Thanksgiving is Thursday and if you’re still wondering what to bring to your multi-course celebration, I have an idea: bring wine. It’s easy, and it’s always appreciated.
Last year, a friend of mine who works at a grocery store shared with me a story about a customer looking for pumpkin pie mix on Thanksgiving Day at 4 p.m. Were they really expecting that to work out? Don’t be that person. Bring the wine.
But what wine? Lily Bollinger, the matriarch of Bollinger Champagne, once said: “I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it ― unless I’m thirsty.”
What she meant, I believe, is that champagne (or sparkling wine) goes with everything. And Thanksgiving dinner can be a bear to pair, because very few wines are going to “pair” with every single one of its courses, which, of course, aren’t coursed; they are all delivered together. Good luck with only one wine pairing with turkey, much less turkey with gravy, stuffing, green beans and cranberry sauce. You will drive yourself crazy.
But don’t fret, there’s a school of food pairing thought that believes that if everything is uniquely balanced unto itself, it doesn’t have to be paired with everything else. I mean, isn’t that the entire basis for sushi? Or hors d’oeuvres? Or tapas? Furthermore, instead of trying to drink what someone else tells you to drink, try drinking what you already like instead. If Thanksgiving was about experimentation, it wouldn’t just be turkey, now would it?
I’ve taken the liberty of assembling four local wines for your Thanksgiving feast, each appealing to a different palate. All are delicious on their own and just as delicious when washing down a mouthful of turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Have a happy holiday and never drink and drive.
• 2020 Skywalker Vineyards, Blanc de Blancs, Marin County sparkling wine, $85
Blanc de Blancs means “white from whites” and usually indicates a 100% chardonnay when speaking of champagne, and in this California sparkling wine that holds true. This wine is made from all Marin County chardonnay grown at the legendary Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio. Crisply pear/apple tartness is balanced nicely by toasty brioche and ferried to you on tight little bubbles. While $85 might seem like a lot, it’s for a holiday, and if you can’t splurge on Thanksgiving, then when can you? I also will not make any “Star Wars” jokes about this wine. I will do that not.
Kendric Vineyards is known for its Marin County varietals. (Photo by Jeff Burkhart)
• 2020 Kendric Vineyards, Marin County Chardonnay, $28
I first tasted this 100% malolactic chardonnay in August, and I immediately thought it would be perfect for Thanksgiving. No one should be afraid of malolactic fermentation. Sure, it’s overdone in some California chardonnays, especially when paired with aggressive oak, but it’s also the backbone of almost all red wine and many stellar whites. Stewart Johnson, Kendric’s winemaker, navigates the complexities of it nicely with this wine. Buttery but balanced, full-bodied but not overly alcoholic (13.6%), oaky yet still austere, its minerally/salty complexity belies citrus fruit as well as malic acid — it’s mouth-wateringly delicious.
McEvoy Ranch produces numerous wines. (Photo by Jeff Burkhart)
• 2023 McEvoy Ranch, Under the Willow Vermentino, Sonoma, $34
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The wine snobs all scream riesling for Thanksgiving. And indeed, Pey-Marin’s Shell Mound Riesling was once one of the best local Thanksgiving pairings around. But it’s no longer available. And that’s where this vermentino steps in. McEvoy Ranch sits in Marin County, but must be accessed through Sonoma County, so a Sonoma wine by a Marin producer has to make this list. Floral but not unctuous, minerally but still slightly rotund, neutral French oak and native yeast makes this low-alcohol white (13%) a real snob pleaser. It hits all the right notes without belaboring them: floral, spice and even peach. And wine snobbery notwithstanding, it’s even enjoyable if you have no idea what those notes are supposed to be.
• Pleiades XXX, California Old Vines Red Wine, $26.99
Once there was only one Pleiades wine, a red blend named after the “Seven Sisters” star cluster, made by legendary Bolinas winemaker Sean Thackrey. His red blends were all nonvintage versions of multi-varietal blends all marked by Roman numerals. Since his death in 2022, the Pleiades Wine Co. has increased to five different bottlings with the single varietals all being vintage specific. Those varietals are a sauvignon blanc, rosé, viognier, the regular red blend and petite sirah. There are also currently two Pleiades red blends available if you count the newly released XXXI, but for my money and my Thanksgiving feast, the XXX is what’s on the table. Sangiovese, tempranillo, carignane, pinot noir, petite sirah, viognier (yes, the white wine) are all vinified separately before being blended together to create this soft palate pleaser. Pleiades has always been reminiscent of the great light-bodied Rhône wines: the northern Côte-Rôtie and the southern Côtes du Rhône, both often “softened” with viognier, but with a Bolinas sensibility and “unlawful” varietals, including some Italian. And that has been what always makes it work, even to this day. Red wine with turkey? You betcha.
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com