Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and wine professionals will typically recommend French Beaujolais for the holiday table. This is a solid choice, but I thought that this year I would recommend some good California wines instead.

These wines are from true artisan, family-owned wineries. These folks don’t have large marketing budgets and therefore aren’t always well known to wine lovers, but I have been a huge fan of each for quite some time. These wineries put their dollars into growing quality grapes and skillfully and passionately handcrafting their wines. Their efforts and values are worth supporting.

Amid a culture where pretty bottles, eye-catching labels and image-enhancing marketing jargon figure prominently, I say for this go-round, let’s support the little guys. Seek these out and you won’t be disappointed.

>> 2015 Neyers “Sage Canyon” (about $25 a bottle): This intriguing, absolutely delicious, savory red wine, blended from grapes off old, heirlooms vines in various nooks of California, is a case of the sum being greater than its parts. The core is a more than 130-year-old carignane grown on own-rooted vines (vines that have not been grafted onto rootstock).

The grapes are sustainably farmed, hand-harvested and foot-stomped, and the winemaking is “hands off,” which in my eyes means truly artisan — with essentially nothing added and nothing taken out.

The style reminds me of an approach used by a handful of revolutionary winemakers of southern France. Plus, this wine greatly overdelivers on quality for the dollar.

>> 2015 Carol Shelton “MongaZin” (about $22): Carol Shelton produces some of the best red zinfandels out of California. For this bottling, the grapes come from vines planted in 1918 in meager, semi-arid conditions of Cucamonga, allowing them to barely survive and produce extremely sparse clusters at ridiculously low yields.

This is undoubtedly an undertaking driven by passion and respect for the innate complexities old vines can deliver. Shelton also has a masterful touch in crafting wines of great texture, balance and deliciousness. Those attributes make this a wonderful, interesting pairing with the Thanksgiving meal.

>> 2014 Costa de Oro Pinot Noir “Santa Barbara” (about $26): This wine by owner-winemaker Gary Burk is for those who appreciate pinot noirs with elegance, texture, balance and, therefore, food-friendliness. I wish the wine media would appreciate these attributes more readily rather than focusing on ultraripe, front-loaded and flamboyant offerings.

This 2014 will be a joy during the holiday season, with or without food.

>> 2016 Melville Pinot Noir Rose (about $23): The pale salmon hue of this pink wine will give you an inkling as to how refined and ethereal it is. It is produced essentially from free-run pinot noir juice (juice released from freshly picked grapes before they are pressed) from a specific block of vines.

It’s rare to run across such a masterfully crafted wine, created with Old World sensibilities, at least from California. This recommendation for the Thanksgiving table will freshen your palate between bites, the same way cranberry does.

Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.