What wine to serve with Thanksgiving dinner? Here are a lot of options tailored to your sides.
Turkey Dinner – Colleen Sachs, c 1995 – collection Nancy Armstrong
This time of year one of the most common questions in wine shops across the United States is what wine goes with turkey? Answers range from full-bodied whites, to light pinot noir, to the just released Beaujolais Nouveau. But instead of trying to come up with a universal answer, the response should be another question: what sides are you serving?
While the turkey is clearly the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner, it is a fairly blank canvas when it comes to wine pairing. The side dishes are what set the tone of the meal. Here are some suggestions followed by names of a few producers. Don’t worry if you can’t find the specific wines mentioned, just look for similarities.
A traditional Norman Rockwell-style Thanksgiving feast includes richness by way of gravy, mashed potatoes and dressing. It also features sweetness in the form of cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. Lots of flavor is needed to match the richness of this meal. Good options with this type of meal are Spanish tempranillo (like that from Bodegas Muga) and French Cotes-du-Rhone (E. Guigal, Chateau de Beaucastel) for reds, or gruner-veltliner (Weingut Eder) and gewürztraminer (Alexander Valley Vineyards) for whites.
Traditional southern Thanksgiving, which is what I am used to, is likely to include Read the rest of this entry »
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