It would not be Christmas without turkey. It’s a traditional favourite in the US and the UK since as far back as the 16th century, although it was the Victorians who really cemented its place at the festive lunch table. Turkey is not a powerful white meat and has a low fat content – the reason why it can dry out if not cooked carefully. With this in mind, your wine matches should ideally be either a full-bodied white wine, or a medium bodied red, with low to medium tannin. Tannin is your Christmas banquets enemy. It is at odds with the lack of fat on the plate, leaving nothing to soften the tannins. This can lead to accentuated, harsh tannins in a wine, whilst the saltiness of the turkey can also make tannin taste more bitter. If that wasn’t enough to think about, there is also the complexity of the accompaniments to your lunch; cranberry, bacon, parsnips, stuffing and brussel sprouts to name a few. A medium tannin red, for me, points towards top quality, robust Pinot Noirs or a Beaujolais Cru.

Pinot Noir from muscular Burgundy Crus such as Gevrey-Chambertin or Pommard stack up exceptionally well – if you can stretch to the Grand Cru of Chambertin even better. The lighter, elegant Burgundian areas such as Volnay may be overpowered by all those accompaniments, so be careful.best english wine tasting Pinot from Sonoma will also work extremely well along with Pinot Noir from Victoria, Australia.best english wine tasting If you are not a Pinot fan, a mature Bordeaux, Chianti or Rioja would work well too. food and wine best dessertThe tannin in red wine can soften and integrate with age, allowing them to be matched with Turkey.best white wine for birthday gift

Sometimes ignored at Christmas lunch, a full-bodied Chardonnay is an enchanting accompaniment to your turkey, especially with traditional sides such as bread sauce. Oaky richness gives sweet spice notes, while creamy lactic acid really helps out with a meat that can sometimes be on the dry side.wine bar york maine Good Chardonnays, in general, are found in the same geographical areas as good Pinot Noir. book of wine vintagesWhite Burgundy from the Côte de Beaune will work well at almost all levels; upgrade where you can to something like a Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru or a Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. The high levels of minerality and acidity in these wines help to cleanse the palate, allowing you to wade through all the trimmings effortlessly. Other wonderful examples can be found in Victoria, Sonoma and New Zealand.

The Kumeu River Chardonnays from near Auckland are extraordinary wines, offer fantastic value for money and impressed us in 2015. Vines and olives co-exist at Fattoria Casaloste. The organically certified vineyards have produced a really fruity and intense Chianti Classico… Hess use massal selection in the Su’skol vineyard to encourage aromatic complexity from the nine different Chardonnay clones... When Louis of Domaine Louis Carillon retired in 2010, the family decided to divide the vineyard holdings, with son François… Mad Dog sell most of the grapes they produce to premium winemakers in and around the Barossa Valley, which says… Still trying to decide? We've got you covered... Hard, soft, blue, goat? Which cheeses do you choose, and do you pick a wine for each or try to… What styles to match with this this festive classic...This year’s best Thanksgiving wines take into consideration that not all turkey dinners are made equal. Here are ten wines that pair well with turkey based on how it’s prepared.

TIP: The wines listed below focus primarily on red fruit flavors which typically pair well with harvest foods and poultry. A perfectly prepped turkey is truly a revelation. Now, all you need is the right wine to sip alongside of it. Garnacha might just be the unsung wine of Thanksgiving. It has loads of red fruit flavors in the realm of strawberry, raspberry and candied hibiscus as well as a distinct dusty quality. When matched with turkey and gravy, Garnacha falls nicely into the role of the cranberry sauce. Beaujolais was awesome in 2009 and then again in 2013. Seek out one of the 10 Crus (you can learn more about Beaujolais Crus here) or a Beaujolais-Villages level wine. Beaujolais is bone-dry and somewhat herbaceous with floral notes of violet, peony and iris. In terms of fruit flavors, expect tart and fresh fruit flavors of boysenberry, sour cherry and cranberry. You’ll be spending so much time with your nose in a glass, that you won’t overdo it with the stuffing.

By the way, Beaujolais is low alcohol… and low calorie. Carignan went from being a lowly blending grape to making a name for itself from the Languedoc-Roussillon. The wines are bursting with red fruit flavors, cinnamon spice and a distinct meaty note, almost like a kielbasa sausage. Because of its meatiness, it makes an amazing pairing with dark meat. The spice flavors of cinnamon and allspice in the wine will also make a simple mashed sweet potato dish come to life. TIP: Look for ‘old vine’ Carignan from the Cotes Catalanes and Roussillon, France. Pinot Noir is the darling choice for poultry as a light red wine. Since the US just had 2 awesome vintages in a row (2012–2013), you’ll luck out on value Pinot Noir this year. For lighter, more delicate styles, seek out Oregon Pinot Noir. For richer Pinot Noir, look into California, Chile and Patagonia, Argentina. A dry turkey is the bane of many a Thanksgiving, but sometimes there’s not much to do about it. If this sounds like it could be your situation, here are a few wines that you can rely on to moisten even the driest turkey:

Think of Brachetto d’Acqui like a boozy version of Martenelli’s apple cider, but better. It has perfumed aromas of raspberry, orange blossom and candied citrus with moderately high acidity and light bubbles. It’s a low alcohol, sweet red sparkling wine (about as much octane as an IPA) so you can literally suck it down after every bite. Ditch your customary wine glass and drink Brachetto out of something that was popular when the wine was drunk in the House of Savoy: Quite a large number of American Rosé wine is made with a method called ‘Saignée’, where about 10% of the juice of red wine is drained off (before it gets too red) to make Rosé. The resulting wine is rich, like a red, with bold fruit flavors but super juicy. Juicy enough for even the driest slice of white meat… A smoked turkey is a beautiful thing, especially when it just comes already prepared and you don’t have to do any work. The flavors are rich and somewhat sweet. You’ll need a stronger wine to hold up to a smoked turkey.

The combination of 3 varieties, –Grenache, Syrah and Mourvédre,– make up the blend. Because of the mishmash of varieties, you’ll taste both red and black fruit flavors and find a range of medium to full-bodied flavor. These wines are a perfect match for a rich piece of meat because of their complexity. And yet, they are still light enough for poultry. TIP: looking for a great Rhône wine? Check out this recent post for a wine inspiration list. Zinfandel is the classic turkey pairing wine for 2 reasons: for one, it’s a variety with a long history in America and two, the flavors of raspberry and sweet tobacco are an ideal match for rich darker or smoked turkey meat. It also will do great alongside a honeybaked ham. Zinfandel tends to be much more fruit-forward which is why is does well with sweet meat. The best Zinfandels generally hail from these 5 regions: Sonoma, Napa, Lodi, Santa Barbara and the Sierra Foothills. Love bone-dry savory wines? From Tuscany and Umbria, Sangiovese-based wines have notes of tomato, cherry and leather along with an earthy note of terra-cotta.

Expect tingling acidity and moderately high tannin that will compliment homemade gravy like a dream. The original Sangiovese wines were very rarely aged in oak which means they’ll be anything but a vanilla bomb. In short, they are a savory wine lover’s dream. The 2010 vintage was awesome for Sangiovese. If you’re deep frying a whole turkey do it outside, so that if it lights up on fire, you have something to be thankful for. Fried food needs something with high acidity to cut the fat and salt. The ideal answer to this is something sparkling. On the cheap, seek out a sparkling Crémant rosé from France, a Cava from Spain or a sparkling rosé of Malbec from Argentina. Cava will definitely offer the greatest value, ringing in just under $10 a bottle. If you’re willing to spend a little more, American sparkling rosés are typically made with Pinot Noir and taste of strawberries and white cherries matched with a creamy bubble finesse. Look to Sonoma and Mendocino for answers to your American bubbly questions.