Wondering about the best wines to pair with your Thanksgiving dinner? Black Enterprise caught up with Andréa and Robin McBride, the first African American sisters to own a wine company, to get a few tips for pairing wine with some of your favorite Turkey day fixings. Here are some suggestions:
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Great wines to pair with turkey or ham, beef ribs, or roast pork
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are classic selections to complement turkey. We recommend our eco.love Marlborough Pinot Noir because it’s a medium-bodied wine with faint tannins that won’t overpower the herbs and seasoning of the turkey. If you’re going with a beef rib entrée, Truvée Red Blend is an ideal choice. The Syrah and Grenache grapes in this blend will balance nicely with the spiciness of sauce brushed on the ribs. Speaking of barbecue sauce, we actually worked with Chef Susan Palmer of The Girl In the Little Red Kitchen blog to create our own sauce that incorporates our Truvée Red Blend as an ingredient! We love finding new and surprising foods to pair with our wines and ways to incorporate wine into dishes, so this was a fun way to mix our love of ribs with our love of red wine! We’ve included the recipe for our Blackberry Chipotle Truvée Red Wine Barbecue Sauce below.
Blackberry Chipotle Truvée Red Wine Barbecue Sauce
Produced in partnership with Susan Palmer, The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Serves: approximately 16
Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion,
½ tablespoon avocado or grapeseed oil
2 cups fresh blackberries
¼ cup ketchup
¾ cup Truvée Red Blend Wine, divided
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
2 whole chipotles in adobe sauce
2 tablespoons adobo sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, drizzle the avocado oil and add the onions. Sautee until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the blackberries, ketchup, ½ cup wine, balsamic vinegar, chipotles, adobo sauce, brown sugar, and salt to the pan.
3. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer.
4. Cook for 15 minutes or until the blackberries start to soften.
5. Remove from the heat and transfer to your blender. Carefully puree the barbecue sauce until smooth.
6. Place a fine-mesh sieve over
7. Using a spoon, press the sauce through until only the solids are left, discard, and add the
remaining ¼ cup of wine.
8. Return the saucepan to medium heat and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
9. Let the sauce cool slightly before applying to chicken, pork, beef, or seafood.
Wine pairings for desserts, such as sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, or apple pie.
During the holidays, we’re obsessed with sweet potato pie! It’s become a family tradition of ours, with our Auntie making each one of us our own pie for Thanksgiving because we love it so much! For a fun wine pairing, try sweet potato pie with an off-dry Riesling. The slight sweetness of the Riesling will match the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes. You can also pair it with the Thanksgiving staple, apple pie. We really enjoy eco.love Riesling with sweet potato and apple pies, and recommend you try this pairing over the holidays.
Wine options for vegan Thanksgiving dishes, such as squash, creamed spinach, or whipped sweet potatoes.
Turkey is a Thanksgiving staple, but it is the array of side dishes that really make this holiday meal standout. For all the vegans out there, don’t fret! Wine pairs just as nicely with vegetables as it does with meat. Our favorite pairing is butternut squash and Truvée Chardonnay. The rich, creamy texture of the squash works well with this crisp wine matching its acidity. For vegetarians, try Truvée Chardonnay with buttery mashed potatoes or creamy mac & cheese.
You can purchase wines by the McBride sisters at grocery stores near you, nationwide: Safeway, Kroger, Albertsons, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, Jewel Osco, and Roundy’s to name a few.