What pairs with holiday meal? It’s complicated
The first to thing to remember about pairing wines for your traditional Thanksgiving Day feast is to immediately forget about trying to pair wines for your traditional Thanksgiving Day feast. Well, that’s unless you plan on offering, say, six or seven different varietals, which is what would be required to properly match wines with the myriad flavors that are going to be on the table.
And you know you’re not going to go to that much trouble for your extended family members of all ages and polyglot mix of friends unless you plan to serve a fancy-pants nontraditional meal, in which all the normal pairing “rules” apply.
But there are certain grapes — and a particular color of wine, which is to say pink — that stand up better than others, handling the heavy lifting necessary for the turkey-dressing-andcranberry-sauce drill. My favorite go-to among the whites is sauvignon blanc because I think it works at a visceral level with turkey and, more important, my wife thinks it works with everything. For a red, I default to grenache or grenache blends because that’s my daily go-to grape, and I think it handles a greater variety of flavors than pretty much everything else.
Pinot noir, of course, is considered the classic Thanksgiving red with zinfandel a close second because of the former’s earthiness and the latter’s combination of power and versatility, which makes it compatible with both the sweet and savory elements of the meal.
For dessert, assuming pumpkin or pecan pie will be on the table, port of all stripes is a no-brainer, but I wouldn’t hesitate to experiment with madeira, either, because of its special place in the history of American quaffing. That’s mostly what the Founding Fathers drank — and toasted each other with — when they were crafting those important documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. (The British had a stranglehold on wines leaving from Europe’s Atlantic harbors and nonfortified juice almost always spoiled even with an unfettered passage to the New World.)
But, again, it’s not a day for over-thinking the wine stuff. Stay in your comfort zone. If you can’t stray from your favorite chardonnay or cabernet, that’s OK. There’s no need to add to stress that’s already inherent in the unavoidable alcohol-fueled political arguments and the giant stack of dirty dishes.
What follows are a mix of Turkey Day-compatible wines that unanimously passed muster with the Chronicle’s tasting panel this year. If you can’t find them on the shelf, don’t hesitate to try a newer vintage because the producers selected can be counted on to keep their styles and standards consistent from one year to the next.
Little James Basket Press Rouge NV
Overall score: 18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Big jammy nose with a tannic finish. A fun quaff. Rustic and simple. Tasty fruit flavors.” A negociant wine that’s 100 percent grenache, it’s a blend of fermented vintages going back as far as 1999 that ages in concrete tanks. Alcohol: 13.5 percent. Price: $9.95 at Spec’s.
2015 Seven Deadly Zins Old Vine Zinfandel
Overall score: 18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Lovely flavors of spices and cloves. Vanilla on the finish. Ripe and delicious. Black fruit, silky-smooth tannins.” The fruit is from the zinfandel-friendly Lodi area. The wine spent 11 months in American oak. Alcohol: 15 percent. Price: $10.97 at Spec’s.
2017 Groth Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley
Overall score: 18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Well-balanced. Toasty and creamy notes to go with the acidity.” Winemaker Cameron Parry whole-cluster pressed the sauvignon blanc (81 percent) and the semillon together, then cofermented them before a long, cool fermentation in neutral oak barrels. Alcohol: 13.8 percent. Price: $16.97 at Spec’s.
2015 Domaine de Mourchon Tradition
Overall score: 18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Yummy raspberries. Finishes long. Spicy and peppery.” It’s a blend of grenache (65 percent), syrah (25) and carignan (10) from Seguret, just north of Gigondas, in France’s Southern Rhone Valley. Alcohol: 14 percent. Price: $18.49 at Spec’s.
2014 Loveblock Pinot Noir
Overall score: 18.9 (8.9 for quality, 10 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Old World. Cherries and strawberries. Herbal notes. Muted fruit, elegant. Classic style.” Erika Crawford, the South African-born wife of famed New Zealand winemaker Kim Crawford, is the driving force behind the Marlborough winery. Alcohol: 13.5 percent. Price: $21.84 at Spec’s.
2014 Parmeson Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Wildcat Mountain Vineyard
Overall score: 18.5 (9 for quality, 9.5 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Raspberries, orange peel. Layers of flavor. Nuanced red fruit and herbal notes. Excellent minerality.” From Houstonian Tom Parmeson, a Texas A&M University-educated engineer turned winemaker, it’s 100 percent noir. Alcohol: 14.2 percent. Price: $41.96 at Village Liquor (also available through Houston Wine Merchant).
2015 Goldeneye Pinot Noir Anderson Valley
Overall score: 18 (9 for quality, 9 for value). Our tasters’ takes: “Fruity aromas, floral, herbal and earthy. Spicy. Lots of red fruit.” The grapes came from Goldeneye’s estate vineyards in the warmer part of the valley as well as fruit sourced from the cooler deep end. Wine Enthusiast awarded a score of 91. Alcohol: 14.5 percent. Price: $49.79 at Spec’s.