Easy Sommelier Tips on Thanksgiving Wine Pairings
I love Thanksgiving, the holiday of rejoicing, love, self-reflection, and appreciation for life’s blessings. 2020 has been a difficult year for everybody, and the pandemic has guided us to appreciate what really matters, our physical and mental health and the ability to empathize with others. We are all in this together!
Aside from my self-reflection, I wanted to cover how to expertly pair wine with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Remember, don’t take wine pairings so seriously! It is just fermented grape juice, meant to be drunk. So have fun with it, because actually executing a perfect pairing can be gratifying and potentially mindblowing!
First, the basics:
Body :
Understand the difference between light, medium, and full-bodied wine. A great technique to distinguish the wine’s body is comparing it to milk.
Light: Non-Fat | Medium: Whole | Full: Half and Half or Cream
Feeling how wine sits in your mouth helps with understanding how to pair with a food’s structure.
Balance:
Think of pairing wine to keeping a seesaw flat. Finding balance is incredibly important because we want to ensure that we are pairing wines that match in terms of weight.
If you have raw oysters or steamed fish, we can assume that these dishes would be much lighter than having a grilled rack of lamb or a hearty stew. A wine’s body and structure should correlate with the weight of the dish.
A dish’s seasoning, sauce, and preparation play an important role in how you will pair. Is the salad dressed in ranch or a simple lemon vinaigrette? Is the chicken poached or made in a Cordon Bleu style? The predominant flavor of the dish commands the wine’s style and flavor.
Aromas:
Grape varietals, regions, and winemaking styles contribute to the wine’s aromatics.
Red: Thin-skinned grapes tend to create wines light in color, tannin, and body, with more red fruit dominate aromatics, like cherry, strawberry, cranberry, raspberry, red currants, etc. Thicker-skinned grapes tend to create darker, more tannic, and fuller-bodied wines with dark fruit dominant aromatics like black cherry, black plum, blackberries, blueberry, blackcurrants, cassis, etc.
White: There really isn’t a cheat sheet on knowing the aromatics of white wine from looking at it. Try to understand the two points at the bottom and memorizing classic aromas of varietally. Experiment drinking all types of whites, and you will be able to slowly notice aromatic differences from citrusy, tropical, herbal, and buttery.
Region: Cooler climate wines= fresher and tart fruit aroma + lighter body
Warmer climate wines = richer and ripe fruit aroma + fuller body
Winemaking: Stainless Steel= Fresher Wines
Oak= Rounder wines with vanilla & baking spice aromatics
Lee Stirring (Bâttonage)= Creamier wine with buttermilk, biscuit, and yeasty aromatics
Malolactic Fermentation= Fuller wine with butter aromatics
Complement or Contrast:
Complement: Pair wines that have similar flavors to the dish.
If a salad has some grapefruit and orange segments, pair it with a white wine that is citrus-driven, like Sauvignon Blanc or Albariño.
If a juicy, grilled steak is topped with herb butter, pair it with some Bordeaux, Chilean Carmenere, or even Northern Rhône Syrah. Certain grape varietals like Cabernet, Carmenere, and Cabernet Franc carry more herbal and earthy characteristics than others, due to their aromatic organic compounds.
Contrast: Some perfect pairings evolve from:
Salty vs. Sweet: Imagine the combination of chocolate-covered pretzels or the addition of flaky salt on your chocolate chip cookies. Pairing a salty yet sweet, caramel-y, nutty Madeira would pair great with some chocolate chip cookies.
Spicy vs. Chilled, Sweet & Low Alcohol: The cooling freshness and sweetness in wine can help counteract the spiciness in a dish. Making sure that it’s low in alcohol is important because a high alcohol wine can intensify spice. Classically, spicy Thai food pairs great with off-dry Rieslings, which tend to be lower in alcohol.
Rich vs. Fresh or Sparkling: Ever crave a beer or coke with a burger? They seem like the perfect pairing because the bubbles from the carbonation clean and refresh your palate, allowing more bites of that burger. It’s a beautiful cycle of greasing and de-greasing your mouth. Thus, richer, creamier dishes pair beautifully with sparkling and higher acid wine.
Now that I feel like I have covered the basics, and hopefully, you haven’t fallen asleep yet, let’s pair a traditional Thanksgiving meal! I have pulled these wines from my wine fridge, which means that you can also store a variety of wines in your cellar, wine fridge, or shoebox and have them ready to pair any memorable meal.
Roasted Turkey, Herb Stuffing, & Cranberry Sauce
I chose 2019 Littorai Cru ‘Les Larmes’ Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley, California ($60) because it is a light to medium-bodied wine, pairs fantastically with turkey. This Pinot Noir displays red fruit dominant characteristics with notes of cherry, raspberry, cranberry, plus notes of soft underbrush and sage. These aromatics pair well with cranberry sauce and herb stuffing. Littorai remains one of my favorite domestic Pinot Noir producers, so I highly recommend trying them out!
-Substitutes: Gamay, Burgundy, Grenache, Barbera & Cerasuolo
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy/ Potato Gratin
Drinking vintage champagne from Taittinger is a pleasure! 1996 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs, France (more current vintages are around $175) complements the richness of the cream and butter in Mashed Potatoes and Gratin with notes of citrus zest, Meyer lemon, camomile, toast, brioche, tree nut, & cream. The fine bubbles in the champagne cleanse the palate after each bite of rich mashed potatoes. From all the cream, butter, and cream cheese that I put into mine, I know some delicious bubbly will help me eat more of it.
-Substitutes: Cava (super affordable and similar aromatics), Franciacorta, White Burgundy, Chenin Blanc
Green Bean Casserole
The mixture of green beans, mushroom soup, and fried onion remains the highlight of my Thanksgiving. This dish is a little tricky to pair, but I recommend it with 2018 Pascal Cotat ‘Le Monts Damnés,’ Sancerre, Loire Valley, France ($42). This Sauvignon Blanc offers notes of grapefruit, lime zest, melon, fresh soft herbs, intense stone, and chalk minerality. The herbaceous character in this wine pairs beautifully with green beans and fried onion, yet the freshness of the wine cuts through any richness integrated with the cream of mushroom and fried onion. Pascal Cotat remains one of my favorite Sancerre producers, and I highly recommend trying them if you love some Sauv B!
A light to medium-bodied herbaceous red wine works great too!
-Substitutes: Gruner Veltliner, Chablis, Gamay, and Cabernet Franc
Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
You either love or hate brussel sprouts, but roasted with bacon and its fat makes this dish easier to love! Brussel sprouts have been classically known as a difficult vegetable to pair, due to its sulfurous and bitter qualities. This vegetable’s preparation remarkably influences the wine pairing. Hence, I paired it with 2017 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-pape, Rhône Valley, France ($99). The silky texture in the wine balances out any bitterness from the brussel sprout, while aromatics of cured meat, garrigue, and smoked wood will pair nicely with the roasted bacon.
-Substitutes: Côtes du Rhône, Grenache, Grignolino, Mencia, Schiava, Rosé, Riesling
Sweet Potato with Marshmallow Casserole / Pumpkin Pie
2017 Domaine Weinbach ‘Altenbourg’ Pinot Gris, Alsace, France ($45) is a killer pairing and the ultimate Thanksgiving wine that delivers a beautiful bouquet of spiced pear, ginger, mirabelle plums, apricot, honey, and brown sugar. This wine’s texture is luscious and rich enough to pair with the richness of a sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie.
- Substitutes: Off-Dry Chenin Blanc, Sparkling Rosé, Smaragd Gruner Veltliner, late harvest Gewurztraminer or Muscat
Apple Pie
Wineries in Eastern Hungary have been making some of the world’s most coveted sweet wines, out of the Furmint & Hárslevelü grapes, for hundreds of years. Spain’s famed producer, Vega Sicilia creates gorgeous wines of ambrosia. 2014 Oremus Late Harvest Tokaji, Tokaj, Hungary ($35) complements the sweet baking spice and caramelized apples in apple pie, yet delivers acidity without being too cloying on the palate. It releases gorgeous tones of apricot, fruit cocktail, bruléed apple, golden raisins, honey, ginger, & marzipan. If you like drinking Sauternes, I highly recommend giving this a try!
-Substitutes: Sauternes, Jurançon Moelleux, Passito di Pantelleria, Ice Wine
Last but not least, Marcarini Chinato, Piedmont, Italy ($35) sets the tone for a fantastic end to the meal. Based in La Morra, Marcarini makes some of my favorite Chinatos. It is a slightly bittersweet, aromatic wine made from Nebbiolo grapes, infused with aromatic herbs and spices, such as Cinchona bark. I particularly enjoy drinking Chinato with an ice cube; however, you can drink it neat too! The herbs and spices of Chinato help aid digestion, especially from a large meal.
-Substitutes: Amaro, Chartreuse, Underberg
I hope you guys find this Thanksgiving wine pairing guide helpful and learned a bit about wine pairing. Most of these substitutes can be found affordably! Inquire at your favorite retail shop, and you can dig up wines for $20 each!
Happy Imbibing!
Tiffany