9 tips for serving wine with Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest wine-consumption days of the year, especially for folks who don't often indulge.

Wine columnists usually respond with recommendations of individual wines (here's mine this year for Wine Searcher). But this only helps the oenophile. Most folks just want to pick up a couple bottles while they're at the supermarket buying turkey.

So here's the really important advice about wine with Thanksgiving dinner:

1) Serve a few different wines. People have different tastes. Don't try to please everyone with one bottle.



2) Have at least one bottle each of red, white and pink wine. Put the whites and pinks in an ice bucket so they can stay cool. They don't need to be refrigerator cold, but room temperature is too warm.

3) Americans don't drink enough sparkling wine. This is a great day for it. It's celebratory and it goes well with the meal.

4) Open all the wines at the same time and put them on the sideboard with the food. Let people drink what they want. If you have unfinished wine at the end of the day, put the cap back on or the cork back in, put it in the fridge (red wines too), and drink it with leftovers tomorrow.

5) Don't spend too much. Christmas is a better meal for a splurge. Thanksgiving is about appreciating your relatives and friends, and the food. The traditional meal isn't a great wine pairing -- too much sweet stuff on your plate, and sweet stuff is death on dry wine -- so don't force it.

6) Speaking of sweetness, put out some wines for dinner that are a little sweet. Some of your relatives will be grateful. And off-dry white wines rock with Thanksgiving dinner.

7) Cider is great with Thanksgiving dinner.

8) Dessert wines are best as dessert, not with dessert. It's nice to splurge on a good dessert wine, but serve it after the pie, not with it.

9) Don't sweat it! It's just wine. If you're Martha Stewart, you can worry about choosing the exact right wine. The rest of us can be happy we're here to enjoy a meal together.

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