Burning Question: What wine pairs with Thanksgiving dinner?

It should be so, so simple. After all, turkey is the sort of dish welcoming to just about any light, fruity wine—red or white.

So just stock up on Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer and you’re all set. Burning Question answered in record time. Nothing to do but head to the bar for a pre-happy hour celebration.

But then someone cranks open a can of that cranberry jelly stuff. Another guest brings stuffing with blistering sausage. There’s green bean casserole, candied yams, oyster pie with those funky, wobbly grey things from the tin (if you grew up in the Midwest) and more. The Dallas Cowboys—America’s team, you know—game kicks off and everyone forgets about the bird until it’s smoky and parched.

Account for cooking trends and the degree of difficulty ratchets up again.

“When they deep fry the turkey, that’s a whole different ball game,” says Vince Ciolino, owner of Zeph’s One Stop in Salinas—and he’s not talking about the Detroit Lions vs whoever they lose to.

No, with all the variables, pairing wine with Thanksgiving dinner seems near impossible.

“Because there are so many dishes going on, it’s pretty tough to pick out a single wine,” explains Jay Madrid, sommelier at Il Grillo in Carmel. “A good start would be a nice sparkling wine. But once dinner hits, it’s everybody’s preference.”

So how do you make sense of it all?

Well, you could take the time and effort (not to mention expense) of rounding up varietals that pair well with each course and every side dish. You could throw up your hands and pry open the vodka—it’s clean and pretty much matches anything. Or there’s Madrid’s approach, which is rather sensible as it combines conceding defeat with the continued love of wine.

“This is a time for family,” he says. The veteran sommelier envisions siblings catching up, kids running around, Dak Prescott connecting with Amari Cooper for yet another score and other Rockwell touches. “This is a good excuse to not really concentrate on pairings.”

Yet there are some wines that will make it through the entire Thanksgiving cornucopia without seizing up.

“You want wines that are not too oaky—not an overly serious wine,” Kerry Winslow, a wine educator who works with Windy Oaks Estate in Carmel Valley and other wineries. “You’re going to have quite a few flavors, so you want the wine to be fun.”

That means shelving the Cabernet Sauvignon, screwing the cap back on the Sauvignon Blanc and handing the Chardonnay back to the soccer moms. Thanksgiving was made for Pinot Noir, Rosé, dry Riesling, Albariño, Chenin Blanc and varietals you may never hear of the rest of the year.

“We have Beaujolais Nouveau,” Ciolino points out. The young wine is released in November, and getting hammered on it is a French tradition. But it is also a versatile wine where poultry and trimmings are involved. “It’s supposed to be a good year, and it works with cranberry.”

Dry Gewurztraminer is a classic, or one of the Beaujolais—Cru or Villages, in addition to the spritely Nouveau. Madeline Puckette, who wrote Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine, also suggests Garnacha, Carignan or (if you’ve blasted the turkey beyond recognition) Brachetto d’Acqui.

But there’s no need to get that exotic.

"In California you have wines now that are more food friendly and lighter in style,” Winslow observes.

He suggests some of the local favorites: the Rosé from I.Brand Family Wines’ Le P’tit Paysan label, Joyce Vineyards’ Submarine Canyon Pinot Noir, the red blend from Big Sur Vineyards, one of the Pinots pulled from the Santa Lucia Highlands by the folks at Cima Collina or Windy Oaks’ Grenache.

“I go for Kabinett-style Riesling,” Winslow adds. “Locally we have Mercy and Joyce that do drier Rieslings.”

Ciolino urges people to seek direction from the experts once you know the full scope of the meal.

“I say ‘how are you preparing the turkey—if it is turkey—and what are the sides,’” he says. “People are pretty understanding. I try to steer them the right way.”

Frying the bird? Sparkling wine makes sense. A smoked turkey breast? Zinfandel would be a good match.

Of course, none of this was a problem at the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag guzzled whatever was handy to go along with...um...well, historians aren’t certain whether turkey was even part of the meal. A member of the Plymouth Colony who took part in the three-day bash (yes, Pilgrims knew how to party)—Edward Winslow—mentions “fowl,” and venison. On the other hand, Governor William Bradford noted that “besides waterfowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.”

But in this office, we prefer to believe the version tended by humorist—nah, let’s call him a serious historian—Stan Freberg. To wit:

What do you mean you cooked the turkey, Charlie?

   Well, I cooked the turkey, that’s all.

You put our national bird in the oven?

  Yeah, well I, uh…

And all of us had our mouths set for roast eagle with all the trimmings.

  Well, the two birds were lying there side by side.

The turkey was for the centerpiece, Charlie.

Yep, that’s how it went down. Maybe. At least in the mind of Stan Freberg. No telling what wine would pair with roast eagle. Or what the trimmings would be.

And I'm not going to mention turducken...well, except for just now.

But for turkey, the answer to this week’s Burning Question turns out not to be that daunting, as long as you ask around and keep a few guidelines in mind—and remember that they are just guidelines.

“There’s no book that says you have to drink this or that wine for Thanksgiving,” Madrid assures us.