for the state’s cult bottlings.
Résonance Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Oregon, USA 2019 (from £32.95, nywines.co.uk; noblegrape.co.uk) California, which dominates American wine production to the tune of around 80% of the total, is a hugely dynamic wine region, with an increasingly diverse portfolio of styles from its varied soils and climatic conditions. That’s true in whites as well as reds, with two Thanksgiving-friendly Californian finds in that circa-£20 price bracket including a peachy, citrus-pithy take on Mediterranean variety grenache blanc from Lodi (Klinker Brick Grenache Blanc 2022; from £17.95, harrisandco.uk; standrewswine.co.uk) and the perfectly poised Alma de Cattleya Chardonnay 2021 from Sonoma (from £27, thewinesociety.com; thesecretcellar.co.uk). There’s plenty of vinous creativity further up the west coast, away from California, too, with Syncline Gamay Noir, Columbia Gorge 2019 (£33, allywines.com) offering a slinky, subtly pepper-spicy red-fruited Beaujolais-alike from the Washington-Oregon border, and Burgundy producer Maison Louis Jadot bringing all their pinot noir knowhow to bear on their gliding, silky charmer of a red from their Oregon project, Résonance.
