What to Pour at Thanksgiving
Every year someone brings a big Cabernet to Thanksgiving and every year it does not work. That is not the bottle's fault. It is the table.
Turkey itself is mild and easy. Almost anything goes with it. The trouble is everything around it. Cranberry sauce is sweet and sharp. Squash and candied yams are sweet again. Gravy and stuffing are rich and salty. Put a big tannic red next to that and the sweetness strips it, and the tannin turns hard and bitter.
What works is the opposite. Acidity to cut the richness, light to moderate tannin, and a bit of fruit. That is a short list of styles, and we have all of them on the shelf right now.
Start with bubbles
People arrive hungry and stand around the kitchen for an hour. Sparkling is the right thing here because it is refreshing, it goes with the salty snacks that appear before dinner, and it does not commit anyone to a style before the meal has started.
Blue Mountain Brut Gold Label
Okanagan Valley, BC · 750ml · $37.91
Blue Mountain have been making traditional method sparkling in the Okanagan since long before it was fashionable, and this is the bottle that made their name. It is made the same way champagne is, with the second fermentation in the bottle, which is where the fine bead and the bread note come from.
Open it the moment the first guest arrives, before anyone asks what there is to drink.
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Villa Marchesi Prosecco
Veneto, Italy · 750ml · $22.54
If you are feeding a crowd and want two or three bottles open rather than one, this is the sensible way to do it. Prosecco is softer and more forward than champagne, which suits a room full of people who are talking rather than tasting.
Buy two. The first one goes faster than you expect.
+ CartThe red that does everything
If you only open one red, make it Pinot Noir or Gamay. Both have the acidity to handle cranberry and the light tannin that keeps them from turning bitter against the sweet dishes. They also work with ham and with a vegetarian main, which matters when the table is mixed.
A Sunday in August Pinot Noir
Salt Spring Island, BC · 750ml · $35.86
A small Gulf Island producer working with minimal intervention, and one of the more interesting Pinot Noirs being made in this province. It is lighter and more savoury than a warm climate Pinot, which is exactly what you want against a rich plate.
Give it twenty minutes in the fridge before serving. Light Pinot is better slightly cool.
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Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Villages
Beaujolais, France · 750ml · $34.84
Gamay is the classic Thanksgiving grape and Drouhin is a safe pair of hands with it. Bright red fruit, very little tannin, and enough acidity to reset your palate between bites. This is the bottle that makes the second helping possible.
Serve it cool, around cellar temperature. Warm Gamay loses its point.
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Cono Sur Bicicleta Pinot Noir
Chile · 750ml · $14.34
When you are pouring for twelve people and half of them are not paying close attention, this is the honest answer. Chile does cheap Pinot Noir better than anywhere, and this has the fruit and the acidity to do the job without anyone feeling short changed.
The bottle to have in reserve when the good stuff runs out.
+ CartIf the table drinks white
White is often the better call at Thanksgiving and gets overlooked because the meal feels like it wants red. A dry Riesling or a Gewurztraminer has the acidity for the gravy and enough aromatic lift to sit beside sweet sides rather than fight them.
St Hubertus Dry Riesling
Okanagan Valley, BC · 750ml · $24.59
One of the oldest estate wineries in the Okanagan, and Riesling is the grape the valley does most convincingly. Acidity is the whole argument here. It cuts straight through gravy and stuffing and leaves your mouth ready for the next forkful.
The one bottle to open if someone at the table says they do not like red.
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Red Rooster Reserve Gewurztraminer
Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley · 750ml · $26.64
Gewurztraminer is the quiet specialist at this meal. The lychee and rose character that can feel like too much on its own is exactly right next to squash, sweet potato and anything with cinnamon in it. Naramata Bench fruit gives it the weight to keep up with the plate.
Pour it with the sides rather than the turkey and watch it make sense.
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Mission Hill Reserve Chardonnay
Okanagan Valley, BC · 750ml · $28.69
For the guests who want something with a bit of body and a bit of oak. Chardonnay handles roast poultry and butter better than almost anything, and it is the white most likely to please people who normally drink red.
Take it out of the fridge fifteen minutes before you pour. Fridge cold hides it.
+ CartCider is the pairing nobody thinks of
This is the section worth reading twice. Apple and turkey is an old pairing for good reason, and a dry cider does everything you want at this meal. It has the acidity to cut the gravy, it is light enough to drink across three hours, and it suits the guests who are not wine drinkers without making them feel like an afterthought.
Salt Spring Wild Farmhouse Scrumpy
Salt Spring Island, BC · 750ml · $20.49
A wild fermented farmhouse cider in a 750ml bottle, which means it sits on the table and gets poured like wine rather than handed round in cans. Dry, funky in the good way, and far more interesting than most people expect cider to be.
Put it on the table with a cork in it and let people work it out for themselves.
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Truck 59 Bourbon Blackberry Cider
British Columbia · 500ml · $11.26
Blackberry and a bourbon barrel is a lot of flavour, and at this meal that is a feature rather than a fault. It stands up to stuffing and dark meat in a way that a lighter cider does not, and it is a good bottle to hand to someone who says they do not really like cider.
Good with the leftovers the next day, cold, straight from the fridge.
+ CartAfter the pie
The last pour of the night is the one people remember, and it is the easiest to get right. A tawny port or a sweet sherry with pumpkin pie or a cheese board is a proper end to the meal, and a little goes a long way.
Fonseca Tawny Port
Portugal · 750ml · $27.66
Tawny is the port to buy for a table rather than a cellar. The nutty, caramel character of barrel ageing lines up with pumpkin pie and pecan almost exactly, and unlike vintage port an opened bottle keeps for weeks.
Serve it slightly chilled in a small glass. Room temperature makes it feel heavier than it is.
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Lustau Pedro Ximenez San Emilio
375ml · $35.86
If you want to end the night with something people have not had before, this is it. Pedro Ximenez is close to black, thick as syrup and tastes of raisin, fig and molasses. The half bottle is the right size because nobody needs more than a small glass.
Pour it over vanilla ice cream. It is the best thing you can do with either.
+ CartFor the people not drinking
There is usually at least one person at the table who is not drinking, and handing them a soda water is not good enough at a meal like this. A proper non alcoholic wine in the same glass as everyone else changes the evening for them.
Leitz Non Alcoholic Chardonnay
Rheingau, Germany · 750ml · $20.49
Leitz are a serious German wine estate who took the alcohol free category seriously long before most producers did, and it shows. This has real acidity and real texture rather than the sweet grape juice character that gives the category a bad name.
Serve it properly chilled, in a wine glass, poured at the table like everything else.
+ CartHow much to buy
Half a bottle per adult across a long seated meal is the number that works. A table of eight wants four or five bottles, plus one sparkling for the start and one small bottle for the end. People drink more slowly sitting down than they do standing up at a party, so the panic buying is usually unnecessary.
If you would rather talk it through than guess, come in and tell us how many people are coming and what is being served. That conversation takes two minutes and it is the part of this job we like most.
Free local delivery
Within 10km of the shop, free on orders over $150, a flat $6 under. Order through our website and it usually arrives the same day. Worth doing the week before rather than the morning of.
