The Best Wine To Pair With Your Thanksgiving Turkey, According To A Sommelier

Whether you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner for one, or for dozens of guests, it's easy to see why selecting the right wine can be intimidating. After all, the occasion goes beyond the simple, if not cliché, "rule" of pairing dark meat with red wine and light meat with white. At Thanksgiving, you've got both light and dark turkey meat and ham to consider; not to mention the variety of side dishes, which can range from creamy green bean casserole to a sugary sweet potato bake. For advice on the matter, we couldn't think of anyone more knowledgeable than sommelier and founder of Maison Noir Wines, André Hueston Mack, who we chatted with at The Bahamas Culinary & Arts Festival presented by Baha Mar. Mack agrees that if you're going to select one varietal for your Thanksgiving turkey feast, it should be rosé.

"Rosé, it's not just for the summer. It's really a go-to of mine for Thanksgiving," Mack said. "For the medley, and the plethora of flavors on the table, rosé makes sense." He also gave a general description of what to expect from a bottle of rosé, noting that these wines are made from red wine grapes, adding, "That gives you the red wine flavors, but also it gives you some acidity and it gives you ... I don't know? It gives it a lift. If you're not drinking white wine, this is a way to bridge the gap for all the flavors on the table."

Indeed, rosé wine gets its rosy hue from the brief period the grape juice is in contact with the grape skins when they are crushed after harvest; rosé doesn't come from combining red and white wines, like some might think. This method also imparts some of the character of red wine, while maintaining the lighter body of a white wine.

André Hueston Mack says that, really, any rosé will do, regardless of the region where it's made. However, for Thanksgiving specifically, Mack goes for all-American labels. He offered, "I celebrate American holidays with American products. Not to say I'm too national, necessarily. But that's what I like to do. And so American rosé I think is great, but if you can only find some from Provence, I think those are great. I think just the style, in general, really goes with and complements, and echoes those flavors for Thanksgiving."

One common misconception about rosé wine is that it's always sweet. This likely comes from the explosive popularity of white zinfandel in the 1970s and '80s. While white zin is, indeed, a type of rosé, its characteristics don't define the varietal as a whole. The crisp, acidic rosés that Mack recommends are more characteristic of dry rosés. These are also the wines that are wonderful for summertime sipping. Sweet rosés are fuller, juicier, and of course, noticeably sweet. After you've enjoyed the perfect wine pairing for Thanksgiving dinner, and the leftovers are gobbled up, don't forget that a glass of rosé tastes unexpectedly delicious with Cheetos any time of year.