Reliving the first Thanksgiving
A fun and creative way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year is to enjoy the same or similar foods that the settlers enjoyed in 1621. Save for the swans and seals, most these ingredients are readily available in Shanghai markets and can be used to make Western- or Chinese-style dishes.
Whether you choose to relive the first Thanksgiving and enjoy dishes ranging from water fowl and venison to fresh bounty from the sea along with winter vegetables and nuts, or you take the more modern approach and have a turkey with trimmings, mash potatoes and cranberry sauce, your wine options are many.
If only one wine will grace your table this year, it's best to stick to the most versatile food-pairing wines like sparkers, whites or young fresh red wines.
Bubbles are always a good answer and one of my favorite US producers is Chateau Ste Michelle. Their Brut sparkler is a high-quality, good-value wine that goes nicely with seafood, white meats and a host of vegetables. Should your dinner include dark meat fowl, then try their 100 percent Pinot Noir sparkling wine Blanc de Noirs.
Both sparklers are also great matches with turkey. Other reasonably priced sparkling options are the Wolf Blass Red Label Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut from Australia and the Nederburg Foundation Premiere Cuvee Brut. Both of these wine offer generous ripe yellow fruit flavors and refreshing acidity.
Should you yen for a white wine to accompany your holiday feast, then I highly recommend an Albarino from Rias Baixas, Spain. The lively flavors and acidity of good Albarino wines emphasize the freshness of seafood while also awakening the natural flavors of both seafood and white meats. Martin Codax is one of the best producers of Albarinos and their wines are readily available in Shanghai.
So far I have resisted suggesting red wines since so many of the dishes the Pilgrims enjoyed in 1621 and the dishes we commonly serve at modern Thanksgiving meals go better with, or at least equally well with, sparkling or white wines. However, should venison or some other red meat be part of your meal, then a bottle of red makes sense. Zinfandel has become a favorite of many on Thanksgiving.
Resisting the conventional, take a bottle of sparkling wine to accompany the lighter dishes. I'll be serving two Ausi wines comprised of three red varietals usually associated with the Southern Rhone, namely Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre.
GSM wines are some of the best wines to pair with fowl of all sorts as well as other rich meats like venison. The combination of elegant dark fruit flavors, spices and gentle, mouth-coating tannins embellish the best of meat dishes. On my wine list this Thanksgiving are two GSMs from the excellent Barossa producer Torbreck. They are the budget-worthy Old Vines GSM and the slightly more pricy and elegant, The Steading GSM.
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