With the turkey ensconced in the oven, it’s tempting to dip into the cellar for your best bottles of Chardonnay and Cabernet, to measure up to the most-labored-over meal of the year. The trouble is, what generally accompanies the Thanksgiving bird on the table does few favors for those varieties. Traditional side dishes run a gamut of spicy, sweet, and fruity flavors that can render dry, tannic wines harsh and astringent (and even Chardonnay can harbor its share of oak tannin). Fresh cranberry sauce laced with cloves, spinach salad with pomegranate or dried cherries, spicy sausage and sourdough dressing, sweet potato casserole topped with a pecan and brown sugar crumble (god forbid, marshmallows) … all challenges to this country’s go-to white and red.
A simple guideline, though, opens up a world of choices beyond Chard and Cab. Whether it’s white or red, a wine just needs to be big on fruit and shy on tannin to play well with exuberant Thanksgiving flavors. On the white front, a whole category of wines has great complementary potential—the aromatic whites, which, in their best forms manage to be refreshingly dry and generously fruity at the same time. Varieties like Pinot Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Gewürztraminer tend to deliver floral aromas and flavors of apple, pear, stone fruit, honeyed citrus…all friends to side-dish shenanigans.
And on the red front, it’s hard to think of a better partner than the West Coast’s fruit-driven Pinot Noirs. With season-appropriate cranberry and baking-spice flavors often built right into the profile, and earthy loam and mushroom notes lurking beneath, Pinot Noir is happy with the cranberry action on the table, as well as the mushrooms or giblets in the gravy.
Here are a dozen options to choose from.
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Belden Barns 2017 Estate Grown Grüner Veltliner Sonoma Mountain
Image Credit: Courtesy of Belden Barns The first Sonoma planting of this Austrian grape yields a beauty. Delicate honeysuckle and jasmine make up a whole nosegay of aromas, giving way to spiced apple and tart stone fruit. Lovely textures of peach skin fill the palate, with flavors of citrus, white nectarine, apricot and wet-stone minerality.
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Chappellet 2017 Pritchard Hill Chenin Blanc Napa Valley
Image Credit: Courtesy of Chappellet This is the poster child for the best California Chenin Blanc through the years when Chenin was mostly cheap and sweet. Chappellet has continued to produce the beautiful, dry wine from a precious block of vines on its Pritchard Hill property, profits be damned, out of respect for matriarch Molly Chappellet, who adores the wine and whose signature is on the bottle. The 2017 is a perfectly balanced tapestry of peach and pear flavors, vibrant minerality and interesting textures through a long finish.
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Dutton Goldfield 2018 Dutton Ranch Shop Block Pinot Blanc Green Valley of Russian River Valley
Image Credit: Courtesy of Dutton Goldfield Bright lime zest is balanced by peach and pear flavors, lovely white blossom notes and zippy minerality in this fresh white.
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Emeritus 2018 Hallberg Blanc White Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Image Credit: Courtesy of Emeritus A highly unusual white made from Pinot Noir, this refreshing, dry wine offers surprising wild strawberry aromas and red berry flavors, along with delicate florals and bracing citrus. Expect Thanksgiving conversations to erupt over this one.
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Halleck Vineyard 2018 Calandrelli Vineyard Dry Gewürztraminer Russian River Valley, Sonoma County
Image Credit: Courtesy of Halleck Vineyard A downright ebullient bouquet of blossoms meets the nose here. With the first sip, the wine starts to head sweet with tropical fruit notes, but crisp, dry citrus (on the exotic side—think yuzu) pulls it up far short of sweet, with gingered stone fruit marking the finish.
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Tablas Creek Vineyard 2018 Grenache Blanc Adelaida District, Paso Robles
Image Credit: Courtesy of Tablas Creek Vineyard This white manages to be delicate, fresh and bright while being mouth-filling at the same time. Honeysuckle, almond, crushed herbs and peach skin give way to green apple flavors layered with a gamut of stone fruit and lime zest. Beautiful tension and texture underlie all of the above.
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Benovia 2016 Martaella Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Image Credit: Courtesy of Benovia Delicate violet aromas hover over hints of allspice and cloves ahead of an intense palate delivering beautiful red fruit—raspberry and red cherry, all the way to cranberry—backed by fine-grained tannins.
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Blue Farm 2016 Anne Katherina Vineyard Farmhouse Block Pinot Noir Carneros
Image Credit: Courtesy of Blue Farm From the founder and former president and winegrower of Donum Estate comes a Pinot from her new Blue Farm brand with a superb profile for Thanksgiving dinner. A savory herbal and briary character on the nose gives way to bold, sweet cherry fruit with complexities that unfold through an endless finish.
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Masút Vineyard & Winery 2016 Estate Pinot Noir Eagle Peak, Mendocino County
Image Credit: Courtesy of Masut From Jake and Ben Fetzer, third generation in Mendocino’s legendary wine family, comes a new winery on a hilltop in the little-known Eagle Peak AVA. This Pinot offers lovely floral aromas balanced with intriguing wet loam, hints of mushroom, and warm baking spices. Generous red fruit follows—cherry, berry, cranberry—nestled in velvety textures.
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Roar 2017 Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands
Image Credit: Courtesy of Roar From the Franscioni Family, who have farmed in Monterey’s Santa Lucia Highlands region for a century or so, comes a Pinot sourced from one of the region’s best-known spots—Pisoni Vineyard (Gary Pisoni being a larger-than-life legend in these parts). The wine harbors the expected power of the vineyard, but it’s in check, with haunting florals, spice and damp loam aromas leading into black raspberry and cranberry compote flavors, with a savory black-tea complexity.
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Three Sticks 2017 Cuvée Eva Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Mountain
Image Credit: Courtesy of Three Sticks Under the winemaking of Bob Cabral (former longtime winemaker at Williams Selyem), Three Sticks excels at single-vineyard Pinots and Chardonnays. But this blend of best barrels from their One Sky Vineyard deserves a spot at the best Thanksgiving tables. A complex mix of floral and earth aromas—violets, damp loam, mushrooms—leads into a rush of juicy red fruit: raspberry, cranberry and cherry with hints of cinnamon and cloves against a seamless, silky texture.
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Adelsheim 2017 Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley
Image Credit: Courtesy of Adelsheim A partnership between an Oregon wine pioneer and the Portland Trail Blazers, this is your bottle if hoops trump turkey. A briar patch of berries mix it up with florals, fresh-cut herbs and mint on the nose, followed by a plush palate of red fruit through a long, lovely finish.
