Thanksgiving Wines: Yo Gobble Gobble

Originally published on November 12, 2010.

Two weeks until Thanksgiving – which means it’s time for the annual Thanksgiving blog posts and articles. These come in several flavors:

  • Posts and articles about what to pair with turkey
  • Posts and articles about why these types of posts and articles are dumb and useless (like this one)
  • Posts and articles about why these types of posts and articles are still relevant (like this one)

Most of these posts will make some mention of the following:

  • Zinfandel (either for or against it)
  • Alcohol levels (choose lighter wines so you can drink more)
  • Price (generally, some variation of “Don’t spend much b/c nobody really cares and you might as well keep the fancy stuff for the people that do.” 

Now I do tend to agree that the posts that do nothing more than set out a laundry list of recommendations are indeed dumb and useless. But I also feel that a good piece on wine and Thanksgiving – one that helps you think about what to think about – is a good thing. Most people in a position to write these articles (and actually have them read) live and breathe wine. So yes, I can see how the prospect of writing an annual piece about what to pair with a meal that never changes can seem a little useless. But the general wine drinking public are not wine writers. And if the one year that someone decides to make a bit of an effort with the Thanksgiving wine….well, it would be really sad if that was the one year that ever publication decided to just forgo the obligatory articles.

So I do think these articles are relevant. But I’m not going to write one since there are plenty of good ones already out there. But I am going to provide daily (or nearly daily) recommendations, each with a little bit of “why.” And of course, all these wines are available for purchase at Frankly Wines. Because (full disclosure here) I own a wine store. But if you didn’t catch that, you haven’t really been paying attention.