Any moment now, regular as clockwork, your inbox will be filled with updates from various wine and food publications offering articles to assist you with the presumably daunting task of choosing wines to accompany your Thanksgiving dinner.
As a consequence, I feel it my duty to offer a periodic reminder that Thanksgiving wine pairings are a fool’s errand. Not least because food and wine pairing is junk science to begin with. But also because the goal of hosting Thanksgiving dinner should be for everyone to enjoy themselves, which is most definitely not going to be achieved by seeking that elusive 1+1=3 pairing between your grandmother’s candied yam recipe and a Finger Lakes dry Riesling.
If you’re going to pair wines with anything at Thanksgiving, it shouldn’t be the food, it should be the people.
If you know what kinds of wine your family members like to drink, open that. If crotchety old Uncle Walter only drinks Cabernet Sauvignon, open a bottle for him. If sophisticated Aunt Sally loves her some Pinot Noir, give her some. And don’t forget to open something that is going to make you happy and reward you for all the hard work you’ve put into pulling this annual feast together.
I consider it a personal triumph when a bottle I serve convinces someone they ought to start spending just a little more on their wine habit.
Honestly, the way I approach Thanksgiving dinner is even less complicated than I’ve just described. I simply open a bunch of bottles that I think the people attending would enjoy. Perhaps some bubbly to start, a couple of nice white wines, a few nice red wines of various weights, and then I throw a dessert wine in the fridge to have handy in case anyone fancies something sweet at the end of the meal.
That’s it. Getting the feast pulled together and making it through without any family drama is hard enough. Stressing about what wines to pour is really not what you should be worried about.
People often ask me (or themselves), “Should I pull out the good stuff at these events, or save it for people who can appreciate it?” You know, the old “pearls before swine” conundrum. Many of us wine lovers have family members that are less discerning when it comes to wine. But that’s no reason not to offer them something good.
Sure, you might have to suffer through Uncle Walter telling you that $50 Cab you poured him isn’t as good as his Two Buck Chuck, but for every time I’ve had nicer wines seemingly lost on my dinner guests, I’ve had many more occasions where the wines I’ve offered have inspired new appreciation, created converts, and yes, ruined guests on their everyday tipple.
I consider it a personal triumph when a bottle I serve convinces someone they ought to start spending just a little more on their wine habit.
So don’t hold back on the good wines just because the folks you’re serving them to might not have the appropriate reaction when you bust out that perfectly aged Clos du Papes. No matter what, you know you’ll at least have something excellent to drink yourself, and lord knows, you’re probably gonna need it.
Finally, here’s something to consider. The wine industry in America is going through a bit of a market correction and there’s some pain associated with that. On this, the most American of holidays, why not drink American wine?
No matter how you celebrate, happy holidays.
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Source : https://www.vinography.com/2024/11/the-only-thanksgiving-wine-pairing-advice-you-will-ever-need
