I love the beginning of the holiday season, kicking off with Thanksgiving.  It’s a time of the year when the intensity of summer heat has yielded to comfortable daytime temperatures and cool evenings….kinda fires thoughts of stoking an early season fire. 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  It brings together people who enjoy festive comfort food, good wine and love to share.  The family with whom we are “integrating” our holiday, typically opens their doors to friends and acquaintances who may not have plans, those who are either alone or removed from family and personal support systems. 

Often, Thanksgiving presents the challenge of pairing wine with a multitude of dishes presenting a kaleidoscope of textures, aromas and flavors.  Not only is there diversity ON the table, but diversity seated AT the table.  On the table for a primary dish may be turkey, ham, chicken, duck or pork.  For a real treat, read the blog section at Janos’ website about his Thanksgiving experience two years ago with a pig (www.janos.com).  Then there are the side dishes such as stuffing, potatoes and cranberry sauce teasing our palates with flavors and aromas that range from earthy to nutty to fruity.  And we haven’t even touched upon the vegetables!  Into this cuisine medley, weave the palates and flavor preferences of 10, 20 or even 30 guests and it’s easy to understand why wine pairings can be challenging.  In order to simplify the task, I find it useful to follow a few guidelines that have worked for me over the years.

First and foremost, I learned a long time ago to keep the wine and food pairing strategies simple, especially if the guest list is large.  Put away any 100 point wines for another day.  With so many guests and so many dishes with alternative flavor profiles, don’t waste a top Bordeaux or Burgundy on the crowd.  Chances are that most won’t appreciate your “star” wine and you’ll be left feeling disappointed.  The goal here is to please as many guests as possible with wines that pair well with an assortment of dishes.  This means having not just one or two, but several wines on the table.  In other words, something for anyone.  As well, you want the wines to have the personality to extend themselves across many of the dishes simultaneously without offending any.  You might love a Cab with an earthy mushroomy stuffing, but I’m not sure (actually, I am sure) that I would want to pair it with the cranberry sauce or sweet potato casserole.  Remember, the more guests at the table and the greater diversity of dishes, the more you seek wines that can cover the ground. 

On the other hand, if you really want to explore the universe of wine possibilities with the meal, reduce the dinner flavor complexities.  Prepare the turkey in a simple style (ie lemon, garlic, onion, herbs), lose or replace a couple of the side dishes that fight alternative wine choices and you open the door to a universe of fun and exciting wine:food matches.  For example, you might be dying to offer that highly touted, powerful Syrah or Bordeaux with the turkey. Once you add cranberry relish, it reeks havoc with flavors, the big tannic wine fighting with a fruit relish.

So what varietals and specific wines will I have on my table this Thanksgiving?  I’ll have those specifics later next week in my pre-Thanksgiving Blog but with a sizable crowd present, I’m sure to have plenty.