Local libations for your Thanksgiving table

With the holiday just a week away, it is likely that your Thanksgiving plans are already set. If you’re hosting, you’ve chosen recipes to create the perfect meal, but are you confident selecting wines that will complement your menu?

Perhaps you’re traveling to visit family or friends and want to share some Finger Lakes wine with them, but you’re overwhelmed by the number of choices available. Or maybe you volunteered to bring the wine because you thought it would be the easiest option, but you don’t have a clue when it comes to picking the right bottle.

Food and wine pairing is all about trail and error, but a holiday meal is not the time to experiment. I’ve talked to some local experts to help you get it right.

Bet the Farm Winery, 4204 Krums Corners Rd., Trumansburg

“I like to start off a holiday celebration with some bubbles,” said Nancy Tisch, owner and winemaker at Bet the Farm Winery. “Our Brut Gamay is a great way to start off a big, heavy meal.”

Gamay noir is the grape used to make the ever-popular Beaujolais nouveau, traditionally released on the third Thursday in November in France to celebrate the harvest. Bet the Farm’s vineyard contains one of the first substantial plantings of the grape in the Finger Lakes, and they use it to produce a Dry Rosé, a light-bodied red Gamay Noir and the sparkling Brut Gamay. All would be good accompaniments to the Thanksgiving meal and would pair well with the main entrée — the turkey.

“The Brut Gamay will introduce some cranberry and pomegranate notes — the kinds of flavors that you might be seeing during the course of your meal,” Tisch said. “The Gamay Noir makes a good red table wine because it’s a little bit lighter, not a heavy red, and can even be served chilled. Our Dry Rosé is slightly more acidic and provides a good balance to the heaviness of a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings.”

The same could be said of Bet the Farm’s Traminette, a crisp white wine similar in taste to a gewurtztraminer.

“The Traminette is a good pairing with some of the sweeter vegetables that are often served as part of the holiday meal like the sweet potatoes or butternut squash,” Tisch said. “Again, the acidity in the wine helps to cut through and balance that sweetness.”

Kit Kalfs, co-owner of Bet the Farm, adds that the Traminette is also a very aromatic wine.

“You want a wine that has nice aromas that can complement but also stand up to the food aromas on the table,” Kalfs said.

Six Mile Creek Vineyard, 1551 Slaterville Rd., Ithaca

Paul King, winemaker at Six Mile Creek, suggests sharing wines that appeal to you personally and not worrying so much about classic pairings.

“Thanksgiving is such a complex meal,” King said. “If you have a favorite wine that you really like, chances are other people will like it too. It will almost certainly pair well with something on the table.”

His own family will be enjoying Six Mile Creek’s Avery Spumante, a sparkling dry rosé made from a blend of vignoles, Cayuga and Maréchal Foch grapes.

“The nice thing about a rosé is that it goes with a lot of things,” King said. “Our Avery Spumante has enough acidity and fruit that it would pair well with many cheeses or the main entrée. The fact that it has bubbles makes it a bit more festive.”

Another versatile option from Six Mile Creek is their Grüner Veltliner, an Austrian varietal that King compares to a Riesling.

“Our Grüner Veltleiner has enough acidity to keep things lively and balance some of the rich foods you’ll be eating,” King said. “It has a similar mouth feel as Riesling, with fruit and floral notes.”

King also distills a variety of spirits at Six Mile Creek. He immediately thought of their Limoncella as the perfect choice for after dinner.

“In Italy, limoncella is billed as a ‘digestivo,’ an aid to digestion,” King said. “It is a refreshing after dinner liqueur which could be sipped on its own or with a dessert.”

King explained that sometimes food and wine pairings follow the “opposites attract” rule, but similar flavors can also work together.

“For example, a creamy cheesecake with our Limoncella would be fantastic, but a lemon meringue pie would also pair well,” King said.

Ports of New York Winery, 815 Taber St., Ithaca

Frédéric Bouché, owner and winemaker at Ports of New York, loves to talk about his fortified white and red wines produced in the French style (tompkinsweekly.com/articles/ports-of-ny-100-years-of-family-winemaking/).

“Both fortified wines called Meleau are aged in a solera system started in 2006, which makes our oldest wine 16 years old,” Bouché said. “They are very smooth and have much less alcohol and residual sugar than typical port wine.”

Bouché recommends the White Meleau as an aperitif to accompany a charcuterie board consisting of meat or mushroom pâtés, nuts, creamy mild cheeses, fresh figs, sliced pears and, for extra decadence, some truffle honey.

The Red Meleau is a dessert wine that would be delicious when paired with a dark chocolate flourless cake, sweet and salty candied bacon, spicy pumpkin pies or custards.

For the main meal, Bouché would opt for his Tompkins Sparkling, a frizzante made with Riesling grapes.

“The Tompkins Sparkling is an excellent dinner wine,” Bouche said. “It pairs well with so many foods! Not only turkey, but also duck, roasted pork with apples, pasta dishes with creamy sauces, rich vegetables. The spicier the food, the sweeter you perceive the dry Riesling to be.”

South Hill Cider, 550 Sandbank Rd., Ithaca

For something a little unexpected, you might consider a bottle from South Hill Cider. Steve Selin, cider maker and orchadist, makes ciders using traditional methods that look and taste similar to wines. There are a few distinctions, however.

“Ciders are generally lower in alcohol than wine and can be drunk throughout the day without overdoing it,” Selin said. “Also, the flavors tend to be more subtle and pair really well with different fall foods.”

Selin has already done the work for you, offering a “Thanksgiving Trio” consisting of his Goldwin, Patina and Pommeau ciders ranging from dry to sweet.

“I’d recommend the still cider at the beginning; it goes really well with most cheeses. That’s the Goldwin,” Selin said. “The Patina has some bubbles but it also has some texture. It goes really well with heartier foods. You can sip it between bites to cleanse your palate. The Pommeau is sweet and fortified. It would go great with dessert or cheese after dinner.”

Hopefully, this guide has left you feeling more prepared to select just the right bottle to complement your Thanksgiving meal. It has left me feeling hungry but also excited to taste some of these fabulous recommendations!

Many of these specific varieties and vintages are available for sale only at the winery or cidery where they are made. The advantage is that you may be able to sample or at least talk with the experts themselves about your choices.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Food for Thought appears in the third edition of each month in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.