I’m publishing this on the day before Thanksgiving in the USA, while millions of shoppers are dealing with the dual nightmares of jammed stores and the challenge of selecting a wine for tomorrow’s feast. We Americans do this every year, so one might think it wouldn’t pose much of a challenge. But it just ain’t so, as you can tell from the panicked expressions on the faces of shoppers in grocery stores and wine shops if you venture out today. Vast numbers of Americans cook big meals for big groups only once each year and buy wine only occasionally. So, if you’re dealing with a daunting challenge today, you might as well make it pay off for many other meals after you get through tomorrow.
Selecting wine for a typical Thanksgiving meal is in fact a challenge—even for wine experts who also cook elaborate meals regularly. This is true for reasons I’ll explain below. But the good news is: The same wines that can overcome the challenge of Thanksgiving will also succeed on a regular basis with chicken—which is now the most popular meat in the USA, to the tune of 8 billion chickens and per person consumption of 100 pounds per year. No kidding.
Both white and red wines can work well for Thanksgiving as well as all those weeknight chicken dinners, but the key to success is selecting wines that are not too pushy in flavor and that are moderate in weight and texture. There are reasons why this is true, and it is worth your while to consider them—given that the payoff can continue for long after the holiday.
For starters, let’s address the causes of the widespread panic among wine buyers for Thanksgiving. We drink a lot of wine in the USA (more than any other nation), but that’s mostly because we’re prosperous, which has nothing to do with being practiced. Of course, being prosperous is an excellent reason for giving thanks on Thanksgiving, but most of us have very little practical experience in pairing wines and foods.
Accordingly, modesty is appropriate for most of us, but when pressured to choose from among 100,000 available wines for a big occasion like Thanksgiving, modest can quickly turn to intimidation–or downright paralysis.
To make matters worse, the array of dishes involved in a classic Thanksgiving dinner set us up for failure when we’re picking a wine. Indeed, almost any wine you can imagine is going to run afoul of something on the table. Acidic wines that work with the cranberries then seem thin when hitting a rich stuffing or shrill when tried with sweet potatoes. Rich, ripe wines that hold their own against the stuffing then come off as fat and oafish when meeting white turkey meat (or those damned cranberries).
Even if you just forget about the side dishes and focus on the turkey when considering wine selection, you are still not out of the woods. The guest who only wants white breast meat has a pretty subtle (even austere) dish, and would best be served a white wine–and a pretty light, simple one at that. By contrast, those who love dark leg meat well slathered with gravy are sorely in need of a red wine–and a fairly gutsy one to boot.
Tempting though it might be, ditching the turkey or substantially altering the meal isn’t an option in most homes. Aunt Minnie would burst into tears right there at the table if deprived of her traditional trimmings, and Uncle Otto would make a scene if he didn’t get his drumstick, so we’re cornered. Something’s gotta give, and it probably can’t be the food.
So, what’s the solution? Here’s my key principle for securing an excellent outcome on the Big Day: If you really want a successful match, keep the wine simple.
One of the most robust findings to emerge for me from 25 years of professional tasting and restaurant consulting is this: Complex wines are at their best with simple foods, but complex foods are best matched by simple wines.
A great old bottle of Bordeaux is at its best with roast beef or pot roast or simple leg of lamb, just as a simple preparation of duck or veal will let a great bottle of Burgundy or Barolo show all of its many dimensions. By the same token, the wines that really shine across a meal with lots of complex (even clashing) elements like Thanksgiving are usually ones that are balanced and restrained: Neither too sweet, nor tannic, nor acidic, nor woody, nor heavy, nor light.
If there’s nothing jarring about a wine, it is vastly less likely to prove jarring when paired with any particular food. By extension, the best way to navigate your way across the Thanksgiving table minefield is to play your shot right down the middle.
What does this mean in practical terms? Nothing more complicated than choosing wines made from certain grapes and sourced from particular places in the world that routinely show the perfect profile of balance and moderation in terms of flavor, structure and style to work with Thanksgiving dinner.
I’m about to provide my list of top performers in this profile, but here’s another benefit that flows from what follows: If you are an average American destined to eat one hundred pounds of chicken next year, I trust that you are going to try to find lots of different ways to prepare it—which is a very good idea since there’s another hundred pounds of chicken awaiting you. If you aren’t a sommelier or a wine expert, you’re going to need a list of wines that can work well with all the different preparations for all those chickens. And guess what? This means your ongoing chicken habit poses the same challenge as tomorrow’s feast.
With that in mind, here’s my list:
Whites:
Garnacha Blanca / Grenache Blanc from Spain’s Catalonia, France’s Rhône, or California
Soave from Italy’s Veneto
Moschofilero or Roditis from Greece
Pinot Bianco from Alto Adige or Friuli in Italy, or Pinot Blanc from Alsace, Germany or Austria
Pinot Gris from Oregon (but not Alsace—routinely too sweet from there)
Chenin Blanc (a.k.a. “Steen”) from South Africa; incredible quality even at low prices
Verdelho from Australia or, much easier to find from there, Dry Riesling, which is terrific
Grüner Veltliner from Austria
Explicitly “Un-Oaked” Chardonnay from almost anywhere
Reds:
Nero d’Avola from Sicily
Garnacha from Aragón’s Spanish regions of Campo de Borja, Carińena or Calatayud
Montepulciano from Italy’s Abruzzo
Cinsault from South Africa
Dolcetto or Dogliani (a Dolcetto specialty zone) from Piedmont in Italy
Agiorghitiko from Greece
Zweigelt from Austria
Schiava or Vernatsch from Alto Adige (same grape in Italian or German language)
Pinot Noir from California, Oregon, New Zealand or Germany
All 15 of these wines will perform very well at your Thanksgiving table, and all 15 could be purchased for less than $20. Indeed, given the fact that a typical Thanksgiving meal involves a lot of variation in flavors and textures, relatively simple wines tend to perform especially well, so you’d be well advised to purchase reasonably priced examples of these wines. That will minimize the chances that you’ll get an oaky rendition. This is especially true of Pinot Noir: Spending more than $20 or $25 will indeed usually get you a better bottle of Pinot in overall terms, but it will usually bring more oak into play and net you a rendition that is actually less well suited to immediate consumption with Thanksgiving dinner.
So there you have it…a relatively long list of virtually foolproof selections that combine the virtues of high performance and low cost. These will suit the tastes of some guests more than others at Thanksgiving dinner, but they will almost certainly taste pretty good to everyone with everything on the table. That is no small accomplishment, and it is one that will also pay dividends for all those chicken dinners in your future!