Hot Plates can be transported back in time by hearing the sound of a football game on TV coupled with the happy pop of a champagne cork in the foreground. That, for us, was the signal that the preparations had almost ended and Thanksgiving was getting its proper start.

The bubbly stuff would be passed around, and the phonograph needle would drop on Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. The folk music, the football game's screeching whistles, and the clean, grapey smell of champagne in the air: that is our memory. We know everyone has one.

To help you start a tradition, or build on one you've already begun, we'll round up the recommendations from newspaper wine writers: Serve some good champagne to start things off. If you want to provide a white at the table, go ahead and do so, but give it some thought: think Riesling (doesn't have to be sweet) or Chablis (not the jug-swill variety). Definitely go red for the main wine, and some say you ought to go American, too.

Wall Street Journal writers Dottie and John are right to tell us to go classic at a holiday table. Just for us, they endure the rough journey through several really expensive bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon; this "classic Cabernets" column is a review of those they deem most delicious, but it also gives readers ideas on what else they might serve on T-day. The names they like will be familiar to many of you: Stag's Leap, Ridge, Caymus, Beaulieu.

Let's take a break from classic American for a moment. The L.A. Times has a long and very good Chablis article, which we should recommend to friends who think it's just the stuff of Gallo airplane bottles. The writer opines that global warming is changing wines from the Chablis region: "Warmer weather means riper fruit, more ample textures and generally richer wines." Older vintages have been too "steely" for most foods, but, the writer says, today's Chablis wines are friendlier, and especially suited for chilled seafood.

Staying in France, but coming to us from the Dallas Morning News's Kim Pierce, we have a good piece on Burgundy wines. These wines can seem intimidating, she says: "Burgundy ... has suffered at the hands of wine snobs who can make it sound impossibly complex and inaccessible to tenderfoot wine drinkers. Who wants to drink something that tastes like a barnyard or cat urine?" Yeah, no. Anyway, Pierce tastes two Pinot Noirs and one Chardonnay from Burgundy, two of which are "entry-level" screw-cap wines. We will try to find the Chardonnay from Laforêt ($13), which is a "bright, supple white marked by lemony citrus notes and light mineral dashes."

Eric Asimov calls Madeira "the most thoughtful wine there is" in his column this week. He is talking about vintage Madeira, the fortified Portuguese wine with a small, very intense following. "No other wines age as well as Madeira," Asimov says, so "it’s not uncommon to find bottles from the 19th century, or even the 18th. Not only are they still drinkable, they are in their prime."

So, are you noting how the papers seem to be featuring pricey things as holiday spending season gets into full swing? Even beer gets into the game: This week, Greg Kitsock reviews and explains the most expensive brew around. It's Boston Beer's Samuel Adams Utopias, "which retails starting at $120 per 24-ounce bottle." There is "not a bubble of carbonation," and Kitsock notes a slippery mouthfeel and "sherrylike" tastes such as toffee, maple, vanilla and plum. The "long, lingering alcohol burn" surely comes from the 27 percent alcohol of this spirit-like beer. Great idea for a true beer nerd, but not the right gift for the Pabst Blue Ribbon fans in your midst -- if you still have any.