Quick answer: what is the best wine for Thanksgiving?
Every Thanksgiving guide tells you to buy Pinot Noir. We looked at what people actually buy, and it is Cabernet Sauvignon — close to half of every bottle we ship in November. Both things are true at once: Pinot Noir is the safest match for turkey, because it has acidity and almost no tannin to fight the cranberry, and Cabernet is what most people genuinely want to drink on a holiday. So this list is built the way a real table is stocked. Five Cabernets, two Italian reds, a Zinfandel for the sweet dishes, one Pinot Noir, one Chardonnay, a Champagne for the door and a dessert wine for the pie. Every bottle rated 90 points or better by an independent critic, in stock today, one wine per estate.
Thanksgiving is the hardest meal of the year to buy wine for, and not because the turkey is difficult. Turkey is mild. It is everything around it: butter, salt, sugar from the sweet potatoes, acid from the cranberry, earth from the stuffing, all in one mouthful. And unlike every other dinner, it arrives at once rather than in courses, so nobody at the table is choosing a pairing. They are choosing what they feel like, from whatever is open.
Which is why the advice to buy one perfect bottle is the wrong advice. The job is to put a short row of bottles on the sideboard, open at the same time, covering what people will actually reach for. Plan half a bottle per drinking adult and add two, because dinner runs long. Eight adults is six bottles. Twelve adults is eight.
How to read this list. It runs in the order you will pour it: the Champagne at the door, then the white, the Pinot Noir, the bigger reds through the meal, and the dessert wine when the pie lands. Each entry carries its critic score, because a number from Decanter, James Suckling, Wine Spectator or the Wine Advocate is worth more than our opinion. Two shortcuts sit at the top: the bottles the critics scored highest, and the ones our customers keep coming back for. The full Thanksgiving range is the longer read.
What the experts are drinking now: 2022 Luciano Arduini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG (99 Luca Maroni); 2021 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley (99 Decanter); 2022 Octoginta Passione di Famiglia Super Tuscan Blend (98 Luca Maroni).
What our customers are loving now: Gremillet Selection Brut Champagne NV; 2024 Cristom Pinot Noir Willamette Valley; 2023 Turley Wine Cellars Old Vines Zinfandel; 2021 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley.
1. Gremillet Selection Brut Champagne NV
92 James Suckling
Real Champagne under forty dollars, poured in fifty embassies.
Pour this at the door and the day starts properly. The Gremillet family began in 1979 in the Aube, the southern end of Champagne where the grapes ripen and the prices have not caught up, and their wine is now served in more than fifty embassies. Seventy percent Pinot Noir, thirty percent Chardonnay, a fine persistent bead and a creamy mousse. Acacia and hawthorn first, then peach, pear and apricot, with brioche and toasted yeast opening in the glass. Rich and rounded on the palate, baked biscuit against citrus acidity, a note of spiced vanilla at the end. James Suckling: ninety-two points. It buys the cook forty minutes.
2. 2024 Flowers Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
93 Wine Spectator
Walt and Joan Flowers planted two miles from the Pacific in 1989, when almost nobody believed great fruit could ripen that close to the ocean. Organically farmed coastal Chardonnay: Meyer lemon, just-ripe mandarin, white flowers, green citrus oil and ocean-spray minerality. Wine Spectator: ninety-three points.
3. 2024 Cristom Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
95 James Suckling
If you buy one red for the turkey, buy this one.
Pinot Noir is the answer every sommelier gives for this meal, because it has the acidity to cut the butter and none of the tannin that fights cranberry. Cristom is the estate that earns the recommendation: family-owned in Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills, three decades spent doing one thing, and Jeb Dunnuck has said 2024 may be remembered as one of the defining vintages of the modern era in Oregon. Rose and lavender over blue fruit and plum, then concentrated blackberry and black cherry against well-integrated oak spice, silky tannins, a clean mineral finish. James Suckling: ninety-five points. Our own pairing data puts it with duck, chicken and poultry, which is the centre of the table in one line.
4. 2023 Turley Wine Cellars Old Vines Zinfandel
92 Wine Spectator
The red that survives the sweet potatoes.
Thanksgiving puts sugar on the plate in three or four places at once, and most reds go thin and sour next to it. Zinfandel does not: it has the ripe fruit and the spice to meet candied yams and cranberry head on. Turley is the name in American Zinfandel, forty-seven wines from more than fifty vineyards, nearly all single-vineyard old vines, every site farmed organically or biodynamically, and the stated purpose is to preserve California's old-vine heritage rather than replant it. Old Vines is the calling card: silky, structured, savoury, with the depth and grace only genuinely old vines give, carried on a satin texture. Wine Spectator: ninety-two points.
5. 2022 Octoginta Passione di Famiglia Super Tuscan Blend
98 Luca Maroni
A Super Tuscan sold without a single middleman.
Octoginta is a family wine from Cetona that flew under the radar for years, and we bought it by cutting out every broker and distributor between the cellar and the table. Half Sangiovese with Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Super Tuscan recipe done without the Super Tuscan price. Blueberry and wild blackberry with white chocolate, vanilla and toasted spice, full-bodied and persistent, balanced front to back. Ninety-eight points. An Italian red earns two seats on this page because Italian reds are the second thing our customers buy in November, and this is the one to open while the food is still coming out.
Take 6+: $34.99 a bottle
6. 2022 Luciano Arduini Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG
99 Luca Maroni
Dried-grape Amarone: the richest thing on the table.
Amarone is made from grapes dried on mats for months before pressing, which concentrates everything and produces a red of real weight without the hard edges — Robert Parker called it the king of the Veneto. Four generations of Valpolicella work sit behind this one: Corvina with Corvinone, Rondinella and Molinara, twenty-four months in Slavonian oak. Ruby red, intensely aromatic, soft and velvety, the scent of dried grapes over sour cherry, Christmas spice, black pepper and clove, finishing on chocolate and mocha. Luca Maroni: ninety-nine points. This is the bottle people remember and ask about afterwards.
7. 2023 Martellotto 'La Bomba' Cabernet Sauvignon Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara
95 Decanter
Ninety-five points from Decanter, thirty-three dollars, and it is ours.
Cabernet Sauvignon is what our customers actually buy in November — close to half of every bottle that leaves here — so five of these twelve are Cabernet, and this is where the run starts. La Bomba is Greg Martellotto's own, from Happy Canyon at the warm eastern end of Santa Barbara county, and it lives up to the name: blackcurrant liqueur, graphite, warm sagebrush and a whiff of espresso crema, then a full-bodied palate with broad shoulders and fine-grained tannins. Decanter gave it ninety-five points. Because we make it, there is no importer and no distributor in the price.
Take 6+: $29.99 a bottle · 12+: $24.99 a bottle
8. Erikson & Caradin Raptor & Crimson Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
96 Tasting Panel
Napa Cabernet at a price that lets you open three.
Erikson and Caradin started in 2013 making wine for friends and a few local restaurants, got access to more fruit in 2016, and have been quietly turning out Napa Cabernet at a fraction of the going rate ever since. Ripe blackberry, dark cherry and cassis with vanilla, cedar and baking spice, then a rich velvety texture carrying blackcurrant, plum and espresso. The Tasting Panel: ninety-six points. A holiday table goes through more wine than anyone plans for, and this is the bottle you buy several of so the good stuff lasts to the end.
Take 6+: $29.99 a bottle · 12+: $24.99 a bottle
9. 2021 Jordan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley
96 Tasting Panel
On American holiday tables since 1976.
Tom Jordan founded this winery in 1976 to prove California could make Cabernet with the grace and restraint of a Bordeaux estate, and for nearly fifty years the family has not wavered. It is the Cabernet a lot of people grew up seeing on the table at Thanksgiving. Eighty-seven percent Cabernet with Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec: deep ruby, restrained on the nose with graphite, dried herb and dark cherry ahead of blueberry, clove and cedar, then a silky palate of blackberry and cocoa nib framed by fine tannins. The Tasting Panel: ninety-six points. Elegant rather than loud, which is what a long meal wants.
10. 2021 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
99 Decanter
The family that gave Napa its first single-vineyard Cabernet.
Joe Heitz bottled Martha's Vineyard as its own wine and changed what Napa believed it was for; the family has owned the winery since 1961. This is all Cabernet Sauvignon in a ripe but fresh style, polished tannins over ample acidity, built for the cellar but perfectly open now with half an hour in a decanter. Decanter scored it ninety-nine points. It is also, by a wide margin, the single best-selling wine on this page over the last two years, which is the clearest signal we have about what people want when they are buying for a table.
11. 2016 Chateau Giscours Margaux
97 James Suckling
A third-growth Margaux, from 2016, under a hundred dollars.
Three miles from Chateau Margaux itself, Giscours has been making wine for nearly seven hundred years and was classified a third growth in 1855. 2016 is one of the great modern Bordeaux vintages and this is drinking now: deep ruby-purple edging to garnet, cassis and dark cherry with violet, cedar, graphite and sweet pipe tobacco, the perfume of mature Margaux starting to arrive. Full-bodied with classical Margaux balance, vivid acidity and polished tannins. James Suckling: ninety-seven points. Every list needs one bottle that makes the room go quiet, and a classified growth at this price is that bottle.
12. Jose Maria da Fonseca Alambre Moscatel de Setubal 20 Years 500ML
94 Roger Voss
Twenty years in cask, and it costs less than the Cabernet.
The rule with dessert is that the wine has to be sweeter than the plate or it tastes thin and sour, and pumpkin pie beats most wines easily. This does not lose. Alambre is the estate where Jose Maria da Fonseca first planted Moscatel, and it is also the Portuguese word for the amber colour the wine ends up; this bottling is fortified, aged twenty years, and blended from vintages reaching back to 1911. Tarnished gold, fresh tangerine against almond, caramel and honey, lush and concentrated but still bright, finishing on what its own note calls endless velvety peach. Roger Voss: ninety-four points. It comes in a half-litre bottle, which is how serious dessert wine is sold and exactly enough to pour the whole table.
Buy All 12 Thanksgiving Wines as One Case
Every wine on this list, in one case — $586.43
$967.00 if you bought all twelve separately at list — you save $380.57.
See the case and everything in it
FREE shipping — every order of 12 bottles or more ships free. This case updates automatically as vintages sell through, so what you see here is what is actually in the cellar today.
How much to buy, and when to open it
Half a bottle per drinking adult, plus two. Eight adults comes to six bottles; twelve adults comes to eight. Buy across three or four different wines rather than a case of one, because the table is eating six things at once and no single bottle suits all of them. The case on this page is twelve because that is what a case is and what ships free, and because the leftovers are the point: the Champagne and the Chardonnay get opened again the next day with the sandwiches, which is the best meal of the whole holiday.
Temperature does more for this table than any pairing chart. Champagne goes on ice before anyone arrives. The white wants an hour in the fridge, not three, because a wine served too cold tastes of nothing. The Pinot Noir is better at cellar temperature than room temperature, so give it twenty minutes in the fridge before you sit down — it is the single easiest thing you can do to make a good red taste better. Open the Cabernets half an hour early and leave the dessert wine closed until the pie is on the table.
One honest note on what this page is. It is a buying guide, built to be bought from: every bottle is in stock today and the whole row is available as one case. If you want a dish-by-dish pairing argument instead, including the sides that cause the real trouble, our guide to Thanksgiving pairings is the longer read, and the festive wines guide carries the rest of the season. Since five of these twelve are Cabernet, the best Napa Cabernets to buy right now goes deeper on that one grape, the best Pinot Noirs does the same for the classic turkey red, and the best Chardonnays covers the white. Everything else for the table is in the Thanksgiving collection, and the whole range in every wine we ship.
Thanksgiving wine questions, answered
What is the best Thanksgiving wine to buy right now?
Our current top pick is Gremillet Selection Brut Champagne NV at $39.99 — the highest-conviction wine on this list of twelve. If you want the whole spread, the complete 12-bottle case is $586.43 and ships free.
What is the best Thanksgiving wine under $50?
Right now we recommend Gremillet Selection Brut Champagne NV ($39.99); 2024 Flowers Chardonnay Sonoma Coast ($39.98); 2024 Cristom Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($34.99); 2023 Turley Wine Cellars Old Vines Zinfandel ($39.79). Every wine on this page is in stock and scored 90+ — the list refreshes automatically as vintages sell through.
How much does a good Thanksgiving wine cost?
More than it should, usually — but it does not have to. The twelve wines on this list run $35 to $99. Genuine, critic-scored Thanksgiving wine starts around $35 when you buy from a direct importer instead of a restaurant list or grocery shelf.
What wine goes best with turkey?
Turkey is mild; the plate around it is not. It carries butter, salt, sugar from the sweet potatoes, acid from the cranberry and earth from the stuffing at once, so the wine needs acidity and should not lead with hard tannin. Pinot Noir is the safest single answer and the one most often given. In practice Cabernet Sauvignon outsells it roughly thirteen to one on our own November orders, because people drink what they like on a holiday. Open both and let the table decide.
How many bottles of wine do I need for Thanksgiving?
Half a bottle per adult who drinks, which is about two and a half glasses, plus two spare because dinner runs long and somebody always arrives thirsty. Eight adults comes to six bottles; twelve adults comes to eight. Spread it across three or four different wines rather than a case of one: the table is eating six things at once and no single bottle suits all of them.
Should I serve red or white wine at Thanksgiving?
Both, open at the same time. Thanksgiving is the one meal that arrives all at once instead of in courses, so nobody is choosing a pairing — they are choosing what they feel like from whatever is open. One white and two or three reds covers a table of eight. Red does most of the work: it is about four fifths of what we ship in November.
Is Cabernet Sauvignon too big for Thanksgiving?
Not if you pick the right one and open it early. What you want to avoid is a young, heavily extracted Cabernet with hard tannin, which turns bitter next to cranberry. A balanced Cabernet with real acidity — a valley-floor Napa bottling, a Bordeaux with some age, or a Cabernet with a few years on it — handles dark meat, gravy and stuffing better than almost anything. Decant it half an hour before you sit down.
What wine should I serve with pumpkin pie?
The wine has to be sweeter than the plate or it tastes thin and sour, and pie beats most wines easily. A fortified Moscatel, a late-harvest wine, a Sauternes or a tawny Port all work, and their honey, dried apricot and caramel meet the spice in pumpkin and pecan directly. Dessert wine is usually sold in a half bottle, which is the right amount: it is poured in small glasses and one bottle serves the table.
When should I open the wine on Thanksgiving?
Sparkling goes on ice before anyone arrives and is poured at the door, because it starts the day and buys the cook forty minutes. White wants about an hour in the fridge, not three — a wine served too cold tastes of nothing. Lighter reds are better at cellar temperature, so twenty minutes in the fridge before you sit down is right. Open the Cabernets half an hour early and leave the dessert wine closed until the pie is on the table.
Related
ReadThe Ultimate Guide for Thanksgiving Pairings, Selected by Big Hammer Wine Experts
ReadTop 12 Festive Wines to Pair with Your Holiday FeastsReadThe 12 Best Pinot Noirs to Buy Right Now, From Everyday Bottles to the Splurge
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