When choosing wines for your Thanksgiving table, it seems simple: what goes best with turkey? The experts in the Food Network Kitchens help you make choices based on all the dishes you're serving.
Turkey
Turkey matches well with anything from the hearty white (Burgundy, New World Chardonnay, Rhone blends) to the lightweight-but-firm red (Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, Loire blends).
Stuffing
If you've got a hearty cornbread-and-sausage stuffing, you'll want to go with something funky and red that can stand up to it, like a Chinon or an old-style Rioja. If your stuffing is oyster-based, you'll want a minerally, crisp white, like a Sancerre, a New World Sauvignon Blanc, or any Alsatian white.
Sweet Sides
If you've got a lot of sweet side dishes (e.g. sweet potatoes with marshmallows), you'll want to err on the side of sweeter. Though it sounds counterintuitive, a sweeter wine helps keep the dish from tasting too cloying and the wine from tasting too bitter. Mosel Riesling or unoaked California Chardonnay are two good choices.
Multiple Courses
With several courses, try and keep the order going from white to red, smallest to biggest, and driest to sweetest. (Smallest to biggest? All that means is how much space the wine feels like it takes up in your mouth. Roll a few different wines around in your mouth and see how they feel - for example, Pinot Noir is smaller than Merlot is smaller than Cabernet, as a general rule.)
Soup
Pairing wine with soup can be tricky. If you're starting with something like a butternut squash soup, your best bet is to go sparkling. There are a number of affordable sparkling wines being made in the US these days (many from California, and one amazing value in New Mexico).
Gravy
If you're using wine in your gravy, drink something similar at the table. If you're uncorking a special-occasion wine for the holiday, we don't expect you to cook with it, but try to stay in the same grape family or overall flavor profile.
Desserts
Thanksgiving desserts can be difficult to match with wine. Port is wonderful with less-sweet desserts, chocolate, or cheese. Sauternes and most late-harvest wines are dessert in a glass. Think about spirits as well: hot chocolate spiked with pear brandy or peppermint schnapps, Cognac (which would be great with pumpkin pie), or mulled wine with dark rum.
And finally, consider that Champagne goes with everything.
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