This Month’s Featured Article

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Gifts, parties, dinners, family gatherings, and OMG, we need the right wine for all those. But, what to choose? There are so many options, from local vintners with one-of-a-kind specialties to vast world-wide assortments. 

Enter Dylan Baker at Sharon Package Store, Hillsdale Fine Wine and Spirits manager Wendy Walton, and Tom Morrison of South Egremont Spirit Shoppe with their expert advice.

Their unanimous opinion echoes Morrison’s statement, “The first rule of thumb is to drink what you like.” 

Baker worded it, “It’s up to your palette, what you like to eat, but be open to trying.”

“It’s really a personal preference, what people like,” was Walton’s comment. That said, they went on to add their suggestions. 

More wines than oceans

Baker laughed while saying, “There are more wines than oceans,” pointing out that the wine should match the intensity of the food flavors. “Typically, with turkey, you can be a bit more aggressive because it has a lot of flavor to cut through. Maybe a Savignon blanc, with body and a little bit of fruit. Personally, I go with a French noir or Sancerre.”

Reds such as a traditional Beaujolais French Gamay are lighter bodied but have a vibrant fruit to them, “They’re very welcoming to, like, a cranberry sauce, and also pair well with ham.”Another choice is a wine with higher acidity, which “invigorates our palette to welcome more food flavors.”

Walton finds that for Thanksgiving and Christmas, people tend to like a heavier Sauvignon or pinot noir. She pointed out, “We also carry a good variety of kosher wines.” 

“The softballs such as pinot noir, chardonnay, and zinfandel are what most people gravitate towards. We like to have alternatives to those,” Morrison informed. With so many flavors, spices, and textures on the Thanksgiving and Christmas tables, “We believe a wine with less complexity goes further; we love a reisling or rosé as alternatives.” Morrison also admitted a strong affinity towards Italian wines, “Most of which will fit the bill.”

Besides the holiday dinners, there are parties large and small. And gifts, also large and small. There’s a wine for that. For something very traditional, and very easy, the Hillsdale shop holds tastings for a local pre-mixed mulled wine they stock, “Just put it into a small crock pot to serve, the fruits and spices are already in it.” It could make a gift, or select one of their boxed sets, such as wine with glasses.

Solid advice

For a party, Baker mused, “Sooooo, you wanna go with crowd pleasers, not too one way or the other, fruit or dry.” On the other hand, for a gift, “I’d always welcome one I didn’t know.” For either, he suggests, “Find the same characteristics with the food as with the wines, for example, chocolate and raspberries with a really nice zinfandel.”

Advice from Morrison is the same, “Crowd pleasing wines are definitely in order.” He recommends serving varied styles, but not too many. For giving, “Bubbles always make a good gift. They’re always very celebratory. You hear the cork pop, ‘Now the party starts’.” Bubbles also are a great food wine, he feels, “Wine is about enhancing the food experience.”

As far as serving the wines, Walton reiterated the classic, “White is usually served chilled, red at room temperature.” Baker refined that, “Don’t overchill white wines, especially if pairing with food. Sitting out 10 to 15 minutes changes the wine tremendously.” Morrison concurred, “Don’t serve whites too cold, it shuts down the flavor;” he also suggested chilling reds, “A slight bit.” 

His customer favorites follow a broad spectrum, Baker said, with natural, organic brands big and growing. “There’s a spike in orange wines,” which, he explained, are not made from oranges, but rather given that color shade, and more body, by letting wine sit on the skins it has been pressed from.

Walton said Hillsdale Fine Wine and Spirits carries wines from all different regions, accounting for about half their overall sales. In summer, individual sized plastic bottles and cartons of wine are popular, especially with people going places such as Tanglewood where glass is not permitted. 

“Where wine is enjoyed most is with food,” Morrison noted, so when tasting new wines to stock, they ask how it will affect a meal. Their customers like different things, “With a lot of people looking for organically made wines,” which South Egremont Spirit Shoppe has many choices of.

A gathering place

The Sharon store’s liquor license is one of the longest held in the state, having obtained it, “Very soon after Prohibition ended,” Baker boasted. When he and his wife took over ten years ago, it was a gathering spot for the community, a tradition they are carrying on, while “also ever-adapting with change of the market.”  

The Hillsdale shop opened in 2015, with the motto, “Where local flavors meet imported adventure.” They specialize in “Supporting local makers.” Walton said their specialty might be the very large selection of bourbons for the size of the store, “Millennials have discovered bourbon, and makers can’t keep up supplies.”

South Egremont Spirit Shoppe has been open for eight years, but the owners Tom Morrison, Dan Thomas, and Alison Berlin combined have “Seventy-five years in the wine industry,” to select vintages to stock. “We specialize in wines,” Morrison said, “We’re ‘wine-centric.’ Wine is our passion, our focus. We feel winemakers are the ‘good stewards of the earth’.”

And there you have it. Pick your favorites, and enjoy your holidays!