catallaxy.net

Pumpkin pie is great. Whole Foods has an excellent store-bought pumpkin pie. But you might consider this:

I made a batch today. It’s quite good. I followed a hybrid of these two recipes. Enjoy!

Most people know Vanessa Hoelsher as Playboy’s Miss September 2005. Now the wine world knows her as the importer behind “Bellisima,” a refreshing new red wine from Tuscany.

Vanessa grew up around the wine industry and after modeling for Playboy, she took the money and bought a winery in Italy. Bellisima, her first blend imported under the Villa Italia Wines label is a great offering. It’s made from the sangiovese grape and is from the local Maremma Toscana area, for the real sticklers.

The wine is brand new and might be hard to find at your local store if you don’t live in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut or Georgia. But if you like Italian wines and the sangiovese varietal in particular this is a wonderful first offering. My local wine store special ordered several cases just to have the wine “from the Playboy bunny.” Even so, it doesn’t disappoint.

More about Vanessa here.

 That’s right friends. This past week featured the third Thursday in November and that means that the new 2007 Beaujolais Nouveau wines have arrived in stores.

Beaujolais Nouveau is made from the very first pressing of the grapes. This wine was literally hanging on the vine a few weeks ago. It is picked, pressed, fermented and bottled for immediate drinking.

Nouveau is looked down on by some wine drinkers (ie: snobs) for it’s lack of age, depth and sophistication. I feel the exact opposite. I look forward to Nouveau season every year. It’s the first taste, the first hint we get of the year’s vintage. Nouveau is fun, fruity wine with no pretentiousness. Even the label is colorful:

So how is this year’s sneak peek at the vintage? Although I like Beaujolais Nouveau in general, this year seems a little flat. The wine tastes somehow watered down. Nice flavors of strawberry and banana come through and the finish is pleasantly dry, but I was expecting a little bit more than that.

But Nouveau is Nouveau. It is what it is. It’s fun and fruity and should never be drank after January. By then, it’s too late. You can get this at any local wine shop for about $10-$12 and I recommend you do so. It’s fall, so go out and taste the harvest.

And yes, this is of course an excellent wine to serve at Thanksgiving dinner. Stay tuned next week for more wines to pair with everyone’s favorite meal.