My obligatory Thanksgiving wine pairing post

It seems that you can’t traverse the web these days without tripping over an article about pairing wine with turkey or a Thanksgiving dinner. Why should I be any different? I like Thanksgiving and I like wine and I have to write about something, don’t I?

I kept putting off writing this due to lack of inspiration, but decided that today would be the day. Still lacking inspiration, I decided to surf around and see what other folks were writing. The very first link that I clicked not only cured my lack of inspiration, it succinctly explained it in a single sentence.

If anyone asks for advice, the answer is “Pinot Noir.”

There it is. What wine do you serve with Thanksgiving dinner? Pinot Noir! That’s it. The end of the story, as far as I am concerned. The article is from the San Fransisco Chronicle and is aptly titled “Can’t-fail guide to Thanksgiving wines” and if you really must have something other than Pinot Noir, they cover just about every other base as well.

From the article:

So for Thanksgiving, we thought we’d abandon the usual wine-writer blather about how Thanksgiving is (a) a time to let wine shine, since the food is understated, or (b) a time to drink whatever, since the food is understated (and you’ll need the drink). The mountain of utterly contradictory wine advice to match turkey and trimmings grows higher every year. We can’t make sense of it, and really, you’ve heard it all before. Besides, Thanksgiving may come late this year, but have you checked the calendar?

Six days, mister. You’re looking for answers. Clarity is of the essence.

and my other favorite piece of advice from the article:

The quick take: Fashionable as it is to match a sweet wine with Thanksgiving baked goods in all their sugary density, it’s overkill. Serve coffee.

Save the sweet wines for later, including Sauternes or Tokaji (if there’s dried fruit or nuts in the cornucopia), or Port and Madeira if you want to deepen the post-meal food coma.

By the way the bottle pictured above is a very nice choice to go with a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings.

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