It’s hard not to love Thanksgiving, a holiday that’s all about appreciating what we have, spending quality time with family and friends, and enjoying wonderful food and wine. To help make your celebration even more fun this year, I would like to make four wine recommendations:
1. Serve Family Style
Serve all the wines you decide will work well with your meal, and let people choose which ones they want. You can suggest pairings, but leave the pouring and drinking decisions up to your guests. They’ll be happier, and you won’t need to work as hard – something to be thankful for.
2. Serve Sparkling Wine Front and Center
For a number of reasons, sparkling wine pairs beautifully with just about every Thanksgiving dish:
Palate cleanser – You eat a delicious but HEAVY bite of Thanksgiving fare. The moment you sip sparkling wine, your mouth is cleansed, and you feel very ready for another bite of food.
Sparkling wine doesn’t overtake or get overtaken – Sparkling wine holds up nicely to even the most serious parts of Thanksgiving, without standing out as being too strong or too wimpy.
3. Serve Acidic Whites and Low Tannin Reds
According to Stacy Slinkard, “With white wines the pairing priority is finding a wine with well-balanced acidity, with reds you are shooting for fairly tame tannins that will yield to and support the flavors of the food.” For whites, I would choose from an off-dry Riesling, a Gewurztraminer and a Sauvignon Blanc. For reds, I would choose from Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Syrah. I would also include a dry Rosé.
4. Serve a Dessert Wine that Is Sweeter than the Dessert
If you do the opposite, you end up with a bitter tasting experience 🙁
My WineShop At Home Picks
I’ll end this article by sharing my WineShop At Home picks for this year’s Thanksgiving celebration:
- Three excellent Sparkling Wines: Grand Cadeau, Grand Cadeau Rosé and Semi-Seco Sparkling
- Adagio Sauvignon Blanc
- Monarch Rosé of Pinot Noir
- Gemme Gewurztraminer
- Deluge Pinot Noir
- Gemme Garnet, a blend of Syrah and Merlot
If you’d like to place an order, you can do so on my site or by calling me at 650-714-7009.
Cheers to a safe, happy, healthy and tasty Thanksgiving!
As an independent wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I absolutely enjoy bringing a taste of the Napa wine country home to you one sip at a time. Whether you simply love to drink wine, would like to host a tasting, seek a special gift, or are in search of a new wine jobs opportunity as a wine consultant, feel free to contact me for a truly unique wine tasting experience!
Cheers,
Betty Kaufman, WineShop At Home
