Thanksgiving flavors pair with wines to savor

For wine enthusiasts, traditional Thanksgiving dinner provides one of the waning year's most enjoyable meals. Classic dishes typically offer diverse aromas, flavors and textures, so the wines should, naturally, follow suit with a variety of hues and styles.

Multiple wine choices also make sense to please the diverse tastes that family and guests bring to the table. So relax. Shop early, have fun and try imaginative choices such as these tasty options:

2010 Shimmin Canyon Vineyards Viognier, Paso Robles, Calif. (Luxury 32216; Chairman's Selection on sale: $9.99): The Central Coastal appellation of Paso Robles has emerged as arguably California's most outstanding terroir for growing viognier.

Brilliantly sunny, hot days followed by chilly nights yield fruit with optimal ripeness balanced by refreshing acidity. When winemakers refrain from obscuring the grapes' lovely aromatic fruitiness with excessive oak, the final wines deliver highly enjoyable, seductive pleasure.

This wine, for example, provides honeysuckle and citrus aromas with light spicy notes. Ripe peach and grapefruit flavors with rich honeyed notes balance with bright, refreshing acidity through a fruity, dry finish. Highly recommended.

2009 Domaine Ehrhart Gewürztraminer Herrenweg, France (Luxury 32330; Chairman's Selection on sale: $14.99): In the Alsace village of Turckheim, the Herrenweg Vineyard provides superb terroir for growing Gewürztraminer grapes.

The vines struggle in well-drained sand and gravel soils amidst dry and windy conditions. Bountiful, warm sunshine alternates with cool nights. The resulting fruit ripens fully, carries firm acidity and generally escapes rot.

Winegrower Philippe Ehrhart, who follows organic farming practices, preserves the grapes' freshness and finesse with hand harvesting, gentle pressing and fermentation in stainless steel. Aromas of rose petals, honeysuckle and grapefruit open to ripe flavors of citrus, peach and honey exquisitely balanced by beautiful acidity and refreshing mineral notes. The off dry finish lingers with delicious spiciness and fruity purity. Highly recommended.

2010 Pirineos Selección, Mesache Rosado Tempranillo-Garnacha, Somontano, Spain (Luxury 32185; $8.99): Spain's Somontano region -- meaning "under the mountain" -- lies on a high-altitude plateau in the foothills of the Pyrenées mountains. Dark limestone subsoils, plentiful summer sunshine and big swings between daytime and night temperatures support indigenous grapes such as of Parraleta, Moristel and Alcañon. Spain's traditional tempranillo and garnacha vines fare well, too.

This terrific little rosé's deep salmon-red color offers fruity strawberry, citrus and violet aromas. Ripe, round red-berry and black-cherry flavors layer in refreshing acidity through a soft and fruity, yet dry finish. Highly recommended.

2006 Wellington Vineyards Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley, Calif. (Luxury 32285; Chairman's Selection on sale: $9.99): This classic northern California blend of zinfandel and petite sirah offers enticing fruit forwardness unburdened by excessive oak notes and unbalanced alcohol. Wellington's wine fits comfortably at the dinner table, making food taste better rather than overwhelming it.

Aromas and flavors of dark berries, brown spices, and light herbal notes balance with fine acidity through a fruity, clean finish. Highly recommended.

2009 Selected by Kermit Lynch, Côtes du Rhône, France (Luxury 29406; $13.99): Since the late 1970's, nobody has done more than wine merchant Kermit Lynch to promote Americans' understanding and enjoyment of France's great vins de terroir -- wines of diverse soils, climates, and traditions. He has written about and championed independent, individual winemakers striving to grow grapes and make natural, authentic wines.

Lynch also personally selects and bottles wines to deliver outstanding quality and authenticity at relatively reasonable prices. This wine, for instance, from Terres d'Avignon comes from a long-standing, Southern Rhône cave cooperative that buys and ferments grapes from multiple sources. Growers actually own shares in the enterprise.

The wine blends grenache and syrah with dollops of carignan and cinsault. The vines toil in over 1,400 acres on blistering hot, stony plains around Avignon in the villages of Morières-lès-Avignon, Chateauneuf de Gadagne, Le Thor, Caumont-sur-Durance, Jonquerettes, Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon, Vedène and Montfavet.

Lynch collaborated with winemaker Jean-François Pasturel to ferment grapes with natural yeast in concrete vats. Aging in vats, rather than small barrels, preserved the wine's dark fruitiness and complex herb and earthy notes. Fine acidity and smooth tannins add balance. Highly recommended.

Taylor Fladgate Ten-Year-Old Tawny Porto, Portugal (4865; $27.99): Spicy, nutty aromas and fig flavors open to a refreshing, sweet finish matching perfectly with pumpkin pie. Highly recommended.