Having Fun with Wine on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here! It’s time to give thanks for our family, our friends, our pets, our homes, nature, good food and good wine. This week, the focus is on having fun with wine on Thanksgiving. 

Let’s Get Started

Mike Veseth of Wine Economist says, “It is important not to over-think Thanksgiving wine. Wine should make everything better, but it should not be the star. If all you can remember is that glass of wine, the holiday hasn’t fulfilled its potential.”

Veseth is very wise. There is no need to obsess over what wines to include with your festive meal. Given all the incredible flavors associated with Thanksgiving, you can choose many different wines that will work beautifully. And the good news is that you don’t need to worry about a perfect pairing for each dish. Nobody eats each dish on its own. Instead, we go back and forth between all the dishes on our plate.

Think of wine as

Crush Course Wine continues with two important recommendations on having fun with wine on Thanksgiving:

• “It’s a long day and a heavy meal.  So, go with lighter, low-alcohol wines. You want to last the day, all the way to that big slice of pie.

• “This is a rich meal (potatoes, stuffing, creamy green beans, hello!). Opt for bright high-acid wines and even bubbles. They cleanse your palate, refreshing it for the next bite after that rich food… Think wines that will lift, quench, relieve and spark the palate.”

Thanksgiving Wine Recommendations

Here are five tips to keep in mind when serving wine on Thanksgiving:

• Serve Sparkling Wine front and center. Sparkling Wine and/or Champagne are perfect for the Thanksgiving dinner table because they carry a healthy dose of acidity to complement the natural fats associated with many Thanksgiving dishes. And, very importantly, they are great palate cleansers. The Thanksgiving meal can be very HEAVY. Every time you sip Sparkling Wine, your mouth is cleansed, and you feel ready for another bite of food. Also, Sparkling Wine and Champagne bring a celebratory flair to the table.
• Serve acidic whites. As Crush Course Wine said, acidic whites like Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Grigio are perfect for a heavy Thanksgiving meal.
• Serve low-tannin, low-alcohol reds. Why low alcohol? The meal can go on for hours. You want people to be party-fresh throughout. Why low tannin? A wine with high tannin can take too much focus away from the food.
• Don’t forget about dessert. On the dessert front, make sure your wine is sweeter than your dessert. Having a wine that’s less sweet will result in bitter flavors A late-harvest Moscato, a Sauterne or a Tawny Port could be perfect.
• Give a couple of glasses to each guest. This allows your guests to sample, play and find their preferred pairings.

My WineShop At Home Picks

I’ll end this article by sharing my WineShop At Home picks for Thanksgiving 2022.

• Sparkling – Our Paquet Cadeau Semi-Seco Sparking is perfect.
• Whites – We have a bunch of wonderful crisp whites right now. Some of my favorites are our Halcyon Albarino and our Fleur Bleu Sauvignon Blanc. If you like Chardonnay, we have several great ones to choose from.
• Reds – You can’t go wrong with our Celestial Cellars Pinot Noir or our Homage Cellars Lot 38 Red Wine, which is a dry red blend of Petite Sirah and Zinfandel and references that offers dark fruit notes of cherry, cranberry, plum and acai berry.
• Dessert Wines – Our Gemme Cellars Ruby is a late-harvest dessert wine that was produced from a blend of 52% Zinfandel and 48% Petite Sirah. Yum!.

To place an order, please visit my website or call me at 650-714-7009. If you place your order before the end of the month, you will get a great holiday discount.