4 Italian Wines for Thanksgiving: Pairing Prosecco, Chardonnay, Barolo, Passito with a coursed meal

Italian wines for Thanksgiving

At most of our typical US Thanksgiving dinners, there’s a buffet full of food. You fill your plate to the brim with scallop potatoes, salad, sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing, prime rib, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, maybe a few more cocktail shrimp from the appetizer period during the football games. And then which wine to open and pour in your glass?

Which ONE wine will you pour in your ONE glass?

How do you find one wine that will go with everything? This is a seemingly impossible task, and one that has generated a million articles about wines to go with Thanksgiving including a fair share here (spoiler: I’ve Zinfandel usually works the best). 

This year for Thanksgiving or for Friendsgiving, we have a different idea: how about a coursed meal with a different wine to go with each course? You might have different people bring the course and the wine to match, or be the mastermind yourself, and do it yourself, or make guided suggestions.

We decided to pair four Italian wines with four courses that make a fabulous Thanksgiving meal that anyone would be grateful for and to move from north to south of Italy for wines during the meal.

We’d want bubbles to begin with like Prosecco from northern Italy for appetizers like shrimp cocktail. Next an intense white, orange or ramato wine like Chardonnay to pair with gratin, followed by a complex red like Barolo to go with the meat course like duck breast; we chose wines for Piemonte. To finish, a Passito to go with a dessert like chocolate dipped ground nut “diamonds” using a recipe from Campania. 

Another benefit of a coursed meal is that you enjoy small servings of each, and you don’t end up feeling as stuffed as the turkey! We really loved this meal and pairings from start to finish, and we think you will too.

Thanksgiving 2024 what are you grateful for?  I’m grateful that in 2024 I was able to taste lots of Italian wine during visits in Tuscany, Sicily, Lazio, and Campania, and I look forward to traveling to Italy again in 2025! 

Stay tuned for more fall foods with Italian wines from Veneto where I traveled in 2023, plus amphora wines from Georgia and Portugal to celebrate World Amphora Day next Saturday. Thank you for reading and subscribing. I am very grateful to YOU! 

squash gratin with Coppo Chardonnay

Italian Wines with Pairings for Thanksgiving 

  • From Friuli: Fiol Prosecco paired with shrimp cocktail
    Prosecco goes with so many appetizers so well! Shrimp cocktail is such a classic appetizer, and so easy– just buy it, defrost it, and plate it! Prosecco also goes great with potato chips and other salty snacks as well as bread and cheese –especially parmesan or gran padana and other aged salty, nutty cheeses.

  • From Piemonte: Coppo Chardonnay paired with 3 squash 3 cheese gratin 
    We started with a Ramato wine, but decided the one we opened wasn’t substantial enough for this intensely flavored gratin which layers three kinds of winter squash with gruyere, ??, and parmesan, so we turned to a Coppo Chardonnay. This is a beautiful, deeply satisfying dish; vegetarians will love it, and so good with the Chardonnay. And seriously, do we need three kinds of potatoes? 

  • From Piemonte: Pio Cesare Barolo paired with duck breast with a rosemary blueberry sauce
    A turkey is a big bird. To do it well, so that it doesn’t dry out and has plentiful flavor, is a challenge (although my husband has smoked several with incredibly wonderful results and I’ve had pretty good luck with them too). Unless you have a lot of people over, that’s a lot of meat. An alternative is to cook duck breasts– they don’t take that long, they’re not that hard to do, and while each guest could have their own, or depending on the size of the breast, share.

  • From Campania: Janare Passito paired with Mustacciuoli, Campania Christmas cookies 
    As I had brought back this Janare Passito from my visit to Campania in May, I asked Sue about making these cookies and she agreed! The trick with pairing wine and dessert is that the wine has to be sweeter than the dessert, which rules out most wines. However, a Passito is perfect!

NV Fiol Extra dry Prosecco DOC

NV Fiol Extra dry Prosecco DOC

ABV: 11%
SRP: $19
Grapes: Glera
Importer: Monseur  Touton
sample for my review

The name for this Extra Dry Sparkling White wine “FIOL” (FEE-yol) means “son” in the Venetian dialect, but these days, it means leader among friends– which is the goal for Fiol– to be a leader in quality of character and authenticity for Prosecco.  Grown in the Prosecco heartland of Treviso, this Prosecco looks back to its roots as it leads the way forward. Winemaker Marzio Pol selects fruit from 2.3k growers facing on almost 15k acres to create a Prosecco that’s great alone, with for food or for a spritz.

The five lines on the eye catching and award winning label designed by co-founder Gian Passi suggest the poles that support the wines as well as tradition and modernity. 

Appearance:  Very pale platinum. White foamy rim, persistent bubbles, 

Aroma: Chamomile, herbal, fennel, honeysuckle, 

Palate: Lovely gentle bubbles, honeysuckle, tart green apple, sweetness without being too sweet, at times Prosecco can have a bit of bitterness on the back end, this one does not, good acidity, lemon drop, 

Pairing: The shrimp were nice with the wine, shrimp cocktail is so readily available to get at most any grocery store, Sue makes her own shrimp cocktail by sauteing uncooked thawed shrimp in butter with a bit of old bay seasoning until cooked through about 2 to 3 minutes per side, cool immediately in the refrigerator to prevent overcooking, dip in cocktail sauce. This is a classic pairing and perfect greeter course sure to please all of your shrimp loving guests.

2022 Coppo Monteriolo Chardonnay DOC Piemonte with a 3 squash 2 cheese gratin

2022 Coppo Monteriolo Chardonnay DOC Piemonte

ABV: 13.5%
SRP: $59
Grapes: Chardonnay
Importer: Touton
sample for my review

While Italy is not the country where you might look first for high quality Chardonnay, it has been grown in Italy since the early 1800s. Specifically, in Piedmonte, Filippo Asinari, Count of San Marzano and Costigliole, and an important political-military figure, returned from France with Chardonnay vines.   Soil and microclimate work so well in Coppo’s Piemonte property that Chardonnay is part of Coppo’s identity.

Read more about Coppo as well as their Barbera and Gavi here plus pairings here.

Appearance:  Golden, lemon, gold jewelry, platinum rim, crystal clear, light bounces beautifully from the glass

Aroma: Fresh woodsiness, fresh cut pine, ponderosa pine, butterscotch, caramelized pineapple, salted caramel

Palate: Rich, buttery on the finish, baked apple, pineapple upside down cake, pie crust, walnut skin, lots of minerals, not obviously Chardonnay until it is obvious that it is Chardonnay

Pairing: With our winter squash dish the wine is DIVINE! This could be a stand alone course that your vegetarian friends would just love. This is such a great dish and can be prepared up to two days ahead of the gathering and thrown in the oven on the day of the event for a wonderful holiday meal. And, who needs potato chips when you have fried sage leaves… 

2018 Pio Cesare Barolo  DOCG

2018 Pio Cesare Barolo  DOCG

ABV: 14.5%
SRP: $75
Grapes: Nebbiolo
Importer:
sample for my review

My very first experience with Barolo was one from Pio Cesare at Burning Man. A friend dropped the end of the bottle by my camp so I could taste it. I poured it into a glass, and swooned: the nose was incredible, and the palate, phenomenal. It’s so dry at Burning Man so it can be challenging to taste wine but this one stood out, and is one of the most memorable wines I’ve tasted — in part because I had to run off with friends, left some in a glass, and finished it the next day even though it has a significant amount of the Black Rock Desert in the glass too! 
 
Pio Cesare began in the Piedmont region in 1881, and today the company is led by Federica Boffa, a fifth generation family member who believes in using minimal intervention in the fields and in the cellar, and follows the classic formula of blending grapes from different family-owned vineyards throughout the appellation. This allows the Nebbiolo to express the terroir and vintage characteristics to convey the region: “structure and concentration come from the vineyards in Serralunga d’Alba, the firm tannin structure from Grinzane Cavour, elegance and finesse from La Morra and Novello, while complexity is provided by the unique terroir of Monforte.” With the challenges of climate change upon all of us, at Pio Cesare they’ve adapted by growing Nebbiolo in the higher altitude area of Alta Langa.

Appearance:  Pale, light density, raspberry, cranberry, coral to pale mauve rim

Aroma: Lovely, tart fruit and incense, baking spices, frankincense and myrh, toasted oak, rhubarb, tart cherry, cranberry, cherry tobacco, 

Palate: Big and bold, tannic and acidic, cherry, sandalwood, cedar, rosemary, cocoa nibs, dry yet quite flavorful, 

Pairing: Great with the rich duck, loves the tart blueberry sauce, it is a very decadent holiday meal and just lovely paired with this wine. Duck breasts are so much easier than cooking a turkey and just as elegant for a holiday gathering. The rich duck cuts the tartness off the Barolo, but the complexity of both the dish and the wine make for perfect companions. The rosemary in the duck jumps out when paired with the wine. 

2020 La Guardiense Janare Laureto Passito Benevento IGP

2020 La Guardiense Janare Laureto Passito Benevento IGP

ABV: 12.5%
SRP: $24 (750l)
Grapes: Falanghina
Importer: 
sample for my review

It was near the end of my stay in Campania for the 2024 edition of Campania Stories when the sky grew dark and the storm clouds gathered as I left organic and biodynamic Terre Stregate which basically translates to “Earth Witch” for La Guardiense — the Guardians– to focus on their sparkling wines and their Janare line of wines.  

This was a most appropriate transition as the Janare are spirits from Italy’s Amalfi Coast that appear as women in a field of olive trees near the Church of San Pancrazio Martire while others say they govern the elements of nature by dancing under a walnut tree. The Janare have supernatural abilities including flying and shapeshifting, creating herbal medicines, and causing storms. 

Clearly, magic never abandoned these lands and the people who live there. If you think about it, making wine is a way to transform grapes into a beverage that transcends time especially with a Passito like this one made of Falanghina that has just enough sweetness to close the meal and the evening as a dessert one its own or with a traditional Campania Christmas cookie. 

Appearance:  Buttercup, daffodil, very golden, almost amber

Aroma: Honeysuckle, butter, brown sugar butter, butterscotch, very subtle nose, not overwhelmingly sweet on the nose. 

Palate: Honey, honeycomb, honeysuckle, torrone, great acidity to balance the sweetness, 

Pairing: While these cookies may be a bit time consuming, they are well worth the effort. Consider what you might pair with a sauterne to do the same with this wine.  clams, or muscles, would be brilliant, the cookies make the wine shine perfectly. The cookie brings out a lovely fresh apricot flavor in the wine. What grows together goes together. The flavors in the cookies are perfect companions  for this passito. 

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