Easter Wine, Part 2

Earlier this week, we started our What to Drink for Easter recommendations with a Pinot post. If you're looking for a red wine to go with ham or turkey, you just can't beat a Pinot Noir. Click here to read those recommendations. Today, we'll consider some white wine pairings for Easter.

At Joe Canal's, we believe in the concept of "drink what you like." If you prefer a Chardonnay or anything else to what we're recommending today, our wine team in the stores will be happy to help. These suggestions are based on our experience with pairings, as well as our own palates.

We have found that a lightly sweet Riesling or a spicy-sweet Gewurztraminer to be the optimal white wines for pairing with a ham or turkey. They are not too light in body, so they hold up against the nuanced flavors of an Easter dinner, with the sweetness and spiciness playing nicely opposite the various traditional dishes.

Gewurztraminer might be tricky to pronounce, but its complex character is why it's a great pairing at Easter. We suggest the Trimbach Gewurztraminer, from the Alsace region of France.

Gewurztraminer is at once the fruitiest and the spiciest of the white varietals; it's a unique wine. It reaches the height of perfection at Trimbach in Alsace.

Trimbach's dry personality makes it ideal as an aperitif and it pairs extremely well with specialty cuisine with pronounced flavors like you find on a holiday table. It's also a fine accompaniment for fish or seasoned meats, spicy and exotic dishes, soft cheeses (think Munster), and an assortment of desserts.

Available for only $16.99 in the Bottle Club®.

When it comes to Rieslings, we're very partial to wines produced by Josef Leitz. Generally, their vineyards face 100% south. The steeply sloped vineyards have very good drainage and are perfectly adapted for complexly structured, mineral driven wines. The more vigorous vineyards are those with high loess and loam. These vineyards bring forth the juicy, fruit backed Riesling. You'll find these to be nicely balanced wines that have a light, fruit-driven sweetness.

One great choice is the Leitz Dragonstone. Dragonstone is translated from "Dracheinstein". The name goes back to the rock with this mythological name and also possibly to the form of a dragon. The soil consists of loess-loam sand stone and quartzite and in some parts also of chalk. The wines are amazingly elegant with a delicately spicy note.

The usual kirsch and lime flavors are now in the finest conceivable form: barely perceptibly sweet. Pointed yet creamy, salty and minty; animated and seductive. Only $14.99 in the Bottle Club®.

You also can't go wrong with the Leitz Rudesheimer Riesling Kabinett. It has a ripe aroma leads into flavors of apple and ripe citrus, with notes of guava and sage honey. The well-spiced finish is long. And it's only $13.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Our next set of recommendations will probably be posted on Monday, and we'll discuss craft beer selections.