Yes, I admit it, this is a really lazy post. Everything in it is recycled … the reviews, the video, the gist of what I’m about to write. But it’s nearly Thanksgiving and it needs to hammered home once again. Matching turkey to wine is NOT rocket science.
Ahhh, yes! I can smell it now. The turkey and all those fixings slowly filling the house with a cacophony of aromas. I’m getting snoozy just thinking about it.
Thanksgiving, the greatest eating holiday of them all, is upon us and with it comes the endless lists of what to pair with all that stuff that you will be piling on your plate over and over again.
The LCBO Vintages release this Saturday will attract a lot of fretting buyers with various wine suggestion lists on their iPhones trying to grab that one wine that pairs so perfectly with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberry sauce, those yucky jelly things, myriad vegetable casseroles with myriad cheese sauces, Brussel sprouts (yech!), and that thing your aunty brings over every year that no one eats.
Yes, oh yes, it’s high season for popular wine writers to wax on about wine + turkey and what you should and should not be putting on the table.
Here’s the best advice EVER (and I’m quoting myself) on what wine to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. Are you ready?
Serve what you like to drink.
Talking turkey and wine for Thanksgiving from Rick VanSickle on Vimeo.
That’s right. Buy and serve what you enjoy drinking. It’s simple, really, because nothing matches perfectly with all that stuff that will be hitting your plate, so simply serve wines you enjoy drinking or wines that you think those around your table will enjoy and all will be right with the world.
There are no wrong suggestions, there are no right suggestions for Thanksgiving, although I tend to go local in honour of the bounty we have in our own backyard. We can at least give thanks for that.
Thanksgiving is about family, friends and comfort foods. It’s about sharing and enjoying. Don’t add stress by looking for the perfect wine for the dinner. There simply isn’t one.
Here’s what’s being released Saturday from our own backyard in Niagara:
Henry of Pelham Estate Pinot Noir 2010 ($25, 90 points) — Quite pretty and feminine on the nose with alluring cherry and raspberry with integrated spicy accents. It’s medium bodied with bright red fruits, silky tannins and subtle earth and tobacco notes. Nicely aged at this point.
Henry of Pelham Estate Riesling 2013 ($18, 91 points) — A smart Riesling that touches all the bases. A nose of lemon oil, emerging petrol, grapefruit and bees wax. It has gorgeous richness and complexity on the palate with river-rock minerality, smoke, citrus and lime zest that will just get better with age. A dandy.
Also being released, but not reviewed:
- Coffin Ridge Bone Dry Riesling 2015 ($17)
- G. Marquis The Silver Line Chardonnay 2014 ($18)
- Southbrook Triomphe Chardonnay 2014 ($23)
- Stoney Ridge Excellence Chardonnay 2011 ($18)
- Coffin Ridge Back From the Dead Red 2014 ($19)
- Creekside Estate Queenston Road Pinot Noir 2014 ($19)
- Redstone Cabernet 2013 ($20)
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