Thanksgiving Wine Pairings

You have poured your all into making the perfect Thanksgiving meal. So why pick up just any old bottle of wine to pair with all your hard work?

The right wine will enhance the food you’ve worked so hard to prepare. And although one could argue there is no “wrong” wine because it’s a matter of personal taste, a mismatch could conceal food flavors leaving your dinner tasting bland. Or, make the wine taste either flat or limpid or, worse, like an alcohol bomb.

There’s a big swirl of flavors going on at the table: cranberry sauce, with its underlying tart flavors; the earthiness of sweet potato casserole mixed with the sweetness of the marshmallow topping and the nutty crunchiness of the pecans; not to be overlooked, the turkey, with the bready stuffing and briny sauce.

Here are a few suggestions on what to pair, depending on what you’re serving, and a few suggestions on what NOT to pair; because sometimes it’s a little more helpful to know what not to do. I promise to keep suggestions $20 or under.

Bring that big swirl of flavors together with the Helfrich Alsace Riesling Grand Cru AOC ($20). This isn’t a bottle of wine you’ll want to let granny or Aunt Jo guzzle down with dinner. It’s a bottle that will help bring all those different tastes together for ultimate enjoyment. Don’t let the Riesling label fool you. This is not a sweet wine; instead it’s a dry Riesling with flavors of not-yet-ripe peach, pear and apples. The backbone of this wine is in the mineral finish. There are lots of flavors in the glass but the clean, crisp finish doesn’t compete with the foods on the plate.

Don’t serve this dinner with oaky, buttery California Chardonnays. Why? They are full-bodied and have additional flavors of vanilla, butter, coconut and even caramel from the oak. Now you’ve added additional intense flavors that will compete with your food flavors.

For the red wine lover, Pinot Noir has long been the classic choice; and the Folie A Deux 2012 Pinot Noir ($20) sets a new standard with its rich and powerful mouth-watering flavors. The wine has dark berry (think blueberry, blackberry), chocolate and cedar-like, tobacco flavors. Imagine how great all these sweet, earthy and woody will complement the foods on your table.

Don’t serve a big, powerful, tannic Cabernet Sauvignon; you won’t be able to taste any of the foods. Cabernet Sauvignon has many layers of flavors and certainly can seem like a good match but unless you’ve decanted it and let the alcohol air out and the fruit flavors settle in, I would avoid it. It may make your green bean casserole taste more vegetative and you’ll probably not taste much out of your corn soufflé.

Other wines that will pair with your Thanksgiving feast:

Snoqualmie Gewürztraminer Columbia Valley Organic Grapes ($12) – Lots of pie spice flavors (nutmeg, clove, allspice) and sweeter finish enhances the turkey/stuffing combination.

Layer Cake Garnacha Calatayud ($16) – Red cherry and plum flavors mingle with chocolate, leather and tobacco. It’s almost like a Pinot Noir (read above) on steroids. Go with this Garnacha instead of a Cabernet to please the big red wine lovers on your invite list.

Hogwash Rosé of Grenache ($16) – This wine is lower in alcohol than most traditional reds and whites so it’s a great wine to serve when you don’t know everyone’s wine tastes. Plus it has wonderful tropical fruit flavors and acidity that gives it a clean finish.