Good Morning!

Our Thanksgiving dinner will happen about 4 pm on Thursday at my in-laws house just outside of Palm Springs, CA. So planning which wine can be a challenge each year, because we always fly into LAX early on Thursday morning.

Traveling with wine is not like back in the good old days, you could just carried it on the plane. They frown upon that now and take your wine away, which makes me very sad. I have become an expert at packing bottles in the checked bags, coming home from Chile, I had 10 bottles of wine and I would have put more in, but the bag would have been over 50 pounds.

We have found a grocery store in Palm Springs that has a pretty massive wine selection so we stop in there for my supplies. This side of my family is not much on wine, so I am mostly buying for myself, which is fine by me. This year I am doing all bubbles!

I love how celebratory bubbles feel and taste. I will bring 4 or 5 bottles, because someone will say oh, let’s have some Mimosa’s! I have no intention of wasting great sparkling wine with OJ, but if they like it, great! So 1-2 bottles will be the least expensive and I will get one bottle of Asti Spumonti for them to work on if they want to try some bubbles and they all tend to like the residual sugar.

I will look around the store and if they have Domaine Carneros, that is my first choice, if not Mumm, Moet or Gloria Ferrer are all excellent for pairing with all the savory, salty and sweet flavors of the day. I wish I could smuggle in some real flutes instead of cartoon cups so I could really enjoy total wine experience. But maybe for Christmas I will purchase flutes to give to grandma so each year I will have a glass I love to drink out of.

Of the 25 or so us at grandma’s most of them will have Diet Coke or Corona with Lime, so I will enjoy the bubbles alone and giggle to myself and be thankful for my big happy family.

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi