In an email, Erickson explained that having overseen the replanting of Screaming Eagle’s vineyard and building a new winery there, he’s ready to move on. His original connection to the property, Erickson said, was through former co-owner Charles Banks, and he will be working on several projects with him. That includes consulting for South African winery Mulderbosch, which Banks has recently purchased.

Of course, Erickson is still working with Dalla Valle, Ovid, Dancing Hares, and Arietta, plus his own Favia wines.

That’s the problem.  There are just too many choices.

Even restaurants serving Thanksgiving dinner are happy to pass the buck on what to drink. This year I noticed that very few in New York include wine in their advertised menus, though Latin restaurant Agua Dulce will hand out Pumpkin Hot Butter Rum Cocktails (ugh!). Maybe even top sommeliers can’t take the pressure of coming up with the perfect pairing.

The latest suggestion I’ve received came in a Thanksgiving card from Aline Baly of Bordeaux’s Château Coutet. She touts serving six vintages of her luscious sweet white as the ideal accompaniment for everything from sage-and-spice-roasted turkey to pumpkin mascarpone tart with candied kumquats and Sauternes cream (enticing recipes here).

Much as I like Château Coutet, all that unctuous sweetness seems like way too much of a good thing and would only mystify many of my guests. I’ve learned over the years not to put out anything too outlandish or esoteric or made from an unpronounceable grape.  At holidays, people crave the familiar, and don’t want to feel like they should study the label.

That’s as it should be.  At Thanksgiving, food and feasting take center stage.  The main role of wine is to wash it all down the without fighting the flavors on the table, to mellow tempers during political arguments or the reemergence of sibling rivalries, and refresh the palate so you can eat even more.

The number of dishes with contrasting tastes and dozens of flavor components (sweet, spicy, tart, rich, bland) all heaped together on a plate means you can forget about the subtleties of wine matching or the search for a one-perfect-wine solution.  Instead, go for wines that are fruity, softer and brightly acidic, with little tannin and low oak—the vinous equivalent of lovely background music.

My choices this year? I always pour American on this national holiday.  I’ll start with a fruity sparkling wine, like non-vintage J Cuvée 20 Brut ($20).  Then I’ll put a white and red on the table—a rich but balanced Chardonnay like Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars “Karia” ($35), and a satiny, stylish Pinot Noir like 2008 Freeman Sonoma Coast ($44), served slightly cool.

When I read that one of Napa’s larger-than-life wine personalities, René di Rosa, had died, it brought back vivid memories of the man.  (You can read a news report on him here).  I remember visiting this Carneros pioneer in the early 1980s and tasting some of the vineyard-designated wines made from the grapes that came from his Winery Lake property.  Nose in glass, I cautiously called one sample “interesting.”

“Interesting?” he bellowed.  “I call it miraculous!”  He sold 250 acres of his highly-regarded vineyard to Seagram’s, and plowed the profits into his other passion, contemporary West Coast art, creating an art park and museum that opened in 1997.

I looked to see if I had any bottles left in my cellar that carried the Winery Lake designation, and found a treasure: a half-bottle he’d given me of a 1985 late-harvest Riesling commemorating his last day in the vineyard, with a label done (if memory serves) by his late wife, Veronica.  I was dubious about how this 25-year old wine might have aged, but its 35% residual sugar and tart acidity—suitable metaphors for di Rosa’s charm and biting wit—kept this dark honey-colored wine fresh, deep, apricot-y, and as lingering as my memories of the man.