Select the Perfect Thanksgiving Wine | Wine & Food Pairing

Joy Wine and Spirits teamed up with Haystack Mountain Goat Diary to help you choose the perfect wine pairing for your Thanksgiving meal.

There are so many components to the Thanksgiving meal that the best strategy is to choose wines that are versatile enough to go with a myriad of dishes. 

The Mas de Daumas Gassac Frizante is a perfect example – it paired amazingly well with all the different Haystack Mountain Cheese featured on our food and wine pairing segment.  Some of the cheese was aged, some fresh and young and another, very smokey and bacon like.  The wine was a delight with them all.  

This sparkling rose wine made of 70 % Cab and tank fermented is fresh, off-dry and a pure expression of the land and fruit.  Nothing was added in the making of the wine – no yeast, sugar, gas or alcohol.  

This single fermentation is referred to as Method Charmat – similar to that of  a Prosecco. Although often presented as a lower quality production style than Champagne, the Mas de Daumas’s Charmat Method is actually a better way to highlight the fresh fruit and refreshing character that fits this style of wine.

Champagne is all about being aged on the dead yeast cells, which add great complexity and toasty/biscuity tones, but often take away from the primary character of the wine. However, with wines like the Daumas Gassac, the pleasure is in the fresh, lush fruit that the varietal brings to the wine and the delicate fruit aromatics. Yeasty flavors would obscure that.

For the myriad of flavors that are common to the holiday table, it is better to stay simple on the wines – it makes a better partner to letting the food shine through, not to mention, the Gaussac is a lower in alcohol the most wine.

Aside from versatility, the wines should ideally be full of energy, the sort that invigorate rather than fatigue. The Thanksgiving meal can go on for hours, and you don’t want to slump over before halftime.

Look for wines that are lower in alcohol, that are zesty, fresh and bright. Joy Wine and Spirits has more than 1,000 from which to choose.  Let our staff help you pick the wines that best suit you, and your guests.

Happy Thanksgiving!