Bourbon

When the drinks start getting poured, we recommend starting out with a glass of Woodford Reserve’s Distiller’s Select. This bourbon sounds a bit fancier than it is, which is great for presentation. It’s well within budget for a small New Year’s party and will provide an excellent addition to the atmosphere without distracting you from the company you’re with. You can read more here: Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select

Champagne

As that special hour comes up, we recommend breaking out a bottle of  Korbel Brut champagne. While this champagne is not French-made, it will add a nice celebratory air to the evening without breaking the bank. The flavor is nice, crisp, easy, and will pair well with the appetizers and snacks you have carefully laid out for your company. Read our full review here: Korbel Brut

Cigar

To top off your evening, we strongly suggest getting your hands on a Chateau Fuente by Arturo Fuente – preferably with a natural wrapper. Arturo Fuente is always a solid choice for a quality smoke, and Chateau Fuentes are one of their staples. Chateau Fuente gives you a full-flavored, relatively quick smoke that makes for a great celebration cigar, but gives you a little something extra from your ordinary smoke. If you’re interested in a longer smoke for your evening, go with the Double Chateau. You can read more here: Arturo Fuente – Chateau Fuente

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Alcohol Type: Semi-Sweet Red Blend

Alcohol Content: 11.5%, 23 Proof

Price Point: Mid-range, $17, Acquaviva is located in Sycamore, IL but they can ship their Christmas wine to most locations. This wine is available all year-round, but may be hard to grab the closer it gets to Christmas. You can order their wine here: Christmas Wine Acquaviva Winery

Nose: Mulling spices

Flavor Profile: Raisins, mulling spices

Acquaviva is a small winery in Illinois that has many wines available including whites and reds, all made with grapes grown in Illinois. While Illinois is not as well-known for its grapes, there are some semi-sweet and dessert wines that hold up. Of their selection, one wine stands tall among the others. Acquaviva offers a Christmas wine year-round. This may sound strange, but there is a reason for it: the Christmas wine is a huge hit.

The Christmas wine made by Acquaviva is what is known as a mulled or spiced wine. It may be red, but don’t be fooled as it is not like other dry reds. Mulled wines are usually served warm – not room temperature warm, but rather heated in a crock pot or on the stove. That being said, they can certainly be served chilled or at room temperature as well.

When you look at the color of this Christmas wine, you will notice it is not quite as dark as other red wines. It is only 11.5 % alcohol so it is not considered a full-bodied red. The viscosity of this wine is also a little different than you would typically expect from a red; it is a little thicker. The nose of this wine is just absolute Christmas. When you open the bottle and pour a glass, it takes you to Christmas day. This is primarily attributed to the mulled spices. Some of the spices include allspice, cinamon, and clove. Although this wine is labeled as a semi-sweet red, I would say that it is very sweet. 

On Christmas day, this is the bottle I would have before dinner. Whether you are serving it hot or chilled, it is the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit.

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Christmas Teaser

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For the novice or avid whiskey drinker, we highly recommend getting a set of Glencairn glasses like these. As hokey as it may seem, glassware plays an important role in how our senses detect nuances and notes in our drinks. When it comes to drinking glasses, Glencairn is the cream of the crop, slamdunk, homerun, take-home-to-your-mama, king of drinkware. There’s no comparison to the subtleties that Glencairn glasses can provide, so they’ll be sure to please whoever receives them as a gift. For our full review of Glencairn glasses, you can find our article here: Glencairn Glasses

Wine aeration plays a key role in tasting, as we mentioned in this article: Let It Breathe. For the wine drinker, we recommend getting a set of wine aerators that double as pourers. These conveniently allow you to aerate your wine in their bottles, so you won’t need to pour your wine into a decanter to let them breathe. The pourer also makes it easier to distribute your wine, so you can avoid any embarrassing situations when you try to pour wine for your date after getting a bit tipsy. These are our favorites, as the metal is sturdy and the animal designs add an excellent talking point and novelty factor. You can find our full article on aerators and pourers here: Aerators And Pourers

Your pipe and tobacco lover will surely need a pouch to carry their pipes, accessories, and tobacco in. One of the drawbacks of using pipes is that they are difficult to keep safe when you bring them while travelling. A sturdy pipe pouch will fix this issue and keep your favorite pipe safe from any dings or scratches while also doubling as a convenient storage unit for a pouch of your favorite tobacco. Our favorite pipe pouch can be found here. For our full pipe pouch article, you can find it here: Pipe Pouch

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Wine

If the task of choosing a wine for Thanksgiving dinner this year is yours, our recommendation is Cooper’s Hawk Lux Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is a crowd-pleaser and exactly the first impression you want to make in any situation. It is available to Cooper’s Hawk Wine Club members and non-members alike. As full-bodied red wines go, this bottle offers a high quality that will leave room in the budget for Christmas right around the corner. 

For the best experience, let this red breathe for a short while before consumption – the wait will make all the difference. With time, the dark berry, cherry, and vanilla finish will pair perfectly with all the Thanksgiving staples. The balance of this wine is what makes it a conservative choice for all audiences.

You can find our full review here: Cooper’s Hawk Lux

Bourbon

Thanksgiving is different for a lot of people this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it to some extent. It may sound a little tongue-in-cheek, but our recommendation for a good bourbon to go with your turkey and small gathering is Wild Turkey 101. Wild Turkey 101 is a good middle of the road sipping bourbon. It’s one that can be enjoyed the same way a Thanksgiving turkey can. You can have lunch meat turkey sandwiches any day of the week, but Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches the week after Thanksgiving is something special. So is Wild Turkey. 

Wild Turkey 101 is a bourbon that’s high rye content and a bit of heat and spice bring something special to a special day – best enjoyed alongside some pecan pie while watching some football. It’s a well-balanced bourbon that is higher ranking than something like Jim Beam, but not to only be reserved for those “special” special occasions. It’s the go-to for a holiday that happens every year.

You can find our full review here: Wild Turkey 101

Tobacco

After you’re done with dinner, but before the annual tryptophan-induced nap, it’s time to relax. A great post-dinner smoke is just what you need. Scotty’s University Professor, available from pipesandcigars.com, is the perfect smoke for the season. It’s a mild, pleasant-to-tolerable tobacco that won’t ruffle any feathers if you smoke it around your family and friends. From the moment you pack your pipe and light it, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I tell you this medium-bodied smoke embodies Autumn. 

This tobacco isn’t super complex, but not exactly simple either – like a good Thanksgiving dinner. With its medium strength and a bit of sweetness, this tobacco is sure to pair well around the time the pumpkin pie comes out. This will prove to be a nice cap to the end of a nice day.

You can find our full review here: Scotty’s University Professor

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Bottom Line: A great value when you consider the flavor and proof you get for the price. It’s a middle of the road bourbon that brings flavor to hold its own or to be used in cocktails.

Wild Turkey is a brand name that is well known in the bourbon world. When someone puts the proof in the name – 101 – they want you to know it has a bit of kick to it. It’s not your average bourbon that comes in at 80 as Jim Beam does or the 90 of Maker’s Mark. It’s 101, 50.5%. Over half. And you know what, when you take your first sip you notice that little extra. Wild Turkey 101 claims high rye content, an aging of six to eight years, and flavors of caramel, vanilla, toffee, and spice. As far as bourbon goes, Wild Turkey 101 falls in the middle to lower shelf. It’s a budget-friendly bourbon whiskey that punches well above its weight class, bringing big flavor and value to your glass. Considering that the average price of a bottle is somewhere in the mid-twenty-dollar range, this offering from Wild Turkey is quite a value. 

Out of a Glencairn, the nose presents itself with a sweet vanilla found in fresh chocolate chip cookies, a light swath of orange peel and spice as mentioned on the label. This is followed by an almost floral note. The baking spices are reminiscent of Christmas. It’s light on corn, yet still semi-sweet. With the Glencairn glass, the caramel and vanilla profiles are more distinguished. A rocks glass loses some of the vapors and leaves the nose with a faint wisp of vanilla, and the ice brings out the citrus much more readily. The spice is toned down and the floral tones are still there, just not as prevalent. 

The first sip makes you understand what it means to be 101. You feel a slight heat. On the palate, Wild Turkey 101 brings some heat from the spice, a hint of cinnamon, and the rye as well as barrel tannins that cling to the roof of the mouth and back of the tongue. Even though this bourbon is labeled as “high rye,” you can still pick out some of the sweeter flavors under the spice. The second sip brings about citrus that lingers on the tongue along with some black pepper. It also brings a sweet buttery vanilla and dark cherries. The higher alcohol content of this whiskey causes the oils to cling to the mouth, and the aftertaste lingers for a short while before fading away. A dash of water brought the citrus note to the front of the nose, and exposed a not-overly-sweet caramel hard candy to the mid-palate. Chilling Wild Turkey 101 over a large ice cube tamped down the sweetness and allowed the dry oak notes to swell and cling to the mouth. This allows Wild Turkey 101 to hold its own in a cocktail and prevents the whiskey from being overpowered by sweetness. The flavor of toffee that the label touts couldn’t be picked up on. 

Wild Turkey 101 is a middle of the road, no frills bourbon. At the end of the day, a middle of the road bourbon in tasting glasses is still a standard bourbon. While there are only so many flavors this bourbon has to offer and it may not appeal to all due to the high rye content, it is definitely worth taking a chance on. In a mixed drink, the flavors and spice will not overpower the other ingredients and it’s enough of a bargain to keep on hand for when you don’t want to use up the good stuff. That being said, it is still good enough to enjoy by itself. There really aren’t any surprises about this one, but it’s still a good pour and always enjoyable. You know what you’re getting and you won’t feel bad using up the bottle.

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