What to Toast with the Turkey: Wine Picks for Thanksgiving

Tech Tuesdays:

It's not just Tech Tuesday - it's also two days before Thanksgiving! 

Whether you are cooking, visiting or even dining out, you are probably going to be met with the challenge of wine at Thanksgiving. Well never fear, I not only have a recommendation for your Thanksgiving needs as well as a resource that keeps on giving no matter the holiday or occasion for all your wine suggestions.  I’m so excited to share this info – especially since I was able to talk one-on-one with the creator.  (Heads up: Get out your smartphone so you can get ready to download this!)

Loved this photo from blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com.

Recommendations for Thanksgiving Wines 

From WinePoynt’s sommelier and president, Chris Taylor:   

“My advice is to offer two wines with your Thanksgiving dinner, a medium-bodied white wine with acidity and a touch of sweetness, and a smooth red wine with good fruit character that compliments the flavors on your plate without bossing them around too much.  With a white and a red to choose from that both complement the spread, plus the fact that one’s sweet and the other’s not, you should have all the bases covered.”

White

$ Rieslings from Washington

If your table will be heavy on the marshmallows and other sweets, you may want to go for a slightly sweeter white wine, like a Riesling.  Sweetness varies across different Rieslings, but most of the ones from Washington are versatile enough to go with dinner & dessert.

$$ Chenin Blanc wines from Loire Valley of France (e.g. Vouvray)

The balance of sweetness & acidity complements the tang of cranberries, the richness of sweet potatoes, AND the turkey!

Red

$-$$ Pinot Noir from California

Styles vary of course, but these smooth reds are easy to drink, bursting with fruit and spices, are generally crowd pleasers, and won’t trip over anything on the table.

$$ 2012 Beaujolais Nouveau

The first wines available from the French harvest each year go on sale the Third Thursday of each November, just in time for Thanksgiving.  These light, fruity offerings from the gamay grape are intended to help us give thanks and celebrate the bounty of the harvest.  Perfect!

DRINK. RATE. REPEAT.: A little about Chris and WinePoynt

What happens when you are an accomplished sommelier with volumes of wine knowledge and you want to be able to make recommendations for people no matter where they are and no matter their wine price point? You create an app called WinePoynt.

All the knowledge from WinePoynt’s sommelier and president, Chris Taylor, was repurposed, organized and optimized to create the newest must-download app on your smart device, WinePoynt.  Made for anyone from customers, restaurant owners, party planners and local spirit sellers, you can slice and dice wine info from what to buy, what to pair, what to drink, and more - all with a few clicks.

Using info from the user and their location, WinePoynt learns what individual users like as they rate wines, the more the better. Unlike any app on the market, WinePoynt offers the unique service of providing personalized wine recommendations for the users location, allowing them to create and publish custom wine lists, view wine details, rate wines, add notes, share wines, scan wines by UPC code and more, all with a single app. Additionally, app users can attach notes or pictures to wines and share them via social networks along with their ratings.  WinePoynt has a free and a premium version available to mobile users, the premium app costs $.99 a month or $4.99 per year. 

Cheers to the Holidays!