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+--- Thread: Planning ahead: Wine for Thanksgiving Dinner (/thread-1339.html)
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- Garbo - 10-10-2000
OK, what's everybody serving? I'm talkin the traditional Americana, all the fixins feast -- roast & smoked turkeys, giblet & sage gravies, spiced cran sauce, taters, veggies, pie, pie pie, pumpkin cheesecake, etc. It's a big crowd, so nothing too rare or crazy expensive...
- Innkeeper - 10-10-2000
Well this is the subject that got moi to the Wine Board last Novemeber. The late Jerry Mead knew of my view from previous correspondence, and e-mailed me that someone called Scoop was out on a limb by himself on someplace called the Wine Board. So I logged on and found that Scoop was the only one pulling for Zinfandel, Red Zinfandel. Couldn't agree more.
The reasoning behind Zinfandel is twofold and at least twenty years old. First, traditional Thanksgiving dinner has a whole host of divergent and strong flavors. Therefore, you need a wine with enough acid and other pizazz to cut through all that. A big Zin can do that. The second reason is that Thanksgiving is an All American holiday. Albeit that Canada celebrates a Thanksgiving on Columbus Day. Anywho, Zinfandel, the wine that definitely came from somewhere in Europe, most probably from one side or other of the Adriatic Sea, is only produced in America. So, that kind of makes it an All American wine.
We signed on to this logic the aformentioned twenty years ago, and haven't budged since. This year we are popping 1997 Steele, Mendocino, DuPratt Vineyard, Zinfandel. Amazingly we got it locally. After a wine tasting last summer, chatting with the guy in charge revealed that this baby was available in state. So we special ordered it. When we went to pick it up, it hadn't arrived yet. The wine shop owner assured us it was on the way so we waited. Soon the Budweiser beer truck pulled up, and your typical Maine beer truck driver jumped out with our Steele Zin. Oh yes, did I mention that in Maine the beer distributors distribute the wine?
For others in your party, who might want to keep the outer layer of enamel on their teeth, you might want to get one of the better white zinfandels. Buehler is one that has been consistently good over the years.
[This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 10-10-2000).]
- hotwine - 10-10-2000
With all due respect to IK's impeccable taste and logic, our traditional choice for Thanksgiving dinner, with its smoked or roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, etc, is a German Riesling. We prefer a Mosel, usually a Spatlese, from the Bernkastel area. At $8-$10 per bottle (and less with a case discount) it won't break the bank, even if serving a large gathering.
- winoweenie - 10-10-2000
Don`t think I really need to post this bbbbUT I naturally side whole-berrily ` wif the IK Man. Will also open a jar or so of Neauveau. WW
- Bucko - 10-10-2000
Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer for our table......
Bucko
- mrdutton - 10-10-2000
Most likely Zin and Beaujolais for our table.
Were it to be a white, family tradition would dictate a Pouilly-Foussie (spelling is lacking here, but you know what I mean). GRIN
- Botafogo - 10-10-2000
WINE EXPO’s last word on what to serve with the bird:
What to do when twenty or so of your nearest and dearest, their appetites enraged by the waft of Grandmother's secret stuffing recipe coming from the kitchen, are eyeballing all those great wines you've squirreled away for the future (or at least to be appreciated by your knowing friends)? No occasion lends itself to our selection of great food-friendly, crowd-pleasing, popularly priced quaffers than Thanksgiving. We've gone out of our way to find some truly phenomenal wines at incredible prices that are perfect matches with the traditionals and all the trimmings. First, a few basics about the tactics in selecting wines for what is probably the largest and most diverse meal any of us eat in any given year. The main attraction, Thom Gobbler, is content with almost any wine. From lighter whites to hearty reds, just about any well-made wine (or rich ale!) is delicious with roast turkey, a classic no-brainer. The slippery slope begins with the supporting cast, specifically cranberry sauce (sweet and bitter, one of the few foods with more tannin than a Howell Mt. Cab) and the aforementioned Granny's secret stuffing (full of culinary depth charges like cumin, sage, coriander, thyme, raisins, nuts, oysters if you're from the south, and usually a fair bit of salt). These flavors often tend to accentuate the astringency in oaky Chards and make tannic Cabernet / Merlot based wines taste metallic. And, let's face it, many of your guests are just not ready to get their teeth stained with the newest 99 point MonsterCab while you point out that the wine will be great in another forty or fifty years! Through extensive research using the excellent roast chicken with all the trimmings from Marmalade on Montana as a control we have discovered that the best choices include lighter, fruitier whites based on Riesling, Tocai, Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon in its less herbal renditions and reds with lots of fruit, some spice but no tannin, typically Gamay, lighter Chiantis, Teroldego, Bardolino Novello and the fruitier side of the Pinot spectrum.
Having said all that, our #1 pick and largest seller every year is a Novello style Teroldego from Trentino that is not only fresh and fruity like Nouveau (but half the price) but is an amazing BBQ wine the following summer.
- jock - 10-10-2000
Zin has certainly been the trendy wine for turkey for the past couple of decades. I take exception. Best bets are Tokay from Alsace or Gruner Veltliner from Austria. These ain't no SWs either. Great depth and complexity. Like any wine, white or red, you need to get the good ones.
I always thought the object with pairing wine and food is to compliment each other not to overpower the food with the wine. Most reds will simply overpower traditional Turkey and fixin's. As Botafogo reminds, you also have to take into consideration all the fixins and accompanyments. The richness of Tokay and GV along with, dare I say, a bit of RS or at least the appearance of sweetness will go best as long as there is enough acidity to keep the wine from cloying.
Ham is a different story. Zin is a good candidate here although I think it best to avoid the superripe, jammy, high alcohol types and go for the medium-bodied types. In other words, Dry Creek instead of Amador.
- Thomas - 10-11-2000
I swore I would stay out of this one this year--but a sucker for an argument am I!
Bucko and I were on the same train last year and we have not got off. Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel are my choices for turkey--with a dry but fruity Riesling also in the running, maybe somewhere between the G and the PN.
Having said that, I neither care for turkey nor for most of the so-called traditional fixins'. On Thanksgiving I am truly out of step. I cook osso buco or rack of lamb or saltimbocca or shoe leather--anything but turkey.
And just to tickle Roberto's purist button: since turkey is an American bird, why would you want Italian wine with it? Perhaps scuppernong would do nicely, or catawba... .
- Bucko - 10-11-2000
You know Roberto -- he's the guy with a little blood in his Italian winestream..... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]
Bucko
- Botafogo - 10-11-2000
>>And just to tickle Roberto's purist button: since turkey is an American bird, why would you want Italian wine with it?<<
Thanks for the nice easy lob! In short, because the Italians make wines DESIGNED to heighten the enjoyment of large meals instead of adding to your heartburn with uber extract and high alcohols. Also, we have arrived at this recommendation after over fifteen years of exhaustive research (unlike some of you, I LOVE Turkey, dark meat at least, and all the trimmings and there is a great deli here where you can get the works year round so we've tried everything.) and the Novello we feature is hugely flavorful, low in tannins, not too alcoholic and even Grandma likes it. The fact that it ages well (for six to ten months to serve a t BBQ the next summer) is icing on the cake. AND, it's $5.99!!!!!
Next serve, Roberto
- mrdutton - 10-11-2000
Who cares about service? We're talking about meals at home.
I did say zin or beaujolais, what I failed to say is NO DAMN TURKEY.
I might do some properly aged Virginia (read Surry) ham. Most likely though it will be something roasted or something grilled like boar or venison or both or maybe even a big chunk of dry aged porterhouse.........
- Garbo - 10-11-2000
I suspected that I might get an answer... Am I the only one who's hungry now? And thirsty?
- winoweenie - 10-11-2000
Heck Fire No Garbo, you don`t be the onliest one a-starvin`. When will the vittles be reedy? winoweenie
- hotwine - 10-11-2000
It's interesting that both Foodie & MrD shun turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Wonder how widespread that is? Thanksgiving is the only time we prepare a fresh turkey (although some of the leftovers will still be around into the new year), so we tend to stay the course with tradition, then serve something like a nice ham or crown roast for Christmas.
(Here I am talking about ham and turkey, and we just laid down a fresh side of beef in the freezer. It's almost unpatriotic....EAT MORE BEEF!)
- mrdutton - 10-11-2000
I've been blowing off turkey on Thanksgiving for years. There are so many other wonderful examples of American cuisine that can be used to celebrate, why just stick to the ordinary, IMHO.?.
Heck, a plate full of oysters is just as good a presentation for Thanksgiving as anything else. Besides: wild boar, venison, or bison....................... now you tell me which is more American that those?
I like turkey. I eat it all year long. Sliced, diced, smoked or otherwise cooked somehow. For Thanksgiving, I want something other than that bird...............
- Innkeeper - 10-12-2000
To quote a certain Ukrainian milkman named Tevye, "TRADITION!"
- winoweenie - 10-12-2000
IK, Does he play on the Seniors` Golf Tour? winoweenie
- Thomas - 10-12-2000
IK, I don't suppose you remember what happened to Tevye's tradition!
Anyway, has nothing to do with tradition, or going against same: I simply am not enamored with turkey, unless it is wild meat, which is about as easy to hunt as truffles. But when forced to eat the Butterball, et al, I go for the neck and legs only. I can spend a day gnawing at the bones--guess which wine goes with turkey bones.
I like Dutton's choices;American and flavorful.
- Drew - 10-12-2000
I believe he does play on the Senior Tour, WW,..... thats his udder job! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]
Drew