Thanksgiving, like any holiday, is an act of repetition, only more so. Not just because it rolls around every year on the fourth Thursday of November, but because we ritually prepare the same meal.
Nonetheless, because it may be the only time we roast a turkey, recipes are in order, complete with the latest intelligence on basting, brining and bringing out the flavor. So it is that, for the 11th consecutive year, the wine panel’s home team sat down in advance to a typical Thanksgiving meal, along with a series of wines to taste blind with the turkey and sides. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Julia Moskin and Pete Wells, along with Bernard Kirsch, our tasting coordinator.
The ground rules were simple. Each of us brought two bottles, costing no more than $25 each. One was to be red, the other white, rosé or sparkling. This year the rule was stretched, as one bottle turned out to be a cider.
Our years of experience permit us to condense the accumulated wisdom to a few simple guidelines, which apply primarily to large-scale gatherings. If you are serving an intimate holiday meal for, say, four people, you can spend as much as you like on wine, plan different wines with each course and bring out your best glassware.
But if your Thanksgiving is anything like mine, you’ve got a lot more than four at the table. They start eating and drinking early and keep at it until late, with dinner a free-for-all buffet. Most likely, you won’t be using the finest goblets. Plastic is not out of the question. So here are the two crucial points to consider when selecting Thanksgiving wines:
VERSATILITY This is not the time to fuss over specific food and wine pairings. You need all-purpose wines that will go with many different sorts of dishes. One should be red, the other white, with additional sparkling or rosé wines at your discretion. You will want plenty. Few things are as sad as running out of wine on Thanksgiving, except running out of food. Figure a bottle per adult.
ENERGY Wines should be nimble and refreshing, energizing rather than fatiguing and low in alcohol, if possible. It’s a long, tiring meal, and the last thing you want are heavy, alcoholic, torpor-inducing wines. Instead, they should be light and exhilarating, the sort that promote salivation rather than comas.
The challenge is determining which wines fit this bill. Enter the wine panel. All the wines we brought would have been fine for a Thanksgiving meal, even the cider. It’s important to understand, though, that these are representative of the sorts of wines to seek out. Most likely, these specific bottles will be hard to find, but not to worry. Many similar wines will be available.
Let’s first take the cider, which Pete brought. He wanted one of his bottles to be American, and what’s more American than cider? The leading beverage of colonial America, it’s undergoing a renaissance today. The Hidden Star Semi-Dry cider, from Slyboro in upstate New York, was deliciously refreshing and a mere 6.9 percent alcohol. You could drink it throughout the meal, but if you are used to the complexity and savor of wine, you may grow tired of the fairly simple flavors.
The top white wines were excellent, and coincidentally none were more than 12 percent alcohol. Julia, who likes to fly the flag for sauvignon blanc, brought a 2012 example from the Loire. It carried the appellation Vin de Pays de Loire, meaning it was from outside the more exalted districts worthy of an appellation, like Sancerre, which accounted for its $14 price. Nonetheless, it was exactly the sort of wine we were looking for: fresh, savory and lithe. Many Loire sauvignon blancs fit this category.
We had two rieslings, both from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Florence brought the 2013 Almost Dry riesling from the undersung Montinore Estate. It was an interesting choice, as many people fear the hint of sweetness that “Almost Dry” implies. But this wine was bright and refreshing, with light floral notes. Bernie brought the other riesling, a 2013 Crow Valley Vineyard from Teutonic Wine Company, a producer I ordinarily love. But this bottle lacked the fine balance of the Montinore. Other similar choices include dry rieslings from the Finger Lakes of New York, or modestly sweet kabinetts from Germany.
My wine was a 2011 Etna Bianco from Benanti, a Sicilian white that I love for its savory, almost saline flavors. The others weren’t sold on it at first, but it came alive with food. Good alternatives include other whites from Mount Etna made with the carricante grape, and many dry southern Italian whites like fianos and falanghinas from Campania.
The reds were even more successful. Our top bottle was the 2012 Willamette Valley Gamay Noir from Division Wine Company, brought by Bernie. It was the perfect sort of energetic, pure wine to seek for Thanksgiving. I wasn’t surprised that it was a gamay as it’s the grape of Beaujolais, always a go-to choice. I’ve recently been tasting more and more delicious American gamays. I’d snap them up, but there isn’t much to go around, so I’d happily settle for good Beaujolais.
Our No. 2 red was an outlier. Julia found this rarest of treasures on closeout for $23, a good, affordable Burgundy with a bit of age, the complex and understated 2008 Charles Audoin Marsannay. You won’t find many cheap Burgundies like this, but it’s a reminder that, if you have money to spend, a modest, slightly older Burgundy is a great choice. So are the more restrained examples of pinot noir.
My own wine was the 2013 Jambalaia Rouge from La Clarine Farm in the Sierra Foothills, a spicy, unfiltered wine made from a hodgepodge of grapes. It’s simple, goes down easy and I liked it well enough, but the others liked it more. Julia called it “autumnal,” and Pete described it as “juicy cheerfulness but a bit adolescent,” which said it well.
Finally came Pete’s red, a 2011 Tikves vranac, a grape little known outside of Macedonia, its home territory, and Florence’s, a 2010 Bordeaux blend from Martha Clara on the North Fork of Long Island. Pete said he was seeking something exotic, although the ripe, somewhat tannic flavors of red and black fruits seemed familiar. Florence always likes to choose something from close to home. This was a good wine, but, as with the vranac, straightforward and not as exciting as the other reds.
Almost all avoided the cardinal Thanksgiving sins of being overbearing, strident and bombastic. That goes double for wines as well as relatives.
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