Planning ahead: Wine for Thanksgiving Dinner

[jock]

Zin has certainly been the trendy wine for turkey for the past couple of decades. I take exception. Best bets are Tokay from Alsace or Gruner Veltliner from Austria. These ain't no SWs either. Great depth and complexity. Like any wine, white or red, you need to get the good ones.

I always thought the object with pairing wine and food is to compliment each other not to overpower the food with the wine. Most reds will simply overpower traditional Turkey and fixin's. As Botafogo reminds, you also have to take into consideration all the fixins and accompanyments. The richness of Tokay and GV along with, dare I say, a bit of RS or at least the appearance of sweetness will go best as long as there is enough acidity to keep the wine from cloying.

Ham is a different story. Zin is a good candidate here although I think it best to avoid the superripe, jammy, high alcohol types and go for the medium-bodied types. In other words, Dry Creek instead of Amador.