The short answer: sparkling wine is one of the best things you can put on a Thanksgiving table. The bubbles and acidity cut through all that rich food and keep your palate fresh from the first plate to the last. My picks: the Whale for the turkey, and the Rouge Brute or the Crab for the stuffing, gravy and everything heavy. Open all three at the start and let people find their favorite.
Why bubbles belong at Thanksgiving
Like every sparkling wine, it’s festive. There’s something exciting about it. You’re spending a whole day with family, and it’s nice to have something on the table that brings people together and makes it feel like the season.
It also just works with the food. Thanksgiving is a lot of fat, and fatty food goes well with a wine that has a little tannin, like a sparkling red. With a sparkling red you get tannin, fruit and concentration, but you also get brightness, freshness and bubbles that lighten it all up. Instead of sweet, heavy and tannic, it brings the energy back to your palate between bites.
Which critter for which dish
Turkey: the Whale. Turkey is pretty lean, though the dark meat has a bit more fat. You can absolutely pour a sparkling red with it, but I think the Whale, our sparkling Chardonnay, might work even better. It brings some sweetness of fruit and a richness of its own, which turkey can use.
Stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes: the Rouge Brute or the Crab. This is the rich stuff, and you want a wine with some tannin to hold up to it. That’s the Rouge Brute, our sparkling red, or the Crab, our sparkling orange wine.
Cranberry and the sweet sides: stay with the same two. I’ll be honest, these are the hard ones. Cranberry has a lot of bitterness of its own, so any wine will struggle a little, and sweet foods like candied sweet potatoes don’t really pair well with wine at all. I’d stick with the Rouge Brute or the Crab, because they both have a bit of fruit sweetness that meets those dishes halfway.
Pie and dessert: skip the pairing. I don’t think dessert pairs well with wine unless you have a dessert wine, and none of ours are very sweet. Finish your glass with the last of dinner, then have your pie.
The order to open them
Open them all at the beginning. Thanksgiving is a hodgepodge: different people, different tastes, a dozen dishes going around at once. Let everyone pour what they like.
If you want to follow my order, it goes from lightest to most structured:
- The Whale. No tannin and very light on its feet, though it has some weight and body. Nowhere near the structure of the other two.
- The Crab. A little sweetness of fruit, a little tannin, and a lot of flavor density.
- The Rouge Brute. The most tannin and the most presence. It commands the palate, which is exactly what you want next to gravy.
Where the Rouge Brute came from
Thanksgiving comes right after harvest, and our sparkling red was literally born at the Thanksgiving table. In 2019, my father-in-law, who we usually spend Thanksgiving with, asked me to make him a little red wine from the Merlot he grows, something he could give his buddies at Christmas. I brought some of it to dinner. It was super fresh, not even done becoming wine yet, and really quite yummy the way young wines can be.
We were also drinking our sparkling Albariño from the previous vintage. I had a moment where I thought, there’s something about these two together. So I blended them right there on the table, and it popped: red fruit with the acid and juiciness of the Albariño, sweet and savory, fruitful and herbal, bright and fresh. That’s where our sparkling red started. Merlot and Albariño isn’t a blend I’d ever seen anyone make before. The whole story is here.
Our table
At our house, we usually bone the turkey: take out the carcass, fill it with a savory mushroom and sausage stuffing, and roast it. Then all the typical American fixings: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry relish, green bean casserole, everything you’d expect. Everyone brings a wine they want to share, so there are other whites and reds on the table too. It’s a feast.
The one thing to remember: sparkling wine is a natural with food. It cuts through fat and freshens your palate. Wine is like salt: it makes food taste better.
Meet the Rouge Brute · Meet the Crab · Meet the Whale
Quick answers
Is sparkling wine good with Thanksgiving dinner? Yes. Its acidity and bubbles cut through rich, fatty dishes and keep your palate fresh through a long meal.
What sparkling wine goes with turkey? A fuller white sparkling wine like our Whale, a sparkling Chardonnay. A sparkling red works too, especially with dark meat.
What wine goes with stuffing and gravy? Something with a little tannin to hold up to the richness, like our Rouge Brute sparkling red or our Crab sparkling orange wine.
What wine goes with pumpkin pie? Ours don’t. None of our wines are sweet enough for dessert, so I’d let the pie stand on its own.