It’s that time of year again, time to loosen your belt buckle and sit down for the annual ThanksGavin!

The table is set.

NV Casa Vinicola Botter Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Santi Nello. Bubbly to start. Zingy acids, excellent minerality, very small fizzy bubbles. Ultra refreshing.

Crudites.

Some kind of dip of mysterious origins.

1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes. 90 points. This is medium gold. Nose is very ripe fruit and honey, but not boytritis. Sweet and satiny and weighty, acid is failing. Finishes with baked apples and pastry.

Artichokes.

Hummus. Achem, from a tub.

1988 Camille Giroud Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots. Burghound 90. This too is very fresh, in fact fresher than the Clos de Vougeot with a beguiling mix of spice and secondary aromas that lead to big, intense, firmly structured flavors that have plenty of sweet pinot sap to buffer the solid tannins. This is quite long, in fact the longest of these bottled wines and delivers unmistakable Vosne character. It remains a creature of its vintage and the finish is austere and masculine in style but there is plenty of volume and flavor authority. This will live for years.

Now we’re talking: cheese.

And good olives.

1998 Dominique Laurent Mazis-Chambertin. 93 points. Showed good complexity and depth, excellent balance, and a medium finish. Flavors of black raspberry, cherry, spices, dried leaves, and forest floor all emerged after a time. The acidity held everything together nicely. Good freshness of flavor both on the nose and palate. I think this is nearly at peak or plateauing nicely.

This year there were two turkeys, and because our chefs patched up the neck with skin grafts from different birds, they nicknamed them Frankenturkey!

Turkey. But they came out perfectly.

Gravy. Of course.

Stuffing. Nothing better than gravy soaked stuffing.

Cranberry. A choice of three variants on the cranberry theme. My favorite is the spicy chutney (lower left) which is smooth and slightly spicy.

1973 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Añares Crianza. 92 points. wonderful wine; surprised how much vitality it retained. Like fig juice.

Brussels sprouts.

With a delicious lemon sauce.

Roast beets with balsamic & maple syrup.

Squash with black mustard seeds.

Spinach salad with goat cheese.

2009 Nugnes Falerno del Massico Rosso. 92 points. Red edges, dark core — Nose captivating, mindblowing, fresh, flowery, almond, sweetness, dried fig, pickled fruit — Palate mild, fresh, watery, like marsala wine, plums for days, oriental herbs, some cherry, some sour cherry — Finishes on red fruit, tartness and spice aspects again. This is special, an oriental dream, changing by the minute, now some pepper and some cinnamon, appears to be expressive and young, a long life ahead. Fairly high acidity level. Happy I bought 12 bottles to drink over the next 10 years.

The 2014 official plate!

1975 Dow Porto Vintage. 86 points. The wine showed all the characteristics of a tawny. Not exactly overwhelming but very nice to drink. Alcohol was a bit too evident. It’s so nice to open old bottles of Port like this! Unless the wine is really spoiled, it’s always a pleasure to drink it.

Coffee cake.

“Bubbie Caplan’s” rice pudding. Really quite lovely. Eggy sweet custard.

My mom’s absolutely perfect pecan pie.

Grandmom’s brownies and blondies.

Apple crisp.

Dessert plate.

This was another spectacular homemade ThanksGavin dinner as usual.

For more ThanksGavin meals, click here.