Mastering Wine Tasting & Wine Pairings with Food: Thanksgiving Edition

Nov 6

For those of us who work in the wine industry, we have a tougher job than you think.

Sure, it doesn’t seem ‘that bad’ of a job when you walk into a restaurant or wine store and see the owner or manager tasting a whole bunch of wine with a ‘rep.’ But actually, all along the supply chain, from importers to distributors to stores and restaurants and wine bars, there is so much to consider when trying and tasting a wine and making a decision of whether to buy it, and how much.

There are factors to consider that come into any purchase decision, like price, type of product, where it is from, who made it, how it was made, recognition. Then…. there comes the taste.

When Vero Founder, Sheila Donohue, had a year of sabbatical in 2017 and was considering switching careers from banking & technology to wine & food as an importer, she went around to wine stores in NYC asking what matters most when deciding what wine to purchase. The answer was taste.

Then, of course, each final consumer has to also go through a decision making process when purchasing wine, who will consider similar factors as the ‘wine buyers’ in the business, and, in some ways, their job is more difficult because often they don’t get to taste the wine beforehand.

But really, what does wine taste like?

Breaking Down the Complexities of Winetasting

According to Gordon M Shepherd, Yale neuroscientist and author of NeuroEnology, How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine, the flavor of wine "engages more of our brain than any other human behavior." The book explores what happens physically but also mentally when wine tasting, smelling and swallowing wine, and, as you can guess, a lot goes on and it is a super complex process. It involves all aspects of the brain, but also physical aspects, like, for example, saliva, which can influence very much the final taste of a wine. And, at the end of this brief yet complicated act of tasting, you make a judgement call, every one of us, ultimately deciding how ‘good’ the wine is.

In fact, when you think about it, they say that each one of us has a different palette. So does that mean that we can all individually decide the quality of a wine, even give our own score to it? You bet!

So, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years celebrations around the corner, where wine is often in the center of gift giving and meals, how does one decide which wine to buy for a gift when everyone’s taste is different? Need some tips on pairing wine and food?

Here is where you may want to rely on a wine expert to guide you. In fact, that’s why we’re writing this series of articles on wine tasting and pairing wine with food, just as you are fretting over what wines to buy for holiday dinners and for gifts.

This first article is focused on choosing wines for Thanksgiving, whether you are hosting, or you are a guest or you want to gift a loved one with whom you cannot share this special day.

We will go over in the next article of this series the factors to consider when tasting and evaluating a wine. Then based on those factors it is determined what wine would pair with which food. Given that we all of different palettes, there is ‘almost’ no rights and wrongs when it comes to wine & food pairing. But some guidelines are still helpful, right?

Food and Wine Pairing Tips for Thanksgiving

When it comes wine pairing for Thanksgiving dinner, 2 of the most important factors for pairing is acidity and tannins. You definitely want acidity but you don’t want too many tannins in your wine to pair with the meal. Just a quick note for novices: tannins, while they can be present in white (and orange) wines, they are more commonly present in red wines. While acidity is present in white and red wines, the levels of acidity tend to be higher in white wines.

Why acidity? It’s a necessary component to pairing foods. It allows the wine to cut through the flavor of the food and meld with it. Think of it as a knife. A knife is sharp and can be dangerous. But without a knife you cannot make most dishes.

Why not too many tannins? OK, if you are a dark meat turkey person, having noticeable tannins in your wine is a good thing. The tannins create a drying, astrigent affect and with more fatty foods, like dark meat turkey, tannins ‘cut the grease’ or oils in the food. But, with white meat turkey being most common around Thanksgiving tables, the white meat, if anything, needs to be moistened; after all, why do we put gravy on top of it? So, are you getting the picture? Lots of drying tannins in your wine will not go with white meat turkey, so we discourage a very tannic wine for turkey wine pairing. Sorry, cab and malbec lovers! But keep reading on - we have some alternatives for you to consider!

Also, you definitely want a ‘quality’ sweet, or dessert, wine on your Thanksgiving table for when the desserts come out. And, very important, you want your sweet wines to have acidity . That’s what both ‘cleanses’ your mouth when drinking it, not leaving a syrupy taste on the finish, and what makes it pair with food. Hint: most sweet wines you find ‘around’ everywhere, i.e., mass produced wines, lack acidity. The sweet wines we select, made artisanally by small producers, have great acidity. They are so good that wine drinkers that typically shun sweet wines will like them.

The last main aspect to consider when selecting wine for Thanksgiving, especially for white wines, is to choose white wine that has some body, weight or texture to stand up to the flavorful dishes around the dinner table. The white wine should have some ‘oomph’ to it. A plain Jane white wine will get lost in midst of the colorful ‘personalities’ of the flavorful dishes for Thanksgiving dinner.

Top Picks for Wine Pairing for Thanksgiving Dinner

So what to serve at Thanksgiving dinner?

Here are our best wine for Thanksgiving picks based on pairing foods guidelines. Believe us, it is not easy for us to narrow down to 1 for each type. Besides loving a wide range of wines, we carefully curate all of the wine we import and sell. But to help you select, here are the ones that we feel are standouts to have on your Thanksgiving table:

White Wines with some ‘Oomph’

As we mentioned, you want a white wine with acidity and that has some ‘weight’ to it, where it has several dimensions, best if it has a combination of weight, texture, fruit.

If you are a natural wine lover, or will share Thanksgiving with one, try Febo’s Parella, made from the Trebbiano Abruzzese grape. Not to be confused with other Trebbiano grapes, Trebbiano Abruzzese has ‘more going on’, with great texture, acidity and minerality. Febo is a small family winegrower in Abruzzo taking great care to produce organic, biodynamic, natural wines from their vineyards which are in the family for generations.

Having just traveled around with the US with Vigna Petrussa, on their 3rd US Roadshow, where there was wine tasting by many of their women-made wines, the favorite white wine for most people was their Richenza white wine blend, made from native varieties that are then aged in oak, producing this complex, fruity and spicy weighty white wine. Many will enjoy sipping it on its own, while also pairing with foods around the Thanksgiving table.
Lastly, one of our newer Vero producers is Zamichele with their Lugana wines, made from Turbiana grape, which is a noble grape, up their with the best white Burgundies. We imported in their wines for the first time a year ago and word is still getting out about their wines which would be great alternatives for Chardonnay lovers, whether the unoaked Lugana, or their oaked Lugana ‘Riserv a equivalent’. One key client of ours said ‘Zamichele makes the best Lugana white wine he ever tasted.’ For Thanksgiving meal, we would recommend the oak aged version to stand up to some of the more flavorful dishes of Thanksgiving dinner.

Red Wines at Thanksgiving

As mentioned, we recommend red wines that have acidity and whose tannins are tamed.

A red grape with lots of acidity is Barbera, and you can select one of several we carry, like Aldo Clerico’s Barbera d’Alba, Ivaldi’s Barbera d’Asti or Nizza DOCG, Case Corini’s Barla, or Piovano’s Piemonte Barbera. It is a red wine that will transport you directly to Italy, the hills of the food capital of Italy, Bologna, to be exact. It goes without saying that this wine will pair with many foods, not only at Thanksgiving.

When recently visiting a client who selects wine for a top Asian restaurant in New York city, she selected Vigna Petrussa’s Schioppettino di Prepotto. When asked why, she said because this red wine has great acidity yet lower tannins, which she looks for when pairing with Asian food. We agree with her, but also in line with Thanksgiving dishes, which, like Asian cuisine, has many different and accentuated flavors.

Wait, what about Orange Wine?

Orange wine , as many of you know, is made from white grapes in which the winemaker used extended skin contact, or maceration, which imparts more color, gives a white wine some tannins, and allowecs the aromas and flavor to become more intense and complex. It sounds like it could be a good type of wine for Thanksiving dinner, right? You betcha!

Our top recommendation for an orange wine to have at Thanksgiving is La Maliosa’s Saturnia Bianco. When Vero Founder, Sheila Donohue, taught at the Culinary Institute of America, where they were tasting this wine, the class full of chefs all agreed, hands-down, that this is a wine for difficult food pairings. Meaning, it can pair with any food! With the wide array of types of dishes at Thanksgiving, this wine is a great choice to carry you through the entire meal.

Last but not least, Sweet & Dessert Wines for Thanksgiving

As mentioned, we recommend seeking sweet (or dessert) wines that have acidity to balance out with the natural sugars in the wine.

We recently imported in Ivaldi’s Moscato d’Asti because it has great acidity, and, in fact, winemaker Andrea Ivaldi prefers slightly less residual sugar in his Moscato d’Asti to make it more balanced. This will probably be the best moscato you ever had, even for you who are not fans of sweet wine!

We would be remiss not to mention Vigna Petrussa’s Picolit when talking about sweet wines. This is the best of the best sweet wines, which naturally is made with noble rot, putting it up there with the best dessert wines of the world, like Sauternes and Tokaji.