Pairings: Fruity grenache complements savory meats

Our Wine of the Week, Donelan 2014 Sonoma County Grenache Cuvée Moriah ($50), is a crowd pleaser, which gives it great advantage on your holiday table. It’s robust enough that your cranky uncle won’t criticize you for serving an effete wine but elegant enough that even pinot noir die-hards will be happy.

Fruit flavors mirror the season, with pomegranate and cranberry providing a high-toned melody, as cardamom, which is both sweet and astringent, leads a parade of spice.

The wine has several elements that make it ideal with a classic holiday meal. The threads of spice that weave through the lush red fruit engage beautifully with sweet potatoes, winter squash and even pumpkin pie. Delicate acidity and a crisp finish are excellent counterpoints to such rich dishes as mashed potatoes, anything in a cream sauce and sourdough dressing.

The wine can, of course, be enjoyed with many other foods, including roasted root vegetables, beef stew and turkey gumbo, provided it is not too spicy.

For today’s dish, I’m revisiting a dish I’ve enjoy on several Thanksgivings and that I included in my cookbook, “California Home Cooking” (Harvard Common Press, 1997).

The original recipe calls for prunes, which produce a rich, dark flavor. Here, I use dried plums, now readily available at many farmers markets and many local stores, which engage with the wine’s acidity, creating a gorgeous match and an overall brighter dish.

Pork Roast with ?Dried Plums and Apples

Makes 4 to 6 servings

1 pork roast (shoulder or butt, not loin), about 4 to 5 pounds,

8-10 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh sage

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1½ cups dried plums or pitted prunes

4 sweet-tart apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

- Sage sprigs, for garnish

At least 30 minutes - an hour or two is better - before cooking, set the pork on a clean work surface.

In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, sage, kosher salt, black pepper and cloves and rub the mixture into the meat, covering it completely. Cover the pork with wax paper or a clean tea towel and let sit at room temperature until ready to cook.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Put the pork on a rack in a heavy roasting pan, set it in the oven and add enough water to come a 1/2-inch up the side of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the pork is completely tender, about 40 to 45 minutes per pound.

After the pork has been cooking for 1 hour, add the plums or prunes to the roasting pan. Cook for 1 hour more and add the apples to the pan.

When the pork is so tender that it falls apart when pressed, remove it from the oven. Transfer the pork to a serving platter; use a slotted spoon to add the prunes and apples to the platter. Cover loosely with a tent of aluminum foil.

Tilt the roasting pan so that the juices and fat collect in one corner, and use a spoon to skim off and discard as much fat as possible. Set the pan on a stove-top burner over medium heat and sprinkle the flour over the pan; use a whisk to stir the flour constantly until it is golden brown.

Slowly whisk in 1 cup of water. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring now and then, until the gravy thickens. Taste, correct the seasoning, and add more water if it is too thick.

Pour the gravy into a gravy boat garnish the pork platter with sage sprigs, and enjoy right away.

Michele Anna Jordan is the author of 24 books to date. Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com.