My Wine Picks For This Thanksgiving

Also an explanation on why Beaujolais Nouveau is a the classic pairing and my alternative choices.

As thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have been tasting a bunch of wines to determine which wines I want to have this year. It was a very fun task, I highly recommend it, just don’t forget to spit your wine out when you taste.

Let me start by sharing a little about Beaujolais Nouveau wines with you, since these are the classic Thanksgiving pairing wines.

Art by Kate

Beaujolais Nouveau is Gamay

Gamay is the main grape in the Beaujolais region in France. Beaujolais Nouveau wines are made solely from the Gamay grape. Have you ever wondered why it is that Beaujolais Nouveau is always recommended to pair with Thanksgiving dinner? Beaujolais Nouveau has a special yearly release date, the 3rd Thursday of November, this timing coincides so well with Thanksgiving in America. The wines that are released have only fermented for a few weeks through a process called carbonic maceration. In short, this makes them less tannic and preserves all the fresh fruit aromas and flavors. These wines are light, juicy and full of red fruit flavors, which pair oh so well with your turkey and cranberry sauce during your holiday meal.

Photo by Kate, a past Thanksgiving meal

So why would I drink something different?

Since I do a pretty traditional meal, I can really only be different with my wine choices. In the last decade I have only served Champagne or a Champagne cocktail and a Beaujolais Nouveau. It was time to get creative.

I tasted a few wines with my test meal and I came out with 4 that I recommend as unique alternatives. Interestingly, I landed on all old world wines, but only one wine has widely known grapes in the blend. The wines are from Portugal, Italy, Spain and France.

Photo by Kate

Broadbent Vinho Verde Rosé

So many people stop drinking rosé wines when the cold front starts. I am here to say that even though marketing and influencers tell you to drink it in warm weather by the pool or beach, they are wrong. I enjoy rosé wines year round and you should too. Anyway, you aren’t here for that, you want to know why I picked this wine for my Thanksgiving day meal.

I have found a lot of American wine drinking friends are not familiar with this region, so I want to give a little overview first. Vinho Verde is a wine region in northern Portugal, the name translates to Green Wine. A typical wine from Vinho Verde usually is high in acidity, full of ripe fruit flavors and there is an effervescence to the wine, a spritz. These days this is usually done by adding CO2 to the bottle but back in the day, the carbonation occurred naturally because winemakers would bottle the wines quickly and the fermentation actually finished in the bottle.

This wine is a beautiful representation of a typical wine from Vinho Verde and a light bodied rosé all in one. This wine is a blend of all red grapes, Borraçal, Espadeiro, Amaral and Vinhão, these are all native Portuguese varieties. I picked this wine because the aromas and flavors went well with my Thanksgiving tasting meal. Aromas and flavors of strawberries, cranberries, orange zest and pomegranate take center stage. I also find these aromas and flavors and the high acidity of the wine pair very well with turkey in general. Then I added my boursin mashed potatoes, gravy and zesty cranberry sauce and found it to be a match made in heaven. The food mellows out the acidity and makes the wine smoother in the mouth and the cranberry sauce brings out the red fruit flavors and really makes them shine.

Photo by Kate

Cantine Barbera 'Tivitti' Inzolia Menfi

The Inzolia grape is an Italian one that I have fallen in love with. This wine specifically has been one I have bought time and again over the past three years since I first tried it. It is a wine I try to always have in my home.

Tivitti pairs best with the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and stuffing. In other words, this is the wine pairing for those coming to dinner that do not love cranberry like I love cranberry. I drench everything in my homemade cranberry sauce, my partner, not so much, he politely puts a tiny bit on the edge of his plate to not insult the hours of baking and cooking I did. This is the wine for him and those coming to dinner like him. The reason it pairs so well is that the grapes are grown close to the Mediterranean coast, giving the wine a lovely saline or brine-like characteristic. These aromas and flavors work hand in hand with the salt and savory meal I made. Plus, the wine has enough acidity and fruit flavors to balance the savory meal and it even adds in creamy characteristics from undergoing malolactic fermentation that work with my creamy boursin mashed potatoes. This wine is a unique and wonderful pairing for my thanksgiving meal, I am glad I tried it.

Art by Kate

Ameztoi Stimatum

This is another wine I buy in multiples and try to have in my house at all times. The grape in this wine is one I had never had before this past winter. It is called Hondarribi Beltza, it is a native grape to the Basque region in Spain. The wine is light in color only seeing 20 days of skin contact. It has an unexpected short lived spritz to the wine, but unlike the Vinho Verde, the carbonation occurs naturally in the tanks which they seal during fermentation to preserve that carbonation. Also unlike the Vinho Verde, the effervescence is very short lived and as you continue to sip the wine it dissipates.

This wine is bursting with fresh flavors of cranberry, red cherry and red plum, full of acidity making my mouth water in just the right way. This wine pairs so well with my meal, the salt in the dishes cut the acidity and smooths out the wine in the mouth and the cranberry sauce lifts the cranberry flavors present in the wine. All in all, this is a wonderful pairing for those that love the meal with or without the cranberry sauce. Bonus for me, it is low in alcohol, meaning I stand a chance at finishing this wine in a couple days.

Photo by Kate

La Goutte du Seigneur Côtes du Rhône

The final wine of the meal is a beautiful 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah from France. I know these are not wines one usually would pick for a thanksgiving meal, but stay with me, I think it was exactly what I needed to round out my meal.

The wine has lovely red and black fruit aromas and tannins that only slightly grip your mouth with lovely dried herb characteristics coming through at the end. All these things pair very well with the meal, but for me, the wine went even better when I added my cranberry sauce to each bite. The salt in the gravy and potatoes mellowed out the tannins in the wine, while at the same time the cranberry sauce lifted all the incredible red and black berry fruit flavors. I found this to be a lovely surprise to round out my wine picks for the day.

Photo by Kate

Surprise, I have a dessert wine pairing also

Pairing a Kopke 10 years old tawny port and my homemade apple crisp and salted caramel vanilla bean ice cream is what sweet dreams are made of. The tawny port is sweet with flavors of caramel, nuts and sweet toffee. It is then elevated to a whole new level when I sip it with my apple crisp and ice cream. The creaminess of the ice cream cuts the sweetness and lets you really taste a whole new level of flavors like candied lemon peel and some lovely acidity shines through when you get a crisp bite of apple.

If I achieved nothing else from writing about these wines other than you trying wines that are new to you and even one of these, then I am totally happy. Enjoy your Thanksgiving if you celebrate!

If you are looking for a fun wine gift this holiday season, I have over 400 designs available on wine chillers. They are massively on sale right now.