The American Thanksgiving meal is full of tradition yet we have no traditional alcoholic beverage to accompany it. To each his and her own. Many celebrating in the U.S. will naturally decide that such a traditional American meal requires an American-made beverage, whether beer or wine or hard cider.
Meanwhile, here in France, Americans celebrating Thanksgiving typically, even traditionally, enjoy their fresh French turkey with some fine French terroir in their selection of wine—make that wines, plural, since a long meal calls for more than one. So while the information below will especially serve Americans celebrating in France, don’t be afraid to try this back in the homeland or elsewhere abroad on this or any turkey day.
There are a multitude of approaches to turkey, from roasting to smoking to frying, and plenty of stuffing recipes that, when combined, can influence your wine pairing. But on average the range of French pinot noirs, with its great and subtle variety from light to medium to full body, lends itself to roast turkey pairing. Thoughts of pinot noir then leads us primarily to the wines of Burgundy and Champagne (with all due respect to Alsace and to the Loire Valley’s Sancerre and Manetou-Salon).
So I asked the pros promoting the wines of Champagne and Burgundy what they recommended to accompany our traditional American meal.
The Champagne Bureau USA was well-prepared for the question and supplied the following chart:
The Burgundy Wine Bureau (BIVB) put some thought to the question and sent the following suggestions:
As an aperitif, Burgundy’s bubbly, Crémant de Bourgogne, either a blanc de blancs for its lightness and fitness or a blanc de noirs for a more complex opening to your thankful gathering.
For your stuffed turkey with cranberry sauce, something in the order of a Morey-Saint-Denis, a Mercurey, a Savigny-les-Beaune Premier Cru or a Ladoix.
Then, come dessert, to accompany your pumpkin pie or your pecan pie (as long as they aren’t overwhelmingly sweet), a white (chardonnay) Meurault or Marsannay.
So many ways to give thanks.
© 2019, Gary Lee Kraut