Mrs. Rhymer & I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. My sisters are doing their own thing, and my dad with one of them, which means all the people who object to alcohol will be elsewhere. So I’ve got some Scotch my cousin Sam gave me for my last birthday I’ll be opening up, and my wife will have beer, but I think it will be nice to have wine as well.
I don’t drink much, so I could use some wine suggestions. Thoughts?
If you or other people there don’t generally like wine - I’d highly recommend:
Voulet Antichi Giochi Piemontesi Casorzo
It is a very sweet semi sparkling red wine. Virtually everyone I know that doesn’t like cab sav or the like loves this wine. Conversely - those who consider themselves fans of wine generally don’t like it (but some do).
Sometimes it isn’t easy to fine, but the liquor store around the corner started carrying it again after they stopped for a while (I was told they lost their harvest for some portion of time).
yes. By “high end,” I mean avoid cheap champagne and sparkling wines. While there are many reasonably priced red and white wines that are quite good, that is seldom the case for sparkling wines in my experience. I have found a few, but generally this is one product where the more you pay, the better the wine. Few options below $30/bottle are any good at all. For a fancy meal like Thanksgiving, we would usually spend in the $60-80 range. A lot of people who say they “don’t like champagne” have only had crap like Cooks.
Beaujolais Nouveau, served lightly chilled, is a good Thanksgiving wine. It’s often rather mild and light-bodied, pairs well with Thanksgiving food, and has a kind of niche appeal due to its limited availability.
I’ll be having nice bottles in the $60-$80 range for Thanksgiving, and I agree that most people who say they don’t like Champagne/sparkling have only had crap, but I gotta disagree about $30/bottle being the entry point for drinkable sparkling (maybe for drinkable Champagne).
I’ve had plenty of drinkable sparklings for as low as $10/bottle. Domaine Ste Michelle can be had for $10-$13/bottle and is a decent, drinkable sparking for a great price. If you get into the $18-$22ish range, you can get Chandon, Gruet, Roederer Estate, and Mumm Napa. There’s many more as well. Are they as good as a high-end Champagne? Hell no. Are they plenty drinkable and enjoyable? Yup.
Other than that, for Thanksgiving, if it’s not sparkling, I go with an off-dry white. Vouvray, Riesling, a dry Gewurztraminer. Alsatian, if you can get it. If you neeeeed red, go for lighter, fruitier reds. This is the one meal I’d recommend Beaujolais for, unless you can find a decently-priced fruity-style Pinot Noir.
But really, just go with the sparkling. You should always just go with the sparkling.
I’m a cheap champagne guy. $5/bottle should be good. For Thanksgiving, something in the middle of the dry-sweet spectrum is best. A little acid to cleanse the palate, but not so much that it takes over. If you want, bring out the good stuff before or after dinner, but nobody I know stops to savor expensive wine during the feast itself. (You already have scotch for that anyway).
My wife likes sweeter wines, even with dinner, so Riesling or Muscato would be more her speed.
Frankly, we really like sparkling apple cider too… it’s not just for the kids at our house. This is what we’ll actually be drinking.
Red wines seem out of place with Thanksgiving to me.