Thanksgiving dinner is 100% my favorite meal of the year so there is extra pressure to make sure the wines I serve are perfect! So what goes with green bean casserole? Potatoes? Turkey? Cranberries (not to mention canned vs homemade)? Pie(s)? I know this can be intimidating because it scares me a little bit too.
First of all, remember that the most important thing with food and wine pairings is personal preference so always default to that regardless of what "experts" suggest. Nonetheless, I hope that I can provide a few helpful hints to steer you in the right direction regardless of that preference.
~~ Wine Basics ~~
There are a few general rules to help guide you:
The food will change the flavor of the wine more than the other way around. For example if you are drinking a nice wine and then take a bite of food, lets say something sweet, then the next sip of wine may be unexpectedly sour but the next bite of that food would not be altered too much.
When pairing a wine with a food, don't forget to consider the condiments or the sauce. These often have bolder flavor profiles than the main dish they are a part of. Think of mustard on anything...
Whatever the dominant characteristic of the food is, the wine has to have more of that or the match will not work. If the food is sweet, the wine needs to be sweeter. If the food has a lot of acid (sour), so should the wine or it will feel flat.
Try to find wines that will compliment the entire meal and not just an individual dish. When in doubt, go with bubbles!
You don't need to break the bank to have great wine for a special occasion.
Food | Wine Pairing Suggestion |
Turkey | Pinot Noir (Burgundy, Bourgogne) Gamay (Beaujolais) Corvina, Sangiovese, Barbera, Etna Rosso Zinfandel Viognier, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc Chardonnay (Chablis, White Burgundy) |
Stuffing | Viognier Grenache Blanc Chardonnay |
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy | Chardonnay, Viognier, Grenache Blanc... Gamay (with savory sweet potatoes) Sweeter Riesling (with "sweet" sweet potatoes) |
Green Bean Casserole | Chardonnay, Viognier Sauvignon Blanc |
Cranberries | Pinot Noir, Gamay Riesling |
Pumpkin Pie | Sweet Wine - Port, Late Harvest Red |
Apple Pie | Sweet Wine - Marsala, Sauterne, Tokaj |
~~ Turkey & Thanksgiving Wine Pairings ~~
Turkey is usually the star of the Thanksgiving meal and should also be the star of the wine pairing. Obviously, there is both light and dark meat which can be paired with the same wine. The dark meat isn't as bold as steak so the same rules don't apply however (ie. NO Cabernet Sauvignon!!). Turkey is not fatty but is usually, in my case anyway, drenched in turkey gravy as are the potatoes and even the stuffing. What does all of that mean? Well, either a fuller body white wine or a lighter body red wine would be a good partner.
Fuller bodied white wines have enough oomph to stand up to the darker meat in the turkey as well as the gravy (the following wines also pair well with roasted chicken and salmon). Chardonnay is a full bodied white wine that we have all heard of, but other lesser known varieties such as Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Roussanne are also fabulous food wines that pair well with poultry and a variety of starches which is basically what Thanksgiving dinner is all about, right!? Riesling is also an incredibly food friendly wine that would work nicely here but I would look for a dry version.
Light red wines typically don't have all of the tannins that require bolder foods as accompaniments to calm them down. Pinot Noir and Beaujolais are the traditional turkey pairings and work really nicely because they are both light- medium in body with good acid and low- medium tannins. The acid makes them refreshing and also allows them to compliment the cranberries better than a wine that has lower acid.
Additionally, some of the Italian grapes listed (Corvina, Barbera, Sangiovese, Etna Rosso) would also work because they all are light-medium in body with fairly high acid. The first two are low in tannin, but the latter two are a bit higher although not much. The young, vibrant wines from the most recent vintage are what you want to try with these, not older wines that have been aged in wood for several years.
Quick hint, many of these wines work really well with a little bit of a chill on them. Throw them in the refrigerator 30-60 minutes before you serve them to make sure they are around 55 degrees Fahrenheit..
An unexpected red that works well is Zinfandel. This wine is bigger in body, alcohol and fruit so why does it work? Well, Zinfandel likes spices such as clove, cinnamon, and allspice. This wine is for all my dark meat turkey people out there!
~~ Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Turkey Gravy ~~
For the most part, these items are somewhat neutral and will not create a problem for most wines. The salt in these dishes make them pretty wine friendly as salt tends to enhance the fruitiness of most wines. This makes the wines more appealing. The herbs will make these otherwise simple dishes a bit more complex, so again, the fuller bodied whites will do nicely and won't get lost like a lighter white.
~~ Sweet Potatoes & Wine ~~
Remember rules 1-3 and especially #3. The sweet potatoes are not as much of the issue as is how they are prepared? Marshmallows? Cinnamon and sugar? These preparations would require a sweeter wine than those made simply with butter or rosemary. If you don't want to serve a separate wine just for the sweet potatoes and are adhering to rule #4, then I would just not drink wine right after a bite of the sweet potatoes if they are really sweet. Throw a bite of turkey in your mouth and then drink away. If you are splurging and want to serve multiple wines, then a sweeter Riesling may be a good option. If the sweet potatoes are prepared in a more savory way then the above recommendations for turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing should hold, especially think Gamay.
~~ Green Bean Casserole Wine Pairing ~~
Sauvignon Blanc is the go to wine for green vegetables but in the case of green bean casserole, the cream of mushroom soup and the fried onions (yum, my favorite part) add some more texture to the dish. Now the acid in the sauvignon blanc would cut through that fat but some of the more substantial wines would also stand up to the mandatory Campbell's recipe. If you chose to add in a Riesling earlier, then this wine is notorious for its high acid and can also work here. The pinot noir is earthy and also has a high acid and can offset the mushroom and onion.
~~ Cranberries & Wine ~~
I'm not sure which camp you are in when it comes to cranberry sauce. Whether you like to slice a log of jellied berries or make your own is really of little consequence as far as wine pairing goes. Cranberries are tart, tart, tart and therefore need a wine with good acid to counterbalance them. Depending on how much sugar is added to the homemade sauce a sweeter wine may be needed, but the overwhelming taste will still be sour. I typically make my own cranberries which although still on the sour side have enough sugar added to balance them out. I combine two Martha Stewart recipes to make mine, one with dried sour cherries and another with orange juice. The Riesling or Gamay would work nicely here.
~~ Thanksgiving Pies & Dessert Wine ~~
Hear me out here! A dessert needs a dessert wine. I know people tend to shy away from these as they are tremendously sweet and most people should not drink them sans food but when paired appropriately is almost a religious experience. Trust me, I have been forcing these pairings on people for a while now and it's always the same: "Oh, this wine is SWEET!" Then they try their dessert and taste it again. Que the wide eyes and "WOWs" because it is a hit! People cannot believe it and Thanksgiving pies / dessert spreads are no different. I would suggest that fruit pies should go with a white sweet wine and chocolates should go with a red. I would also put pumpkin pie with the red, but it could really go either way.
Late harvest wines are those that have such high sugar to begin with due to the overripe fruit that they cannot be fermented to dryness and have residual sugar, thus making them sweet. Ports tend to have alcohol added to the grape juice before fermentation is complete and the high alcohol kills the yeast that is fermenting the sugar to alcohol so there is again a significant amount of residual sugar that remains in the finished product. The above picture shows two white sweet wines, one from Hungary, the other from Sicily and then two sweet reds which are both local to Lodi, CA.
Regardless of your wine pairings, this is a time of the year to be thankful for what we have and the company we keep. I hope you will be able to celebrate the season with those that mean the most to you and give them the handshakes and hugs that we have been missing these last two years! Cheers!
* Dry wines are wines that don't have residual sugar. Sugar in wines is a measurable term and the sugar can be left over from the grape juice and not completely fermented into alcohol or can be added to the wine later, which is not done in quality wines. (Champagne and other sparkling wines do not follow the above criteria. Message me if looking for more detail about sparkling wines or just keep an eye out for a blog that addresses the confusing world of sparkling wines). Click here for my blog on sweet wines.
*When dealing with Riesling, many of the wines are labeled with a Riesling scale on the back that details how sweet the wine is. Another good hint is the alcohol level, the lower the alcohol the higher the sugar /sweetness typically. Click here for my Wine of the Week: Riesling post.
*Tannins are found in grape skins as well as tea leaves. They can impart a bitter taste and leave your mouth feeling dry and sticky like the inside of your lip is velcroed to your gums kind of sticky!!
* The basic tastes that can be detected on the tongue are sweet, sour/acid, bitter, salty and umami (cooked mushroom, smoked &/or cured meats and asparagus are examples).
*Vintage is the year the grapes were harvested.