Choosing Wine for Thanksgiving
By David Ehrenfried
I love the Thanksgiving holiday. My wife and I usually get together with most or all of our kids and their families, and sometimes with my wife’s sister and her family too. The gatherings often happen in different places, since we’re scattered about, which seems to be the case with many families. Fortunately, we all enjoy delicious wine in addition to fantastic food, so there’s considerable planning to ensure those aspects of the holiday meet everyone’s expectations. I’m usually in charge of wine, and I start thinking about what wines to serve many weeks in advance. To me, Thanksgiving can be an opportunity to try new or different, if not memorable, wines. My basic criteria are simple. Wines for Thanksgiving should be enjoyable and complement rather than upstage or detract from the meal. Thanksgiving is a time for people and food to take center stage. Also, since tastes in wine vary, I try to accommodate those differences. My practice is to put out a few different wines at once — white, red, and sparkling — so guests can choose, trying them all if they like. I think it’s more fun that way, even though that strategy might necessitate buying a little more of each wine, in case one or more of the wines prove much more popular than the others. So, what specific kinds of wines might you serve on Thanksgiving? There are no pat answers. In my prior Thanksgiving columns, I’ve made various suggestions, partly based on whether readers wanted to serve only American wines or wines from other countries. Of course, you can serve whatever wines you prefer, or what your host might suggest you bring. But, in my experience, some wines pair better than others with a typical Thanksgiving meal, which includes roast turkey and stuffing, along with a variety of potatoes, yams, and other vegetables like green beans, asparagus, squash, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. Here are some guidelines I’ve learned to rely on for selecting such wines. I’ll focus primarily on American wines, although these suggestions can also apply to selecting Thanksgiving meal wines from other countries.
Thanksgiving Wine Considerations
Buy a little more wine than you need.
How much wine will you need? Figure each wine drinker will have on average 2-3 glasses. A standard .75-liter bottle of wine contains between five and six 4-to-5-ounce servings of wine. A standard single glass serving, such as that served in a bar or restaurant, is often 5 ounces. Yet I suggest initially pouring less than that (i.e., 2-3 ounces), in case some guests don’t like the wine after just a few sips. If they like the wine, there’ll hopefully be more. In any case, one bottle of wine should be enough for three adult wine drinkers to each have two glasses. Two bottles should be enough for six adults, and so forth. But buy extra. Consider that some people may have some wine before the main meal — perhaps while cooking or with appetizers. It’s a shame to run out of wine on Thanksgiving, especially the wines people end up liking most.
Go for quality.
Good food deserves good wine. Remember, cheap wine is typically made with less expensive, lower-quality grapes. So, expect to spend in the range of $15-35 per bottle (or more if you wish). I used to mention a range of $12 to $25, but wine prices have increased due to inflation and other factors. Unfortunately, recent tariffs on imported wines and the materials needed to make and package them, such as cork, glass, and even labels, have caused wine prices to increase not only for many wines produced outside the United States but also for many domestically produced wines. The economics for this are complicated, and there isn’t enough space here to discuss the many ramifications of imposing additional taxes on imported wine and wine-related products on the wine prices we’re now seeing at local wine stores and supermarkets. In any case, spending a bit more opens more wine options, especially for purchasing carefully crafted wines made by smaller producers as opposed to often chemically manipulated, mass-produced wines. Those smaller American producers, especially, deserve our support. Knowledgeable wine salespeople can help point you in their direction.
Try to select wines with less than 15% alcohol content.
Alcohol by volume (aka ABV) is listed on the front or back label of every wine. Higher alcohol wines, such as California cabernet sauvignon wines, tend to be heavier, more filling, and “hotter” than lower alcohol wines, such as pinot noir, gamay (beaujolais), cabernet franc, and most white and sparkling wines. Thanksgiving meals tend to be very filling in and of themselves, and less powerful, light-to-medium-bodied wines are less likely to make guests feel fuller than they really are. Serving lower alcohol wines also appreciates that some people might drink more wine over the course of a long Thanksgiving meal than they might during a regular, less leisurely dinner. If you prefer wines made entirely or mostly of cabernet sauvignon, grenache, or other grapes that produce more alcoholic wines, consider serving Bordeaux-style or Rhone-style blends, such as those made in Washington State or California that include these along with less prodigious alcohol-producing grapes.
Go for dry, low-tannin winesthat have pleasant but pronounced fruit flavors and aromas.
There are lots of options. White or rosé sparkling wine is terrific for Thanksgiving, and there are delicious ones that are made in many states, including California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Virginia, and New York. French Champagne is wonderful, but you’ll need to spend $45 or more per bottle. For white wine, chardonnay should be top of mind. Look for chardonnays that are unoaked or minimally oaked. They’ll be a little drier tasting, but also very refreshing. My domestic favorites are those from Sonoma and Santa Barbara counties in California and from Oregon’s Willamette valley. Riesling is one of my favorite wines, and it goes well with just about everything you might serve as part of Thanksgiving turkey supper, including dessert. Although most of the best Rieslings come from Germany and the Alsace region in France, you can buy dry or off-dry (sweeter) Riesling made in New York, California, and the Pacific Northwest. An alternative to riesling is gewurztraminer. I’m not a fan, but many people like its candied lychee fruit and other fruit flavors. If you or your guests prefer more tart, citrusy flavors, sauvignon blanc is another tasty alternative. There are some excellent sauvignon blancs being produced by smaller winemakers in California, like Dry Creek, Duckhorn, Groth, Quivira, and St. Supéry. As for red wine, if your Thanksgiving meal will have many dishes loaded with butter, cream, meat, or other fats, very tannic wines like recent vintage bold California Cabernet Sauvignon or Italian Barolo may be fine to serve. However, I find the tannic astringency of these and certain other wines interferes with the often dry texture of roast turkey. Maybe better to save such wines for other meals. There are plenty alternatives. Top of mind are California and Oregon pinot noir, California zinfandel, and syrah or merlot from California or Washington State. Zinfandel deserves special mention as a Thanksgiving wine. It’s quintessentially American, and the best examples are dynamic wines with wonderful cherry and berry aromas and flavors, often touched with chocolate and a mix of spices. Numerous wineries are zinfandel specialists. Among the most notable are Bedrock, Carlisle, Dry Creek, Hartford, Green & Red, Quivira, Ravenswood, Ridge, Seghesio, Carol Shelton, Sobon, and Turley. There also are many delectable blends made principally with zinfandel. For Thanksgiving, however, I suggest being a purest, but try and avoid bottles with more than 15% ABV.
Dessert Wines
Break the rules when buying dessert wines. When it comes time for dessert, there’s no reason why people can’t continue to drink the wines served with turkey, particularly riesling or sparkling wine. However, if you or guests prefer sweeter wine with dessert, you might consider dolce from California, a pricy sauterne-like wine made by Far Niente winery or a Port-style wine made by Ficklin Family Winery also in California. There are many choices for semi-dry or sweet (late harvest) rieslings made in Washington State, Upstate New York, California, and Virginia. There are more options for dessert wine options from Europe, such as Portuguese Port, French sauternes or barsac, French vouvray, German spätlese, auslese, trockenbeerenauslese rieslings, Italian moscato, and Hungarian tokaii, among various other late harvest wines. Most have higher than even 15% ABV, some are quite tannic, a few may shock your budget, and all will send your glucose flying. And yet, good dessert wines can be truly splendid companions for pumpkin or apple pie and other Thanksgiving sweets. Y