An e-mail from our esteemed editor popped up on my computer screen the other day, asking WRO columnists for our annual Thanksgiving wine picks. I stared numbly at the screen, thinking, “Wow! Has it been a year since our esteemed editor extended his alms bowl?”
Yes, it has been a year, and saying wow again, didn’t help. So I did what any writer does when his editor pleads for contributions: I turned my computer off and retired to the living room to watch “Dancing with the Stars.” Not really. I parked my computer and began mulling over some ideas finally settling on a system I’m calling “The Thanksgiving Wine and Food Pyramid.”
Here’s how it works.
The Thanksgiving Wine and Food Pyramid, hereafter known as TWFP, is loosely based on the USDA’s Food Pyramid, where some nutrition wonks prescribe specific food groups that are 
certain to make us healthy, or healthier if you’re already healthy. No doubt you’ve seen the USDA Food Pyramid, hereafter known as the USDAFP: Fats and oils in the top tier, meat and poultry next down, then veggies and fruits, followed by bread, cereal, rice and pasta and on the bottom tier, eight servings of water. For the TWFP, I’ve streamlined the USDAFP, squashing the five tiers down to just a tidy three.
But all those healthy foods on the USDAFP wouldn’t do for the TWFP. What I needed were tiers of the best foods, healthy or not, to go with the myriad of meats and dishes that load down the typical Thanksgiving table. At the apex of the TWFP, is turkey, the all-American Thanksgiving meat. No second tier for our Thanksgiving bird.
Right away, though, there’s a problem; turkey is not that easy to pair with wine, because you have white meat, far and away the most popular, and dark meat, the orphan of turkey meat. Let’s start with dark meat and get it out of the way. Picture this holiday scenario: The host is standing at the head of the table with a menacing looking meat knife in one hand and a serving fork in the other. “Who wants dark meat?” he says with a narrow grin, only to be met by stares and grunts, as if he asked, “Who would like to tell us about your favorite Thanksgiving ever?”
The fact that turkey dark meat has more flavor than the white meat is lost on many turkey eaters, but that advantage allows for a wider choice of wines, such as: Light-medium reds like Italian Valpolicella and Nero d’Avila, Côte de Beaune Burgundy such as Volnay, California Gamay, Carneros Pinot Noir, Alsace Pinot Gris
Turkey white meat is often light on flavor and fat, so no need for high acidity white wines. 
Unless you’re mopping up the gravy with your piece of white meat or you’ve made a fork-kabob with a bit of stuffing (or is it seasoning?), the wine should be light and fruity, such as: French Vouvray, Alsace Pinot Blanc, Australian Hunter Valley Semillon, Clare Valley Riesling, Beaujolais, or even a light-medium Southern Rhône such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Some people enjoy Sauvignon Blanc with turkey, such as the Woodinville Wine Cellars Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc (full disclosure: made by my son), especially for mashed potatoes with garlic, that’s always on our family’s Thanksgiving table.
Before moving on, I should suggest a few wines for those folks who prefer a baked ham or a beef roast, or even the vegetarian delight known as Tofurky, a molded loaf made from tofu that is supposed to be a replacement for turkey. I’m a vegetarian and I can tell you that Tofurky is something but it ain’t a replacement for turkey. Anyway, try a dry pink wine, like a Tavel or Provence rose with baked ham, and a substantial red such as California Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, Bordeaux or Rhône Syrah with the beef. As for Tofurky, go with whatever you’re pouring with turkey and hope it masks the taste of the tofu “bird.”
The middle tier of the TWFP is where you’ll find all of the standard Thanksgiving side dishes, like mashed potatoes, that are part of most traditional turkey dinners. My family wouldn’t think of a Thanksgiving meal without plenty of mashed potatoes, with or without garlic or horseradish, but with plenty of butter. Another good choice is a mash up of Yukon Gold potatoes and turnips, or parsnips, with plenty of butter. Mashed potatoes are a given with turkey but there’s no specific wine match, just the wine you choose with turkey meat, white or dark.
There are countless traditional side dishes trotted out each and every Thanksgiving, often to assorted groans and hurrahs. Some work with wine, like an earthy mushroom casserole (a Burgundy like Givry or Mercurey), while other dishes, such as the dreaded candied sweet potato and marshmallow concoction, need a beverage other than wine (cola?), although an off-dry Mead might work. We’ve come this far without mentioning one vegetable, so as long as traditional dishes are the subject, there’s the famous Green Bean Casserole, a blend of green beans in mushroom soup, canned onion rings (yikes!) and mashed potatoes. If this dish is on your Thanksgiving table, then you work out the best wine match.
And that brings us to the broad bottom tier of the TWFP where we make the eight glasses of water as accompaniments to multiple bottles of wine for the Thanksgiving table. The idea is to have choices and not be weighted down with one wine. After all, the traditional Thanksgiving meal is a riot of dishes with different flavors, seasonings, savory and sweet, so there’s no one wine that fits all.
So, if you’re still reading, you’ve probably deduced that Thanksgiving is the one day of the year when I set aside my love of wine and just go with the flow. Use the TWFP freely, it’s not copyrighted, but remember, Thanksgiving is about family first, food second and maybe wine third.
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