Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Our store will be filled with people looking for that perfect wine to go with their special holiday meal. Turkey is at the forefront of most Thanksgiving dinners, so what do you choose to go with the beautifully browned bird?
For those white wine lovers, the wine must be able to stand up not only to the turkey, but to the myriad flavors that assault your taste buds at the holiday table. It is easy for cranberry sauce, yams, dressing, and gravy to overwhelm a white wine. My first choice is Gewurztraminer. These spicy, aromatic wines are wonderful in this setting. Alsace is famous for these wines and either Balthazar Fry or Trimbach are great choices. Both have a very slight sweetness that works well. If you prefer a drier one, try Husch, from Mendocino.
Riesling, with its touch of sweetness and its generous minerality, is another great choice. Chateau St. Michelle and Charle’s Smith’s Kung Fu Girl are the gold standard from the U.S. Germany is where Riesling rules and there are many good ones. There are several degrees of sweetness with Kabinett being the driest, Spatlese being sweeter and Auslese being the sweetest. Of the three, look for the Kabinett. While not dry, they are only slightly sweet and work well with the food, the others being a bit too sweet. Dry Reislings are getting harder to find in Germany due to global warming. The higher temperatures are causing the grapes in Germany to ripen more so there is more sugar in them. To ferment the wines to dry, the alcohol levels get too high. There are some good dry wines from the U.S. Blue Quail is excellent and Chateau St Michelle also make a decent one.
The final white to consider is Chenin Blanc. These wines have a nice medium body and a good acidity that works well with many foods and will offer much pleasure to your Thanksgiving guests. The most famous are from the Vouvray region of France. A good example is Chateau Moncontour Vouray, Domaine d’Elise de Beaumont, and Barton & Guestier makes one that’s good value. South Africa is also a good source for this wine, and the Badenhorts Secateurs is wonderful. There’s an awesome little wine from California called Pine Ridge. It is a blend of Chenin Blanc and Viognier, and it is awesome for the money. When I was the wedding guy for the store for several years, I ALWAYS recommended this wine if there was only one white being served. It is a perfect wine for the Thanksgiving table.
The red wine lover will have no problem finding a wonderful libation to make the meal truly memorable. The most common choice is Pinot Noir, its medium body, fragrant aromatics and cherry flavors mingle gracefully with the roasted fowl. I especially like those from Oregon. They have a little more minerality than California Pinots and are not so fruit forward. Halloran Estate and Sass are my two go-tos, but Willamette Valley Vinyards Whole Cluster is wonderful as well.
Burgundy produces probably the best Pinot Noir in the world. However, they tend to be pricey and are a bit more austere fruit wise and I generally don’t recommend them. One exception is a remarkable little wine called Louis Latour Valmoissine. This is a solid wine for only 17.99 a bottle.
A great alternative to Pinot Noir is Beaujolais. You may be familiar with Nouveau Beaujolais, which is always released the third week of November every year to celebrate the new harvest. However, for your Thanksgiving table I highly recommend a single village Cru Beaujolais made from 100% Gamay. These are similar to Pinot Noir, but a bit more vibrant. Cru Beaujolais wines can be recognized by the name of the village they come from which you will find on the bottle, for example, Morgon, Chiroubles, Julienas, etc. I have several favorites, but perhaps the best is Clos de la Roilette Fleurie.
The final red I heartily recommend is Cabernet Franc, especially from the Loire Valley. The nose of this wine has a characteristic herbaceousness, that combines nice berry fruit and round tannins. Medium in body and generous in acidity, this is truly a food friendly wine and together with turkey or other fowl it forms the proverbial “match made in heaven”. Look for the word Bourgueil, Samur or Chinon on the bottle. All these wines are 100% Cabernet Franc from the Loire. I love Chanteleuserie Bourgueil, and Olga Raffault is the Cab Franc queen of Chinon. As an interesting aside, Cabernet Franc does very well in Colorado, and in fact has become Colorado’s signature grape. A couple of wineries are making fantastic Cabernet Franc, so if you have out-of-town visitors at the table, it’s a great way to show off Colorado’s winemaking expertise. My two favorites are from Bookcliff and Colterris. These often make their way into my suitcase when I visit my oenophile friends back east, and they are always impressed.
The final wine that most people don’t think of, but is a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving table, is rose’. Although usually thought of as a spring and summer wine, rose’ is an excellent food wine. My overwhelming choice is Domain Roy Tavel. Tavels have much more complexity and structure than any other roses and are perfect for this occasion. Most Tavels are quite pricey, but Domain Roy is totally affordable…even for TWO bottles.
So now you have no excuse not to have the right wine to maximize your enjoyment of your holiday meal. Be safe and enjoy this special time. Happy Thanksgiving to all!