The countdown is on; Thanksgiving is two days away. If you haven’t given any thought to the wine you’re serving or bringing to a Thanksgiving dinner now would be the time to get your act together. Here’s a quick reference to ease the pressure in making your decision, based on a review of articles written by people a lot smarter than us about food and wine pairing.
High-Level Guidelines
- If you’re the one doing the entertaining, it’s nice to have both red and white wine available to accommodate guests’ preferences. However that doesn’t mean you have to go crazy with a selection of each. Put a stake in the ground with one red and one white and then just have enough on hand to accommodate your group. If you’re tasked with bringing wine, ask the host if they prefer red or white and if they have any specific requests.
- Alcohol content is a good idea to consider on this occasion. Thanksgiving dinner tends to put people into a stupor no matter what, so serving lower alcohol wine so your guests are not snoring over dessert, is prudent. You can find the alcohol content on the wine label. Moderately low alcohol level is from 12.5 to 13.5%.
- Because Thanksgiving dinner represents a wide array of flavors strict rules related to wine and food pairing really don’t apply; red, white and sparkling can all play together nicely with the meal.
Specific Wine Suggestions
Red wine: Pinot Noir appears to be the red wine of choice. Zinfandel could be a second. Cabernet is discouraged.
White wine: Gewurztraminer or Riesling both of which have some sweetness are good choices.
Sparkling wine: Stick to the dry side.
Recommendations for which red white or sparkling wine to purchase abound on the Internet including many from abroad. In particular most recommendations for Gewurztraminer suggests a German wine. It is Thanksgiving though so we are voting for “made in America” for the occasion; think wine country in Napa and Sonoma, California.
