Hot new toy; hot new gift; hot new wine?   Perhaps it is all the same for some adults.  The holiday season is in full swing, welcoming in a bevy of gatherings, parties, dinners or casual festive soirees.

Whether it is cheese, sweets or full multi-course dinner, holiday celebrating is upon us.  Some welcome it, some abhor it.  No matter how you look at it, a good bottle of wine is always a welcome guest.

Suggesting wines or what you might taste in wine can wield a certain amount of power . . . particularly if your palate is on point.   But when the holidays roll around, there is a multitude of events, types of cuisine served and guests with varying palates in attendance.   In these circumstances, a wine that is recommended needs to traverse a variety of latitudes and please not only a crowd, but the variety of individuals within it.

Time and time again, Pinot Noir will be mentioned as a varietal that pairs well throughout the holidays.  As a red wine, it has a notable acidity compared to other heavier red wines.  It is generally recognized by easy to identify fruit, bits of spice and low tannins.  The palate does not dry out from a mere sip and if one is lucky, the fruit in the wine will be jubilant and bright making it a wonderful companion at holiday events.

Markham Winery (“Markham”) located in St. Helena in Napa Valley has a unique offering in its tasting room this year:  2012 Pinot Noir.   Typically its Pinot Noir wine never makes it to retail sale and instead is hustled off to restaurants.  But when Markham’s winemaker tasted the 2012 vintage, it was an easy decision to hold some of the wine back to offer it to the public.   Offered at an affordable price, the wine in the bottle does not hint at its youth.  Instead, a bright bouncy fun Pinot Noir awaits your glass.  

What is not to like?  Bright, wonderfully sweet juicy cherries shift effortlessly to smooth delicious milk chocolate and vanilla cream as it cascades down the palate.  Given these notes, it is easy to understand that not only is the acidity in check, but it is precisely in balance in the wine.   If you like to detect a bit of spice in your wine, you will find a dash of allspice and a breath of clove.  A sip, a healthy drink, no matter:  this wine embodies holiday cheer.  It welcomes another sip, drink or glass and moreover, it is so fantastically fun that it welcomes any friend or guest to the holiday table with a smooth satin bow.

For those who like the fruit of Central Coastal California, this wine will stop you in your tracks, disorient you and baffle you that this fruit is hailing from a vineyard near Yountville.  It is in a small planting that catches more of the coastal fog than not and planted near a grove of eucalyptus trees.

For those who want to serve a red wine at a holiday meal, this wine transitions effortlessly from dish to dish showing off its different attributes.

If you serve bacon, shallot, balsamic drizzled flash-seared brussel sprouts, the Pinot Noir becomes rich and shows off nuances of bacon fat as the dish flushes out nuances of smoke.  This also demonstrates the wine’s versatility for light barbeque fare as well.

Pinot Noir in general loves acidity in food.  When paired with the varietal, the acidity in the food and the acidity in the wine cancel one another out.  The wine is left to show off its fun, flirty festive fruit.  The cherry flavors become perfectly ripe, juicy and round.  This is particularly good for the novice palate.

With my turkey recipe, the 2012 Pinot Noir really flushes forward the flavors of the herbs in the most romantic way possible.  Fresh nuances of bay, marjoram, lemon thyme, sage, oregano and rosemary come forth even if you are a few days into leftovers.

If you are serving succulent roasted butternut squash that melts in your mouth, if paired with the wine, the wine will turn into roasted cherries tempered with clove.

Our recipe for herbed stuffing tastes almost like dessert:  herbs, butter, fuji apple and sweet yellow onion.  Alone the stuffing melts in your mouth.  Add a bit of wine on the palate and subtle seductive notes of milk chocolate and cream of vanilla wink back at you.

Finish the meal with a lingering sip of the wine and taste wistful ever-present notes of milk chocolate and vanilla cream.

Rarely do I hold something out as perfection, but this vintage of Markham’s Pinot Noir really embodies the definition of holiday for 2013.  Get it before its gone and celebrate merrily among you and yours.   Cheers!