Thanksgiving Wine Guide

Planning to pop a bottle of bubbly with your bird? Or perhaps you'll opt to lift a glass of chardonnay or chenin blanc when toasting your friends and relations this Thanksgiving? If so, you won't be alone. Experts say more wine is sold for Thanksgiving than for any other holiday.

But the question remains what to serve and how to serve it. This Better Homes & Gardens wine guide offers tips on finding the perfect white, red, bubbly, or dessert wine for your feast.

Looking for a more specific recommendation? Gayot serves up the 2023 edition of its trendy wine list for your holiday, complete with specific label and vintage choices.

Trend Alert: Wine Goes Au Naturel

We don't generally think of wine as an additive-laden food, but according to The Food Channel's October Trend Wire (not yet available online), "the more sizable industrial wineries today manipulate their wines much more extensively than small players" by adding "stuff like Mega Purple or Ultra Red--grape concentrates used in red wines to darken color or improve the texture."

If you'd prefer your wine a bit more on the natural side, try going with selections from smaller wineries, like Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California, which is now printing ingredients on the label (above), so you can see exactly what you're getting.

How to Serve Thanksgiving Wine

Once you've got the wine, you have to serve it. And the last thing you want to deal with just as everyone sits down to dine is a recalcitrant bottle, a broken-off cork, or some other oenological disaster. Wine Spectator comes to the rescue with this handy guide called "How to Serve Wine 101."

Speaking of serving, exactly how fussy do you have to be about matching the glass style to the type of wine? This handy guide from the Wall Street Journal tells you exactly How to Select a Good Wine Glass. For more on Thanksgiving decor, check out this post here!

Of course, we recommend sipping wine from antique stemware. Despite the risks (namely, breakage), enjoying wine from an antique glass represents one more way to truly live with your antiques. The Magazine Antiques talks about old glass making techniques and collecting old glasses in their article Old Glass for Old Wine.

Don't Forget Dessert (Wine)

And remember wine isn't just for the meal. Turn your Thanksgiving into a memorable event by creating a dessert and dessert wine pairing (or two) for your guests. Many Americans don't bother with dessert wines, but Avalon Wine makes it easy for you to enjoy a sweet ending to your meal by sharing several dessert recipes, like Chocolate Mousse Cake with Cinnamon Cream and Frozen Praline Souffles, along with the perfect wine pairing for each.

This Thanksgiving, lift a glass of wine with confidence to toast your cherished family and friends.