The table is set: turkey, stuffing, the creamiest mashed potatoes ever, cranberry sauce to coo over, sweet potato casserole too sweet to pass up and homemade biscuits that Paul Bunyan could appreciate. But what is missing? Turkey? Check. Stuffing? Check. Mashed potatoes? Check. Cranberry sauce? Check. Sweet potato casserole? Check. Biscuits? Check. Oh, yes; the apple, pumpkin and rhubarb pies. Now we are set to call everyone to the table. Not so fast! Where is the Gewürztraminer?

The what? The Gewürztraminer. Follow this pronunciation key: geh-WERTS-truh-meen-er. Do not get too tongue-tied in the pronunciation or you may not be able to chew properly. But definitely don’t forget the wine.

The Gewürztraminer grape originates in the small town of Tramin in the northeastern Italian region of Alto Adige. The Germanic sounding name comes from the heavy German influences in this region of Italy and the historical ties it has to its northern neighbor, Austria. As a matter of fact, the homepage of the town of Tramin is in both Italian and German. Yet you won’t find many Gewürztraminers from Italy; instead, you are more likely to find this wine coming from the Alsace region of France, Germany, New Zealand, California, Oregon and even Washington State.

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.