We’re heading into the holiday season, which also means we’re heading into the season of wine-pairing-with-holiday-meal articles. Some of them aren’t very original, but many are helpful. And, with all the stress and hustle-bustle holidays bring, it doesn’t hurt to have some expert advice to make the wines for Thanksgiving thing a bit easier.

I just wrote 16 Wine Pairing Ideas for Thanksgiving for the JJ Buckley site. It’s got solid, classic advice with specific recommendations on wines for Thanksgiving. Please give it a read.

But today, in this article, I’m taking a different approach. Maybe you want some thing non-classic. Or maybe you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in a conventional way. Here are some thoughts for that.

Wines for Hard Core Football Fans

As long as I can remember, football has been a big part of Thanksgiving Day, playing when I was a kid but always watching too. If your day will include TV time with football, here are a couple of wines for Thanksgiving that will go down well but also spark relevant conversation.

A lot of celebrities have gotten into the wine business. Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe is one of those who’s actually producing excellent wine. His Doubleback Red Wine Walla Walla Valley ($89 and 14.4% alcohol) is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec from six vineyards in Washington state. It’s aged in French oak, 75% new, for 22 months. It’s ripe and rich and red-fruited with attractive weight and texture. It should go well with dark meat as well as talks about how football was better back when Bledsoe played.

Charles Woodson, a former Oakland Raider and future Hall-of-Famer, is another football great who’s taken up wine. He works with Napa Valley winemaker Gustavo Gonzalez to produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc under the Charles Woodson Wines label. The white should be a good option if your plate holds Brussels sprouts, green beens and white meat.

Atlantic Seaboard Wines

If you’re into the traditional Thanksgiving stories of pilgrims landing on the shores of North America, etc., some wines from the state of Virginia will tie in well. For centuries, Virginians—including Thomas Jefferson—tried to grow wine there with little success. These days, with the problems of Phylloxera and humid growing environments largely solved, there’s a lot of good wine coming from Virginia. Here are some of my favorite producers:

Barboursville Vineyards – a modern pioneer in Virginia winemaking, the vineyard and estate, near Monticello, are located on a plantation that once belonged to a friend of Thomas Jefferson.

Keswick Vineyards – Viognier is one of the things Virginia does best. And Viognier is among the better white wines for Thanksgiving. Keswick offers a nice one along with a tasty assortment of other varietals and blends.

Boxwood Estate Winery – Boxwood’s focus is Bordeaux-variety red wines and they make them in a style that offers Old World complexity. There’s a slight football connection here too, as the winery is owned by the son of Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of Washington D.C.’s NFL team.

To get more advice on Virginia wines, take a look at Frank Morgan’s blog Drink What You Like.

Wineries Owned by Native Americans

Tara Gomez, winemaker for Kita Wines in Santa Barbara County

As charming as those traditional Thanksgiving stories are, Europe’s migration to North America took a terrible toll on Native American peoples. Many folks cognizant to that choose to spend Thanksgiving thinking of America’s first peoples. If you’d like to support Native American businesses, there some wineries among them.

Kita Wines – These wines are made by Tara Gomez, a winemaker who studied enology at Cal State Fresno and has worked at both Fess Parker Winery and J. Lohr. The grapes come from the Camp 4 Vineyard in Santa Ynez Valley. It once belonged to Fess Parker but, per his wishes, was sold to the Chumash Tribe after his death.

Nk’Mip Cellars – Nk’Mip says that it was “the first Aboriginal-owned winery in North America.” It’s located at the southern end of the Osoyoos Indian Reservation in British Columbia, Canada within the up-and-coming Okanagan Wines region.

For other options, read this 2012 article, “Native American Wine,” by Lindsey Roffey for Monique Soltani’s WineOh.TV.

Copyright Fred Swan 2016. Photo courtesy of Kita Wines. All rights reserved.