Not a Time For Boring Bottles

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: November 2024

So, here we are again – barreling headlong down the fast lane into Thanksgiving – the annual dinner fraught with anticipation and anxiety, a veritable feast of dilemma and delight. And regardless of whether yours is a celebration on a table set for a few or sprawls rooms of tables set for many, you’re going to need wine.

And though Thanksgiving dinner may be a feast of familiar flavors—savory stuffing, roasted turkey, and sweet pumpkin pie— your wine doesn’t have to be predictable. While the food might be traditional and anticipated, the wine should be anything but – this is not a time for boring bottles.

In practical terms that means selecting one sparkler, one red and one white wine.

Start by shaking things up with a Rosé Champagne, because bubbles aren’t just for New Year’s Eve. The wine’s bright acidity and berry flavors make it the perfect opener for your feast (though I will be drinking it all the way through the meal!).

The iconic rosé bottling is the NV BIllecart Salmon Brut Rose from Champagne, France – pale, salmon-hued, it’s supremely graceful, balancing red fruit and citrus notes effortlessly and is bursting with scents of sweet red berries, stone fruits, and white cherries.

Widely available and vibrantly pink is the NV Rosé Brut, Moët & Chandon, Impérial from one of the region’s largest producers – distinguished by its bright fruitiness, its seductive palate and its elegant maturity.

For the white wine selection, consider a Riesling – a wine that as one writer said is both blessed and curse. Blessed because it’s truly one of the world’s most versatile food wines – bright and zesty, an ideal companion to almost anything. The curse is that everyone thinks its sweet. Here, two Rieslings that will balance even the richest of sides, and as dry as they come:

The bone dry and steely 2022 Robert Weil Riesling Trocken from Rheingau Germany is elegant, mineral and forceful, with remarkable freshness.

An archetypal Alsace dry Riesling is the 2021 Trimbach Riesling – crisp and focused on the palate with a wonderful freshness that’s hard to resist, and a long, ample finish that’s very clean.

Cabernet Franc, a red wine that you don’t hear much about outside wine circles, is earthy vibrant and bold enough to stand up to your turkey without overpowering the other flavors at the table.

The genetic parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, its less tannic and an easier match with food.

The 2022 Bernard Baudry Chinon les Grézeaux from the Loire Valley possesses a bouquet of dark berries followed by a elegant and juicy palate with a long, penetrating finish.