As the wind grows nippier and the holidays grow nearer, New Englanders are stocking their Thanksgiving feasts with comforting flavors, bold spirits and artisanal favorites.
Amy Traverso, senior food editor of Yankee Magazine, highlights some of her favorite picks from the magazine’s 2025 Food Awards, including Töst’s sparkling, non-alcoholic rosé, a blue cheese from Jasper Hill Farm soaked in iced apple cider, and “Best New Chef” Nikhil Naker, whose Providence restaurant Nimki blends East Coast flavors with a West Coast touch.
“New England is such a wellspring of these delicious foods that are made by hand,” Traverso said of the Yankee Magazine selections. “We taste all year round, and we identify the ones that stand out to us. We try to have a lot of geographic diversity and price-point diversity [to] make sure it’s a well-rounded list.”
In the wine world, Jonathan Alsop, founder of the Boston Wine School and author of “Wine Lover’s Devotional,” is eulogizing the loss of South Boston institution The Urban Grape. As more wine shops struggle to make ends meet, Alsop is noticing a growing shift in how small businesses and sommeliers are marketing themselves.
“A lot of retail wine shops are having to reinvent themselves and how they approach the market and what they sell,” Alsop said. “I’m talking to a few retailers that are saying, ‘Hey, could I not be a wine bar?’”
But for white-wine enthusiasts, not all is lost. Alsop highlights Albariño, an ancient grape he calls a new favorite, which he says has the zip of Sauvignon Blanc, the butteriness of Chardonnay and a low price-point perfect for Turkey Day celebrations.
“It’s something no one’s ever heard of, so the unbearable wine snobs will still be charmed by it,” Alsop said. “Is type O the universal blood donor? It’s kind of the type O of wine.”
There’s more on the podcast: the best Boston winter markets, a tribute to a Chardonnay pioneer and a 10-minute apple crisp. All this and more on this week’s special holiday food and wine roundtable!
Guests
- Amy Traverso, senior food editor at Yankee Magazine, co-host of GBH’s “Weekends with Yankee,” author of “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook”
- Jonathon Alsop, founder of the Boston Wine School, author of “The Wine Lover’s Devotional”
