When picking wine for the holiday menu, one simply won't do

My parents weren't really wine drinkers, more your classic martini types, but for holiday dinners they -- and any guests -- drank wine. For me, as a kid and later a teenager, setting out the wineglasses used only at Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed almost ceremonial. Since my mom and dad didn't know a thing about wine, I took on the job of deciding what they should buy. Neither Robert Parker nor any of the other wine gurus were on the scene yet, but I remember reading somewhere that Riesling was a good match for turkey and that Wente Grey Riesling was one of California's best. And so that's what we bought.

By S. IRENE VIRBILA

November 19, 2008