Seven less ordinary Thanksgiving wines

Another Thanksgiving, another occasion for unimaginative media outlets to churn out flimsy theories about what makes for the ‘right’ wine pairing for dinner.

Sweetly spiced Oregon Pinot Noirs, buttery Napa Chardonnays, rich spicy Gewürztraminers and Pinot Gris – it’s the same roll call of safe bets year after weary year.

Is there anyone out there, in the wide, wide world of wine, daring to step out of her comfort zone and recommend a wine less ordinary?

We’ve plundered the internet in a bid to find out and have turned up seven who have, and for whose efforts we give thanks.

In the pages that follow, we present the top seven less ordinary Thanksgiving wines…     

Field Theory Blaufränkisch 2015

Marc Bona writing on cleveland.com picks out a “soft peppery” Paso Roble Blaufränkisch in a strange bottle for his turkey dinner, pointing out that this Austrian red grape is also grown in Washington and New York.

Field Theory is a fairly light version, he says, with notes of redcurrant, clove, cinnamon, pomegranate, rosewater and “cherry Tootsie Pop”.

Zanasi La Grasparossa Lambrusco 2014

Champagne is generally the go-to sparkling wine for Thanksgiving, but here we have a grapey-fresh, floral Lambrusco for a change.

Lettie Teague, writing in the WSJ, says that “Lambrusco has become popular for two reasons: it’s reasonably priced and goes well with a range of food”. This red fizz with notes of “earth and red fruit” will liven up any turkey.

Abbazia di Novacella Kerner 2015

Here’s one you won’t see on many Thanksgiving dinner tables: an Alto Adige Kerner.

Kerner is one of the most widely planted crossings (Riesling and Trollinger) in Germany. The recommendation comes from Elin McCoy in Bloomberg, who states: “I’ve yet to have anyone at my table who doesn’t like this wonderfully harmonious white, made from the Kerner grape by monks at an abbey in the Alto Adige region of northern Italy.

“Its crisp, vibrant, fruity, savoury, salty, and floral flavours match well with all those tart, sweet, and spicy tastes on the table. And it has depth and roundness, too.”

Giro Lamo Russo Etna Rosso 2015

Jeremy Parzen writing in the Houston Press, comes up with a selection of wines “for the Trump era” – which makes us wonder just how many full-scale brawls can be expected at dinner tables across America today as all those families with their polarised political opinions sit together to eat Turkey and pumpkin pie.

The jaded Parzen describes Thanksgiving as an event that has been “downgraded to a mandatory gathering where we eat a bunch of bland, fatty food and try not to grimace as uncle X or aunt Y or cousin Z serves up some wholly unpalatable moralising chit-chat”.

He may be right. Appropriately for this potentially explosive scenario, he recommends a “salty and lithe” rosé from the volcanic region of Etna.

Michael Shaps Petit Manseng 2014

Jim Raper in the Virginian Pilot tries to keep things interesting with a “middle-weight” Petit Manseng from Michael Shaps in Virginia.

“Any edict about the proper wine to serve with a particular dish should be received with skepticism,” he says. Quite right.

This wine from Shap’s Honah Lee vineyard is fermented mostly in French oak barrels, one-third new, with a small percentage in stainless steel tank. Bottled after six months with no malolactic fermentation, it is bone dry, but “brimming with the sweetness of  tropical fruit notes, and is full-bodied and very concentrated”.

Dr Konstantin Frank Finger Lakes Rkatsiteli 2014

Eric Asimov writing in the New York Times makes a similarly salutary point to Mr Raper in Virginia, asserting that “there are no wrong Thanksgiving wines”.

There are especially right ones, however, such as this Rkatsiteli – an aromatic native Georgian variety made in this case in New York state.

Says the wise Mr Asimov, it has “floral aromas, with exuberant flavours of grapefruit and tropical fruits”.  

Brouwerij Verhaeghe Duchesse de Bourgogne

Okay, so this isn’t a wine, but it is aged in Burgundy barrels, and represents a brilliantly versatile and less ordinary Thanksgiving dinner pairing: a refreshing spritz, savoury and sweet notes, richness, complexity, spiciness – all rolled into one delicious barrel-aged beer.

Duchesse de Bourgogne is a Flemish red ale that is “sweet and sour” and “great with cranberry sauce”, according to Samantha Bakall for Oregon Live.