A pilgrim's progressive wines
Salty Thanksgiving Day giblet gravy invades the marshmallow-topped candied yams. Tangy cranberry sauce battles the creamy aftertaste of pearl onions. Piles of savory oyster stuffing make mincemeat of the delicate, cinnamon-and-nutmeg flavors in a butternut squash souffle.
Can any wine possibly make peace among all these warring flavors?
Absolutely, say wine experts, if you suspend conventional food-and-wine wisdom and take a multilateral approach to culinary peacemaking. With an outright riot of tastes on the table, "there's no single wine that can bring all the different ideologies together," says Joshua Wesson, founder of the Best Cellars wine shops and coauthor of Red Wine With Fish: The New Art of Matching Wine With Food . "So pick your favorite flavors, and negotiate one by one."
For starters, he suggests pairing appetizers like cheese with sparkling wines from Spain and Italy, such as Cava and Prosecco, which are less dry than champagne but just as festive. "I call them 'champagne without the bow tie,' " says Wesson, who also suggests matching cheese with wines like Austrian Gruner Veltliner, a fruity white with "mouth-puckering acidity" that can match the sharpest goat cheese.
Of course, the art of food-and-wine pairing has come a long way since the early days of wine and cheese parties. And when it comes to the main course, "you can just throw out the old 'red with meat, white with poultry' rule," restaurateur Danny Meyer of New York's Union Square Cafe says of his success pairing even such seeming enemies as hot dogs and white wine.
Ketchup mates. The key, Meyer says, is to pursue food-and-wine pairing with the same taste standards you'd use to match a frankfurter with your favorite condiments. "If you prefer pickle relish, then you like good, crisp acidity with your hot dog. So you'll probably like a sauvignon blanc," says Meyer. "And if you prefer ketchup, then I'd suggest a merlot or an Italian barbera to match the sweetness of the ketchup."
The same rationale can be applied to Thanksgiving. Instead of pairing wine with turkey--a bland meat that you'll drown in gravy anyway--pick your wines to match condiments and side dishes. Love to spread cranberry sauce all over your white meat? Then choose a wine with the same sweet, tangy characteristics, like Syrah or Beaujolais. Is creamed spinach your to-die-for side dish? Then consider a Chablis or Vouvray; grown in volcanic soils, they have a mineral-laden taste that accents the mineral-rich flavor of spinach. For earthy flavors like chestnut stuffing or sage gravy, there's perhaps nothing more terrestrial than France's smoky Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
If all this seems too complicated, you can always go for default wines like a full-bodied zinfandel--long a Turkey Day favorite, in part, because of its seemingly all-American origins. (In truth, zin grapes are originally from Croatia.) "Just make sure you avoid white wines with too much oak or red wines with a lot of tannin that make you pucker," says Best Cellars' Wesson. And don't forget to save room for dessert wines.
Goes great with pumpkin pie
2003 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Zobinger Heiligenstein Zesty Austrian gem is a perfect palate cleanser between courses or a complement to a cheese plate. klwines.com, $29
2001 Bosquet des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape With earthy flavors of mincemeat, smoke, and Provençal herbs, this French wine earned a 90-plus rating from wine expert Robert Parker. An excellent choice for fans of stuffing (or home chefs who smoke their turkey on the Weber). vintagewinessd.com, $25
Trevisiol Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Fresh, peachy flavors make this Italian sparkler an ideal aperitif or dessert accompaniment. www.liquormart.com, $13
2001 Cristom Pinot Noir Mt. Jefferson Cuvee Hints of cinnamon and clove make this Oregon fave ideal for washing down butternut squash or pumpkin pie. cristomwines.com, $20 -Alex Markels
This story appears in the November 22, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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