The Thanksgiving table includes a myriad of dishes and flavours, starting with appetisers to graze on as guests arrive. The buffet lineup of traditional dishes typically includes roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, casseroles and cranberry relish. Plates are filled with these favourites, and in one bite, you might get turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy. So, how do you pair wines with this array of flavours?
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A good starting point is to remember that the Thanksgiving table may not be the time to pour powerful, robust wines. Nor is it the time to fret about wine pairings with particular dishes. The goal is to serve a lineup of light-bodied, versatile and easy-drinking wines that can work with the multitude of flavours on the table. And most importantly, select wines that are likely to please your guests’ varying palates. Thanksgiving is a time to break bread and enjoy a hearty, home-cooked meal with those closest to you. Your wine selections accentuate this holiday tradition, not the featured attraction.
Pairing principles
Below are simple wine and food pairing principles for the Thanksgiving table and throughout the year. A good starting point is understanding what’s happening in the glass and on the plate and how those things can create an experience greater than the sum of its parts. These guiding principles of wine and food pairings are evergreen and are meant to enhance a delicious meal with tasty wines and fine company.
Wine and food pairings are more fluid than definitive. Tradition says that specific foods call for particular wines. Things such as oysters and Chablis or steak and Cabernet Sauvignon. With Thanksgiving mains, many point to Pinot Noir as the ideal pairing for a simple roasted turkey. Those combinations are examples of successful pairings, but other options exist. Oysters and sparkling wine (particularly Champagne), steak and Syrah, and turkey and Chardonnay work just as well.
Think less of the food or protein and more specifically of the preparation. When it comes to the turkey, is it deep-fried or roasted? With sweet potatoes, are they baked in a sweet casserole or roasted with pancetta? The preparation method or sauce may drive what wine will work best.
Food made with acid-based sauces (such as tomatoes, vinegar or lemon) goes well with Sauvignon Blanc, unoaked Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir. Rich sauces work best with high-acid wines to refresh or with rich, full-bodied wines to really step into the richness. If there’s any spice on the table, such as a spicy sausage stuffing, lower-alcohol wines with some residual sugar (like Riesling) will work well.
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Matching food and wines with similar weights and richness is one key to pairing success. To do this, one must think of food and wine as both existing on a spectrum: Light-bodied wines with light dishes and full-bodied wines with rich or spice-driven dishes. So, with lighter vegetable dishes, such as green bean almondine or shaved Brussels sprouts salad, an acid-driven white blend might work best. An oaky red blend with spicy, toasty notes would pair well with a baking spice-dominant sweet potato casserole.
When thinking about wine pairings for Thanksgiving, consider whether you’d like to balance or accentuate the flavours on the table. For rich dishes such as buttered mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, or candied yams, you can balance the richness and fattiness with a high-acid, palate-cleansing white such as Riesling or Pinot Gris. In contrast, accentuate and step into the richness with a full-bodied, creamy Chardonnay.
A special occasion
Undeniably, Thanksgiving is, for many, one of the rare occasions when a family from near and far come together. So it may stand to reason that it’s the perfect occasion to break out that wine you’ve been saving for a rarer moment. It may be a self-serving opportunity to open something you’ve wanted to revisit from your cellar or a perfect occasion to share the magic of ageing wine with friends and family.
When it comes to sharing aged wines, its important that you prepare the wine properly, as well as those who are perhaps experiencing their first aged wine.
Opening an older wine can be a challenge in itself, given the variable conditions often found with older corks. Making sure to open the wine away from the table is a smart first step, as crumbling corks and decanting wines require space to execute properly.
There are a few different techniques for opening older, more fragile corks, and then a decision must be made on whether or not to decant your older wine.
In addition to managing the wine, it’s a good idea to manage the expectations of your guests, who may not have any experience tasting older wines. Helping them understand how wine breaks down over time and what to expect will heighten their enjoyment or at least help them anticipate how the experience of an aged wine will differ from what they know.
As the primary components of an aged Bordeaux or Pinot Noir turn from fruit to secondary and tertiary characteristics, those aged wines may not be the most appropriate to pair with the food, but rather the occasion, and they may show best as a before or after dinner toast.
