TRB's Foolproof Thanksgiving Wine Guide
Are you Reluctant to decide which wines to serve on Turkey Day? The Reluctant Bartender is here to help.
Folks, let’s talk turkey.
The phrase literally means “let’s talk honestly and openly.” And if we’re being open and honest, the item on your Thanksgiving Day Menu that you put the least amount of thought into is the wine.
Right?
You have the entire menu planned out. You’ve already procured your turkey, know which sides you’re making, and know what dishes the guests are bringing. But the wine? Oh, just plop down a bottle and be done with it.
If you’re a guest invited to dinner, you may be thinking about bringing a bottle. Maybe you’ve asked The Google and were served up one of a million different sites with recommendations that look suspiciously similar.
Whether host or guest, when it comes time to procure your Thanksgiving wine, the small sliver of confidence provided by that cursory Google search fades like winter twilight when you’re faced with an endless row of bottles mocking your Turkey Day purchasing efforts. The labels stare into the depths of your soul in recognition that you have no idea what to buy! You’ve been exposed as a wine fraud and shall be promptly dispatched to the light beer aisle with a sneer!
[Editor’s note: dial it back a little, Ferguson—you’re going off the deep end.]
Whatever, dude.
Regardless! The Reluctant Bartender’s Thanksgiving Wine Buying Guide is here to help. Thanksgiving is a holiday that lasts all day and has distinct phases. Unlike, say, Christmas Day—which is mainly focused on the activities of the morning—Thanksgiving starts early and ends late. We’ve broken Thanksgiving Day into four essential phases with corresponding wine recommendations, each with a spectrum of pricing options.
Your friends here at The Reluctant Bartender will never cast you asunder in the wine aisle of your local liquor mega-mart, abandoning you with enough questions to stuff a thousand turkeys! Alas, no!
[Editor: you’re doing it again…]
Ahem…as I was saying.
Our goal is to arm you with enough info to put quality wines on your table this Thanksgiving—wines that will enhance your day, from breakfast through to dinner and dessert.
A Few Quick Notes
Recommending specific wines and vintages can be difficult due to regional variations in availability. We tried to select wines that should be available at any decent liquor/wine/beer store, but there is no guarantee. Knowing this, we have made multiple recommendations for each category in the hope that at least one will be available. If, for some reason, none of the recommended bottles are available, don’t hesitate to ask for help. A reputable wine merchant should be able to point you to something similar in your price range.
Make sure you’re going to a decent liquor store. The package store or 7-11 down the street probably won’t meet your needs, even if it appears that they have a lot of wine. Go the extra ten minutes out of your way to a store with a better selection.
Finally, while we have provided links to Total Wine in the sections below, these are for reference only. You can order from Total Wine, but we are not affiliated with them and receive no compensation should you choose to do so.
Estimated pricing will vary; prices at your local store will almost certainly differ, but hopefully, these are decent ballpark estimates.
Pitter-patter, let’s get at ‘er.
Thanksgiving Morning
Turn on the parade, fire up the holiday tunes, and put breakfast on the table! What wines go best with breakfast? Bubbles, baby. Mimosas and other bubbly cocktails are a great choice for Thanksgiving morning, and sparkling wines are festive, tasty, and relatively low in alcohol.
TRB recommends Prosecco for Mimosas and other bubbly morning drinks. Sure, you can fancy-up the proceedings with Champagne, but since we’re mixing these wines with ingredients like orange juice, we may as well choose something less expensive.
Prosecco is Italy’s answer to Champagne and is made in large quantities in steel tanks to keep the cost low (this method is literally called the tank method). By comparison, the bubbles in Champagne are created in the bottle via a more time-consuming and expensive process. Prosecco is the perfect sparkling wine mixer—inexpensive, readily available, and not so fancy that you’ll feel guilty about mixing it.
Prosecco Recommendations
La Marca Prosecco, est. $19
La Luca Prosecco, est. $13
While both La Marca and La Luca are good choices, we prefer La Marca if the price is close, but we’ll happily reach for La Luca if it’s significantly less expensive, especially when buying multiple bottles.
Alternatives
Cava is a good alternate choice if you can’t find Prosecco. A decent entry-level Cava is Dibon Brut, which cost us $14 locally (the linked Total Wine price of $9 a bottle is a good deal if you can find it). If you opt for a Cava, aim for an entry-level bottle that is relatively young and unaged.
Remember, at this price point, these wines aren’t sippers but rather mixers. However, if you want to sip on any of these, feel free! These aren’t life-changing sparkling wines, but they’re all fine for sipping while enjoying pancakes and bacon on Thanksgiving morning.
Avoid: Champagne (due to the cost) and sparking Rosés (better for drinking by themselves rather than mixing.)
Thanksgiving Afternoon: Football Games and Holiday Movies
Breakfast has been cleared, and now it’s time for the grand holiday tradition of Thanksgiving football. Or maybe you're not a fan of The Sportsball and prefer to watch a holiday movie. Either way, Thanksgiving afternoon is prime wine-consumption time! We want something light, relatively low in alcohol, but with a celebratory kick.
It’s getting cold outside, so we’ll avoid the light and sunny porch-pounders of summer and focus on wines to make your Thanksgiving afternoon festive.
Afternoon Sparkling Wines
As we move into the afternoon, we’re moving away from the sparkling mixers used for breakfast. These are the sippers. Serve cold in a champagne flute or coupe.
Iron Horse Classic Vintage Brut, 2019, est. $56
A little pricey, but worth it. There’s loads of character in this wine, and it’s guaranteed to enhance a Lions game—or the 35th time you’ve seen Elf. Iron Horse is one of our favorite wineries in California, and we’re always happy to recommend their wines.
Iron Horse Wedding Cuvee, est. $30
Despite the name, this is not just for weddings, folks. A great value at $30.
Roederer Estate Brut, est. $30
Another great sparking wine from a well-known California producer.
Chandon Rose´ California Sparkling Wine, est. $22
Perhaps switch things up a little with this sparkling Rose´ from Napa Valley. If you prefer the non-Rose´ version, you can save yourself a coupla bucks and go with the Chandon Brut Sparkling Wine for $19.
Still Wines for the Afternoon
We covered the bubbles, but if your preference is for still wines—or maybe you’d like to offer both—here are some suggestions.
Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau, 2024, est. $16
Don’t let the French name scare you! This is a fun, easy drinker. As is the tradition with French wines, Beaujolais is named after the location where it is produced. “Nouveau” indicates that the wine is new or young. These young wines are released on the third Thursday of November each year. Beaujolais Nouveau can be enjoyed without food—perfect for a Thanksgiving afternoon when you’re not having a big lunch—yet they pair well with mid-afternoon snacks. We particularly enjoyed this wine and found the aromas of sour cherries and pear drop candy to be fun. (Tasting note: Pear drops are British candy that tastes like, well, ripe pears and is a signature aroma found in Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Buy and bag and enjoy.)
La Vielle Ferme, Rose´, est. $11
A light, tasty rose´ wine from the Rhone Valley, France. This wine has bright acidity balanced with fruit that reminds us of white peach and perhaps a little strawberry. This is not a sweet wine, but it has a nice, fruity punch. A great value at $11, but if you can find it for the Total Wine price of of $6.99—well, that’s a steal. We really enjoyed this one.
Francis Coppola, Diamond Collection, Rose´ of Pinot Noir, 2022, est. $15
This rose´ has more body but is still a light drinker, accented with red fruits and a touch of blood orange. (Link to Coppola wines for reference. Coppola wines are distributed widely so you should be able to find this rose´ without too much difficulty.)
Michelle’s Idea: To kick off the day's celebration, greet your guests with a welcome pour as they arrive. Any of these wines, including the still and sparkling recommended here, can be used as Welcome Wines!
Dinner!
It’s dinnertime, and hopefully, you aren’t too sloshed. The turkey is ready to be carved, the taters are on the table, and it’s time to sit down for Thanksgiving Dinner.
Someone pass me the cranberry sauce…
Here are some wines to pair with traditional Thanksgiving menus that include turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is a great choice for Thanksgiving. It is an earthy, medium-bodied wine with notes of cherry and cranberry. Pinot Noirs feature moderate levels of acidity and relatively lower amounts of tannins (compared to a Cabernet Sauvignon, for example.) This makes them a good choice to pair with lean meats like turkey, which do not have the fat content of beef.
Have you ever wondered why cranberry sauce is so good with Thanksgiving dinner? The answer lies in the bright acidity of the cranberries which cuts through the buttery mashed potatoes, the delicious gravy, and the creamy green bean casserole your aunt brought.
Pinot Noir acts in much the same way. The wine's acids clear your palate to make way for more taters and turkey, and the flavors of Pinot complement a traditional Thanksgiving menu.
Below is a range of recommended Pinots to fit any budget. We would be happy to have any of these wines on our table at Thanksgiving:
Joseph Phelps Freestone Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, CA, est. $67
Bouchaine Pinot Noir, Carneros, CA, est. $34
Decoy Pinot Noir, Andersen Valley, CA, est. $19
Beaujolais
Earlier, we recommended a Beaujolais Nouveau as a mid-afternoon easy drinker, but other Beaujolais wines pair wonderfully with food. Beaujolais wines are graded into three tiers: Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, and Beaujolais Cru.
Wines labeled Beaujolais can come from anywhere in the region. Beaujolais-Villages wines must come from one of the specific villages in the region. Beaujolais Cru wines must come from one of the ten Crus-designated areas of Beaujolais. The Crus are the premier growing regions of Beaujolais, with the best soils, sunlight, and drainage, producing the best possible grapes.
While sampling Beaujolais wines for this newsletter, we came across two good ones, a Beaujolais-Villages and a Cru from Brouilly.
Both of these wines are delicious and will go great with Thanksgiving dinner. Of all the wines listed here, these two may be the most difficult to find at your local wine store. But don’t worry, the French have you covered—their wine classification system means it’s easy to find a quality wine from the region.
When comparing the two wines above, we preferred Bonne Neige, the more prestigious Cru-level wine, and would gladly pay the extra dollar per bottle for the Cru wine versus the Villages wine. If pricing at your local store is similar, grab the Cru version.
Chardonnay
Thanksgiving is an opportunity to have both red and white wines on the table. While many white wines go well with a traditional Thanksgiving menu, we feel Chardonnay is a great choice and has a range of pricing options to suit different budgets.
Chardonnay is a versatile grape that can be made in both still and sparkling styles (for example, Blanc de Blanc Champagnes are made from Chardonnay grapes). Chardonnay wines may be aged in different varieties of oak or produced in an “un-oaked” style that utilizes stainless steel tanks instead of wood barrels.
Chardonnay wines that have been aged in a large proportion of new American oak barrels can often take on a buttery flavor that we do not appreciate here at The Reluctant Bartender. We prefer our Chardonnays to be lean and less oaky. A touch of oak is always welcome; movie theater popcorn flavors are not.
Of course, this is just our opinion, and if you happen to like your Chardonnays on the buttery side of the continuum, we will not stand in your way. There are many buttery Chards out there, and lots of them say so right on the label. Un-oaked versions are available too, though there will not be as wide of a selection available.
The following Chardonnays will go great with your Thanksgiving dinner; we have tried them all multiple times, and we can guarantee that none of your guests will go home gossiping about the buttery cougar juice you served with the turkey.
Rochioli Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, CA, 2023, est. $69
Gary Farrell Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, CA, 2019, est. $44
Trefethen Chardonnay, Oak Knoll, CA, est. $32
Decoy Chardonnay, Sonoma County, CA, est. $19
What About Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Pairings?
For those who may be replacing or otherwise supplementing the traditional Thanksgiving menu, how does this impact the wine selection?
Great question!
If your menu includes a pork roast or similar dish, the wines above should work well. Pork has more fat than turkey, but it’s not as rich as many beef dishes. However, if you’re smoking ribs for Thanksgiving, then I have to ask: where is my invite? If you are smoking ribs or a brisket, go grab yourself a Seghesio Zinfandel from Sonoma, and enjoy that wine pairing.
If you’re serving a beef tenderloin or similar beef dish, you’ll want a bigger wine like a Merlot or Cabernet. Any wine store can make decent Cab recommendations, so let’s take a look at some Merlots instead:
Trefethen Merlot, Oak Knoll, CA, 2021, est. $50
Rodney Strong Merlot, Sonoma County, CA, est. $19
Decoy Merlot, California, est. $19
Thanksgiving Evening
Dinner may be finished, but the day is far from over. There is more football, more movies to be watched, and more discussions to be had—just make sure to avoid all mentions of politics, okay?
Bellies are full, but the desserts are set out for perusal, and yes, there’s plenty of opportunity for interesting wine pairings here at the sweeter end of the day.
It’s difficult to anticipate what may be on the table for dessert, so we’ll choose three common examples and offer possible pairings. There is one thing to keep in mind when pairing wine with sweets: the wine should be as sweet as, or sweeter than the food. In other words, a bone-dry, tannic red is probably not going to pair well with sweets, no matter how many times high-end chocolate companies insist otherwise.
Got it?
Coolio.
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is sweet and velvety but also spicy and earthy. To complement the spice notes, try a Tawny Port.
Fonseca 20 Year Tawny Porto, Portugal, est. $65
Graham’s 10 Year Tawny Port, Portugal, est. $38
Apple Pie
While the Tawny port above may pair fine with apple pie, the bright flavor of tart baked apples would be better suited with a dessert wine made from white grapes. One of our favorites is a French dessert wine called Sauternes.
Chateau D'Yquem Sauternes, 2021 (375ml), Bordeaux, France, est. $225
Chateau Doisy Daene Sauternes, 2021 (375ml), Bordeaux, France, est. $38
Ch Bastor-Lamontagne Sauternes, 2011, (375ml), Bordeaux, FR, est. $29
Anything Chocolate
For those serving chocolate cream pie, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, etc. a great choice is a sweet Sherry called Pedro Ximenez (one of our all-time favorite dessert wine styles.)
Alvear Pedro Ximenez Solera 1927 Sherry, Spain, est. $35
Mil Pesetas Pedro Ximenez, Spain, est. $18
Parting Thoughts
The sparkling and white wines should be served chilled. The reds can mostly be served at room temperature or slightly below (just don’t serve them warm). One exception: the Beaujolais Nouveau. This is a lighter red that is best served chilled. Stick it in the ‘fridge for 45 minutes and let it cool off a bit.
Good wine glasses go a long way toward enjoying wine. Really, it’s true! You don’t have to buy those exact glasses we linked—there are lots of economical options—but our advice is to avoid stemless wine glasses. The stem is functional and is there to prevent your hands from warming the wine.
Proper stoppers are critical for saving sparkling wines. Don’t just cram a cork in the bottle. The pressure can build up, causing the cork to fly out and possibly injure someone. Wine and physical injuries never pair well.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to our faithful readers. Enjoy your time with family and friends, and keep an eye out for some Thanksgiving cocktail ideas in the coming days.
Post your questions below, and we’ll get to them ASAP.
Perfect timing for a new Reluctant Bartender post!