Thanksgiving Dinner Wine Pairings

Holiday Season

Can you feel it? The waning sun giving way to cooler days…the colors sprouting up all around us…the smell in the air. There is no doubt about it—fall is in the air! Our thoughts turn to the upcoming holidays and planning visits with friends and family this Thanksgiving.

What a grand meal Thanksgiving is! Perhaps a wine connoisseur’s hardest wine-pairing day of the year. Why, you ask? Because of the multiple variations of food! The range spans from mashed potatoes with fresh gravy to marshmallow covered sweet potatoes to cranberry dressing to jello with fruit and vegetables inside, and more. As a wine educator, I get asked many times this time of year what wines to pair with the Thanksgiving dinner. It’s tricky to do, and we’ll talk about why it is.

Food and Wine Pairing--Thanksgiving Style!

Simply put, the purpose of pairing food with wine is to enhance your dining experience. The wine should enhance the food and the food should enhance the wine, creating a symbiotic relationship that improves both.

The problem is that we don’t serve Thanksgiving Day dinner in courses where we can pair each dish with a different wine and then move on to the next dish—finishing our previous course each time. Usually the table is set and all the side dishes are already made, presented nicely on the table, and then the turkey shows up in all its grandeur ready to be cut (my father takes this very seriously, by the way).

With all the dishes and condiments on the table, we pass the plate and load up on a little bit of everything—knowing that at the end of dinner the loosening of the belts and a satisfied belly await us all. So how do we make a wine fit in? Well, there are some great choices! So to pick out a wine to go with this grand meal, let’s take a look at some options.

Versatility

The key to a successful wine pairing at Thanksgiving is versatility. With so many different foods we need a wine that will be able to “go with the flow” so to speak. Try not to think in the extremes for either white or red wines.

So you like the big, brooding, dark Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel with super-ripe flavor, or perhaps a very acidic, ultra-citrus Sauvignon Blanc? That’s terrific, but we’ll leave those aside for another meal. Think balanced—low to mid alcohol levels (11-13.5 percent), good acidity but not too ripe or too green, and a lighter style body with no huge tannins.

There are many wine choices that fit this category. I know that most people automatically think of Merlot or Chardonnay, but let’s be a little more creative than that. There are other options.

Bubbles!

First and foremost, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without bubbles for me. I’m talking Champagne and sparkling wine! Normally thought of as a celebratory wine, it actually is a fantastic (and often overlooked) option to go with this huge meal!

The higher acidity in the wine lets it pair with heavier, starchier foods like potatoes and turkey with dressing. The low alcohol doesn’t over-exert itself and mask the flavors of the food like a high-alcohol wine would do.

And perhaps my favorite reason for having a bottle on the table: The bubbles themselves are a nice palate cleanser between eating the different choices of food on your plate. For those of you who don’t like white wines, don’t fear; most Brut Champagnes are made with mostly red grapes (Pinot Noir), so in actuality you are drinking some red wine.

Pinot Noir

Speaking of Pinot Noir, as a red wine goes this is the one to choose for this meal. Ignore the hype this grape has received these last couple of years with Sideways; this wine is a great match for the variations of food on the table because of its versatility.

Low-alcohol Pinot Noirs are a great match because they are light in body and will not overpower the food. The subtlety of the wine allows it to pair with most of what’s on the plate because of its non-intrusive style (no big tannin, no huge alcohol, no sharp, dark flavors). There are “bigger” style Pinot Noirs out there for sure, but steer clear of those for this meal.

If you’re not sure of which to choose, ask your local wine shop for help. They taste those wines often and no what styles most labels fall into. They are there to help you, so use them!

Rosé

Some other types of wines to choose from are a little different from our mainstream wine drinking choices here in the U.S. First off, let’s talk about rosé wines. Rosé’s are great food options because they are usually ultra-low in alcohol, and they have a nice non-tannic, fresh fruitiness to them.

These wines are very popular in France, and they are beginning to make their presence known here as well. I want to make something clear: Rosé wines are not all sweet! Don’t think white zinfandel when you’re drinking a pink wine! Those days are past, and now wineries are producing bone-dry rosé’s made from different red grapes…and they’re very reasonably priced! You can find a great rosé for around $13 or less.

Riesling and Gewürztraminer

Lastly, let’s take a look at two more wines that frequently get overlooked here in the U.S. wine market: Gewürztraminer and Riesling. These Germanic wines are in a weird niche in the U.S. wine market because at the lower end you have very sweet, inexpensive wines with not much taste profile except for the sweetness factor. They are popular among beginning wine drinkers, and I won’t knock them; they have their following and I always say drink what you like.

On the other end of the market you have German and Alsatian wines (Riesling and Gewürztraminer) that are acidic, have great depth and complexity, and can range from dessert wine sweetness to bone dry. These wines, unfortunately, can be very pricey but you can frequently find some great choices in the $25-30 range.

These wines are, like rosé’s, very low in alcohol. These guys can be as low as 8-9 percent! Even if you choose a wine that has sweetness to it, don’t mistake that for lacking acidity. German and Alsatian wines do not lack acidity. Again, the low alcohol and balanced acidity is the key we’re looking for to make our Thanksgiving a successful meal.

Wine Shop Help

To help you choose a good wine from the list above I always tell people to go to their favorite wine shop and ask the staff for help. Don’t be afraid to do this! They are there to help you, and if you get a good rapport going with the staff there they can understand your style and what you like and steer you in other directions to different wines you may not have thought about exploring before. So, while you’re shopping for those Thanksgiving wines, think balance, balance, balance! Here are some of my favorites that make their way to the Thanksgiving table.

Suggested Wines

• Roederer Non-Vintage (NV) Brut, Anderson Valley, California; $17-$22

This wine is a terrific example of sparkling wine from California. It’s balanced, has great acidity and flavor, and the citrus/yeast elements complement each other nicely. (It's made by the same parent company Champagne house in France that produces Cristal.)

• Hartford Family Wines Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, California; $24-$29

This Pinot Noir is one of my favorites from the states at this price point. The lush dried cherries and leathery notes really do well with turkey and dressing.

• Philippe Roty Marsannay, Burgundy, France; $29-$35

This red Burgundy was a big find for me this last year. At this price, this wine delivered. The depth of this wine was astonishing. Usually you have to spend more money to get this type of wine: notes of toasted orange peel, sour cherry, and forest floor showed nicely.

• Robert Sinskey Rosé of Pinot Noir, Napa, California; $15-$18

This producer has become famous around wine country for his rosé. This wine shows off nice rose petals and candied cherry with a long finish.

• Lynmar Winery Vin Gris, Russian River, California; $18-$24

This producer is known for its Pinots and Chardonnays, but this vin gris is a rosé of 92 percent Pinot Noir and 8 percent Syrah. Although a bigger style than the Sinskey, the bright cherry and red fruits that leap out of the glass make it a great choice for Thanksgiving.

• Claiborne and Churchill Gewürztraminer, Central Coast, California; $13-$16

This is a great, dry wine. Low alcohol and great Gewürztraminer taste: spiced apple, floral, and warm spices abound in this wine.

• Dr. Loosen Riesling, Germany

There are many types of Rieslings from Dr. Loosen, but there are a few in the $20-$30 price range. They exhibit nice flavors of petrol, steely mineral and tart apple. The low alcohol and high acidity are evident. Another great Thanksgiving wine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

While this list is not the end-all be-all of all wines to pair with Thanksgiving, it’s a great start. Explore your own, and have fun with it. With a little effort a good wine can make the meal a great one! Happy Thanksgiving!