Thanksgiving Wine and Food Pairing

I wonder how many of us will have a Thanksgiving table around which the majority of guests share our palates and philosophies of wine drinking. And how many of us will have more than one component of the dinner that matches perfectly with a particular wine.

In contrast, I wonder how many of us will have a table with an Uncle Charlie who drinks beer, an aunt who likes iced tea, kids who just wished they were somewhere else the second they shovel their faces full, a couple of friends who are a little insecure about not caring about or understanding the bottles that their geek friend, you, bring to the table and would prefer something sweet if they were forced to drink wine at all.

Here I am, a regular contributor (or annoyance) to this forum, who cares about wine more than probably 99% of people around Thanksgiving tables, and I hardly care at all about matching wine with food. I would 100 times over prefer a classed growth with dinner if it didn’t match anything to some Zinfandel or something that matched some element of the food better. I care about wine that I like 100 times more than I care about matching per se.

Matching would only seem to make sense to folks who have like minded wine geeks at their tables who pay more attention to matching wines to a cacophony of different dishes and palates than to drinking a particular wine that they like by and of itself. I wonder what percentage of Thanksgiving tables fall into the former category.

[David M. Bueker]

Ok, I'll play...

Thanksgiving at our house will be 5 people - all of whom love wine, and all of whom love wine with food (and some of us who love it without food).

There will be 5 different palates, but also wines that suit each person, and in all cases a given wine will work for multiple folks (lots of taste overlap).

The meal will be a chance to have a good time with family and friends we care about, and enjoy a great meal with great wines. I will take some pairing into account, but it won't totally drive the agenda. We don't serve the wine killers such as candied yams or sweet potato casserole, so things like Beaujolais, Riesling, Champagne and perhaps Loire Cabernet Franc will all work very well. We might have a California Pinot Noir or Syrah, and it will work too.

I'll save the classed growth Bordeaux for a more beefy occasion.

As David's signature line says - There's no such thing as a perfect wine. And that may be especially true for the Thanksgiving Dinner.
Our family of five will all be at the table (our daughter’s first Thanksgiving after having gone to college this fall). Each one of us will have contributed something to the day, from bartender to cook to carver. The wine selection will, I hope, fall to me. While I won’t fret over it, I do appreciate (as does everyone reading this) that wine adds a unique element to any dinner and it can elevate the taste of food. So I will try to do some pairing as opposed to just picking the bottle that closest to the door. Unlike David, I will probably not serve Beaujolais but only because I really am not a fan. But Riesling, Cava or Champagne, maybe an old world Chardonnay but most definitely Pinot Noir will be on the menu. I’m a big fan of sweeter wines with dessert, too, so maybe something special there, either a Port or a Ch. d’Yquem (or something else depending on dessert choices).

Let me add that everyone in my family knows about and enjoys wine and could not even think of a Thanksgining Dinner without it.

[David M. Bueker]

I may not serve Beaujolais, but it's something I am considering. A magnum of Morgon was a fine accompaniment last year.

I wonder how many of us will be happy to have a celebratory dinner with family and friends and not get too bent out of shape if not everyone at the table has the Les Grands Crus classés en 1855 memorized?

I know in my circumstance there will be at least on teatotal, one serious beer drinker, several kids, and one who just likes the wines sweet.

I wonder how many of us will be happy to have a celebratory dinner with family and friends and not get too bent out of shape if not everyone at the table has the Les Grands Crus classés en 1855 memorized?

I know in my circumstance there will be at least on teatotal, one serious beer drinker, several kids, and one who just likes the wines sweet.

Don't fret too much about the tea pairings.

I think the geographic areas I have lived in, besides San Francisco and Washington, DC, do not have as many wine sophisticates as many forum members enjoy for friends and family. I am quite certain that any wine I served for most of the people who have graced my table over the years would have been just as appreciative of any other kind of wine I might have served. The ones who could stomach wine at all, about half, would have commented that whatever I served was very good.

Also, I know that I am unique in liking really only Bordeaux. I think of it more of an art form than a drink. It would be the same as if I appreciated expressionistic art best, I wouldn’t likely hang realistic paintings even if they matched the décor.

If people like wine per se, many different types, they would naturally play with different selections around a Thanksgiving table. I still question what percentage of guests and family members around most tables would be selective or even know differences. So, I can presume when Forum members ask what to serve on every Thanksgiving holiday, they are relatively novice. Anybody with any experience would probably do like David and just serve a bunch of wines that they know would likely pair up well with some of the food and not talk about it all that much.

If I had to select a wine that I thought worked best, I would open a mature California Cab. This wouldn’t take me far enough afield to potentially cause a shock requiring hospitalization and it would extend a nod to being in America. However, when I tried just that a couple of years ago and opened a 1996 St. Jean Cinq Cepages, I had to pour it down the drain. Like serving in Viet Nam, there are just some wines I wouldn’t serve now even in the name of patriotism.

But I mostly relate to what Kelly said. If I had a family at dinner, which I don’t, I would just have fun with them and forget about wine appreciation. Er…well…maybe that’s not right. That’s actually why I don’t have any family members at dinner anymore, except for my lovely wife and my niece’s family if they ever want to come – they haven’t yet. As sick and crazy as what I am about to say is, I will tell you that when my family members acted in the way that family members are famous for acting at holiday dinners, meaning started arguments or said gratuitously nasty things, I banned them from any future dinners at my house, and now they are all banned. Life is too short for putting up with bellicosity at the table. I sit and take it like a Buddha and only make a brief telephone call of termination after the offender has gone back home. So now I just open a classed growth and enjoy a wonderful dinner in peace.

...Life is too short for putting up with bellicosity at the table...

Covert, I guess we differ here too. For me, life is too short to hold grudges. BTW - did you serve in Vietnam?

...Life is too short for putting up with bellicosity at the table...

Covert, I guess we differ here too. For me, life is too short to hold grudges. BTW - did you serve in Vietnam?

Howie, I don't hold grudges. If a person stays within wide borders of propriety, I just let them off the hook after a discussion about any indecorum. You might be in my camp if I told you the stories of situations in which I simply permanently terminated my relationship with the offender without a grudge. And I tend to globalize situations; the dynamic I described only happened in two instances. One happened last Thanksgiving, so it was fresh in my mind inspiring my post. I have a very small family, now, since most of it is dead - and I didn't create any more.

No, I didn't serve at all. You might have guessed I didn't serve in Vietnam since I couldn't even spell it correctly in my last comment about it. I don't know what I would have done if I had been called to fight there. Several friends had their minds scrambled from the experience. I got out of serving with a 1-Y classification. I know you served. Are you old enough to have gone to Vietnam?

5 of us for dinner at our daughter's apartment tho The Queen Mother will be cooking..Reisling, Rose and Pinot Noir

[James Roscoe]

Covert, I am with Howie, you are holding grudges. Get over it! Geez! That comes across as petty and small minded.

As to Thanksgiving dinner, it is really a wine drinkers delight as you have a large array of flavors at the table. The great thing is just about any wine will do although the more food-friendly varieties such as Riesling and Pinot Noir tend to work best. There are just too many other wines that work well to name them all. As a uniquily American holiday it is nice to drink American wines. I tend to like a Gamay for a red, especially if made by a capable wine maker such as Steve Edmunds or Howie Hart. Viongier from Virginia is always nice as is a Hart Riesling. In fact Howie could become my official Thanksgiving winemaker if he would open up that winery!

Are you old enough to have gone to Vietnam?

Howie served in the Revolutionary War, but he won't say on which side.

Covert, I am with Howie, you are holding grudges. Get over it! Geez! That comes across as petty and small minded.

As to Thanksgiving dinner, it is really a wine drinkers delight as you have a large array of flavors at the table. The great thing is just about any wine will do although the more food-friendly varieties such as Riesling and Pinot Noir tend to work best. There are just too many other wines that work well to name them all. As a uniquily American holiday it is nice to drink American wines. I tend to like a Gamay for a red, especially if made by a capable wine maker such as Steve Edmunds or Howie Hart. Viongier from Virginia is always nice as is a Hart Riesling. In fact Howie could become my official Thanksgiving winemaker if he would open up that winery!

James with all due respect, you don't know what happened. For example, if a man punched your wife in the face for asking him not to smoke in the house, would you be inclined to want him back in? That's not exactly what happened last time, but it is not far removed. You have seen my posts for several years. Do you think I am petty?

We don't have a nose count yet, but something in the neighborhood of sixteen. We will smoke smoke a turkey donated again by a son-in-laws employer. Kids are bringing most of the else. We will crack a couple of bottles of zin.

[David M. Bueker]

James - remember that it takes a mre advanced mind to properly hold a grudge.

BTW - did you serve in Vietnam?

75th Ranger Regiment, 101st Airborne, Camp Eagle, Hue, I Corp, '68-'69. I enjoy wine more.

75th Ranger Regiment, 101st Airborne, Camp Eagle, Hue, I Corp, '68-'69. I enjoy wine more.

3rd Shore Party, 3rd Marine Div., Dong Ha, I Corps, '68-'69. Welcome home!

[Jenise]

Covert, I'm more in your camp than you'd think. Particularly because at my table there won't be any of the weird sweet foods that get in the way of turkey and dressing going with the kind of dry wines I enjoy the most--Bordeaux and Rhone.

Cindy and I mostly drink wine paired with food. I gave up worrying about our guests' palates years ago because most either won't drink wine or don't much care what wine is available. So the objective is for Cindy and myself to be happy with the wine selection!

This year we will have 5 total...me, Cindy, my mother (who will have beer if she drinks at all), our son (beer and mixed drinks), and his girlfriend (beverage of choice unknown). Whatever I pull from the cellar for Cindy and I will work for everyone else, I am sure.

We will serve the traditional meal (although the turkey will be brined and either grilled or smoked) but also we don't avoid those wine-unfriendly foods at all. There will be sweet potatoes with some sort of sauce and a cranberry/orange relish, but not that gelatinous junk.

Thanksgiving is a really big day with both my daughters, their husbands, 2 kids and close personal friends. Wine is always served at our house with food but for Thanksgiving the focus is food and our turkey was raised by my daughter in Vermont. Lots of wine, easy to drink wine, but leave the really "top shelf" stuff in the cellar. This year have a nice Argentine SB and an Italian Aglianico, IMO a really underated food wine, all tasted and purchased from TJ for $6. 10 adults and only 8 wines so for sure something else will be drug up from the cellar.
Walt

Here I am, a regular contributor (or annoyance) to this forum, who cares about wine more than probably 99% of people around Thanksgiving tables, and I hardly care at all about matching wine with food. I would 100 times over prefer a classed growth with dinner if it didn’t match anything to some Zinfandel or something that matched some element of the food better. I care about wine that I like 100 times more than I care about matching per se.

Covert,
We never have a meal without wine but probably am your exact opposite. Wine is food and drinking a classified growth Bordeaux with pasta, fish, mexican et al is a mortal sin.
Walt