Thanksgiving Wine Advice

Thanksgiving is a difficult meal for wine pairing. Too many diverse dishes and too many people with different tastes mean anything you chose will be a compromise. Of course if you’re entertaining a group of wine enthusiasts then you probably should make an effort to bring something interesting to the table. But for the vast majority of casual wine drinkers, the meal is not really going to be about the wine. So don’t become a nervous wreck worrying about which wine to serve. A modest sparkling wine is probably the best choice. Or just open several bottles of ordinary wine and let people drink what they want.

And for heaven’s sake don’t open a special bottle. It will be wasted. The Drunken Cyclist tells the story about the time he brought well-aged  Burgundy to Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn’t pretty. And his advice is spot on:

Don’t get me wrong, wine geeks are still expected to bring wine but no matter what they bring, their relatives will simply assume it’s “good.”

My advice? Don’t be a moron: bring some inexpensive wines since most of it will end up going down the drain. Still, it should be palatable since you are going to have to drink it too (the hiding the good bottle for yourself while serving up plonk to the rest does not work–trust me).

Check out his post for his recommendations about which supermarket wines are worthy.