Choosing the Best Wines for Thanksgiving and Native Day Meals
Welcome to the autumn season of delicious gatherings! Thanksgiving and Native Day meals can be the ultimate blend of joy, nostalgia, and the occasional “Why is Uncle Bob talking about aliens again?” These special holidays call for wines that not only taste amazing but bring a sense of harmony and cheer to the table. A great wine can be the perfect conversation starter or the soothing balm when you’ve heard one too many political debates from across the turkey. The ideal wines can help friends and family gather and share stories on common ground.
As a Sommelier, my mission is to help you find wines that enhance the flavors of your holiday feast, making every bite and sip an experience to savor. So, let’s take a playful journey through the wines that will pair beautifully with all the complex flavors, from smoked turkey, cedar planked salmon, Bison pot roast with hominy, glazed hams, wild rice, vindaloo, piccata to pumpkin anything, cranberry anything AND - your traditional dishes. Your banquet calls for a variety of wine styles or wines that pair across a spectrum of foods and preferences.
Thus, I am delighted to share my 2024 best wines that pair beautifully with Thanksgiving and Native Day meals. All of these wines are available for pre-order purchase with delivery happening during the third week of November, directly from C'EST WHAT Wines
Sparkling Options
Nothing says “holiday celebration” like the pop of sparkling wine. Start off with two options that cover a range from simply delightful to rich, complex, and elegant.
Faire La Fete (have a party!) Crémant de Limoux might still be one of the least appreciated wine categories in France. Limoux, which is in Southern France not far from the Spanish Border, has been making sparkling wine since 1531, when Benedictine monks in a nearby abbey wrote down the first known recipe for bubbly. In fact, Dom Perignon picks up a few tricks in from Limoux.
Faire La Fete is remarkably well-balanced, smooth, and fresh. Made from 65% Chardonnay, 20% Chenin Blanc, and 15% Pinot Noir, the wine is pressed from whole clusters. It’s then aged in neutral barrels and finally conditioned for 15 months en tirage, with the traditional method allowing the mousse to fully develop in the bottle. Lively and full-bodied, as it reaches the mouth, it releases a taste of toasted brioche, fresh raspberries, crisp pears with a hint of honeysuckle. This is a perfectly reasonable way to start your gathering. https://fairelafetewines.com/
For an even more special celebration, Henri Goutorbe 2015 Grand Cru Millesime Champagne is a world-class wine made in the town of Ay, in the heart of Champagne, France with 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay. Bright golden yellow, silver reflections, delicate mousse. Hints of butter cookie with white flowers in the background, fresh mango and pear notes, delicately nutty. Juicy, elegant, white apple fruit, fresh structure, mineral-lemon, raspberry, salty touch, good persistence, a multi-faceted food companion. https://www.champagne-henri-goutorbe.com/en/
White Wine Options
I love white wines that are aromatic, well-balanced and soothing in ways that elevate the overall culinary experience from layers of intriguing flavors.
Domino IV Still Life 2022 Viognier is my favorite go-with-everything white wine for holidays and if you love aromatic wines, then you will love the Viognier. Viognier grapes are classically grown in Northern Rhone, but Oregon is producing fabulous and unique versions, and Dominio IV has created a medium- body Viognier with flavor notes of fresh peaches, white flowers, nectarines, lemon meringue,and orange zest. Your Viognier will pair well with the classics: sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole, shepherds-pie, bread pudding, and just the crispy garden salad a la your recipe. https://www.dominiowines.com/
As we enter into pairing for richer dishes, I LOVE Milton Opua Chardonnay from Gisborn, New Zealand on the North Island. The Opua is an is a perfectly balanced wine with a golden glow. You will enjoy floral aromas of orange and white blossom together with honeyed notes and nutty acorns, white peach, apple, quince, and spice. Fresh yet slightly butter-soft with balanced complexity. Some flinty minerality and subtle oak as well. Milton is certified organic and biodynamic.
Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand, offers bright acidity and classic flavor notes of passion fruit, guava, kiwi, gooseberries, fresh-cut grass, and citrus flavors that complement creamy textures and fattier foods. This wine awakens your senses and pairs well with fattier foods, especially those rich casserole and potato dishes but also seafood dishes for non-meat eaters. https://spyvalleywine.co.nz/
For Red wines, I recommend providing options that cover the range of intensity, body and tannins that red wines offer making them great collaborators with roasted meats and rich sauces, especially if there are Autumn mushrooms or chestnuts on the table.
Stoller’s Estate Helen’s 2019 Pinot.
Pinot Noir from Oregon is a classic choice for holiday means, especially in Oregon. With hundreds of Pinots from which to choose, I love the delicate and ethereal notes from Stoller’s Estate Helen’s 2019 Pinot. You will enjoy the elegant nose of heady floral, baking spice, and red fruit, which gives way to secondary notes of earth and black raspberry. The palate is layered and vibrant, which carries red fruit flavors and a ferrous minerality through a long finish. Earthy undertones that perfectly match the turkey’s savory, herb-stuffed meat, light tannin, and subtle oak will not overwhelm the bird, but they’ll enhance every bite. Helen’s Pinot is made primarily from the Wädenswil clone of Pinot Noir. https://www.stollerfamilyestate.com/
Le Pich Cab
Some folks like their wines BIG - bold, full bodied and complex. Julien Fayard’s Le Pich delivers the power, the finesse, the outright gratification that you expect from a Cabernet twice the price. Fayard’s winemaking philosophy follows the lessons he learned during his time working at Château Lafite-Rothschild and Château Smith Haut Lafitte: attention and restraint. The aromas are an olfactory festival with vibrant and dark red and blue fruit accented with violets, lilacs, and hints of cocoa and graphite. The palate is lush, with plenty of boysenberry, graphite, and fresh spice carried on well-structured tannins. A plush and expressive Cabernet showing varietal purity, richness, and elegance. This is a main course wine, unless of course you pair with chocolate cake! https://www.lepichwines.com/
Dominio IV Imagination Blend
When you land on the property at Domino IV you realize you are on a farm - like the kind that grow things. Since the 1840’s this old farm has seen its soils grow apples and pears, then change to Italian plums and walnuts, and again change to cherries and hazelnuts. These days you can still find them all growing in small groves alongside the humble and mysterious grapevine. What we see on the surface hides the complexities that they deliver to your glass. Winemaker Patrick Reuter has brought together two fabulous grapes that are atypical of Oregon - Rhone Syrah and Spanish Tempranillo ro create their Spellbound wine in the Imagination Series. The result is a wine showing notes of raspberry jam, plum, fresh herbs and baking spices, moderate tannins, medium body and velvety soft, plush texture that truly dazzles on this fresh, fruit-filled, imaginative masterpiece. https://www.dominiowines.com/
Feudo Montoni Perricone Northern Sicily is home to beautifully complex and dark grapes that offer rich flavor tiers without huge tannins. Feudo Montoni is a truly an artisan winery everything moves in the direction of listening to Nature . She commands. A stern and good Mother, she always creates perfect conditions of balance that only if supported and followed can be the prelude to great products. In the vineyard, the ancient operations have been repeated for centuries by hand, in the same way. In the cellar, the wines are touched as little as possible, trying to exploit the forces of Nature. Fully organic. Ruby red color with light purple reflections. Notes of plum, blueberries and black pepper mixed with strong aromas of cocoa and licorice. Fresh, soft and round on the palate with tannins typical of the grape variety, well-smoothed and long-lasting. This is wine to drink slowly and enable the magic of Sicily to be revealed. https://www.feudomontoni.it/vini/en/
I am thrilled to share my 2024 best picks wines that pair beautifully with Thanksgiving and Native Day meals. Any and all of these wines plus a few more are perfect for the upcoming holiday feasts. You can purchase them directly at C'EST WHAT Wines Available for pre-order purchase with delivery happening during the third week of November.
Remember, the right wine makes every story a little sweeter. C'EST WHAT? Wines
Cheers!
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