Serious Grape: Thanksgiving Wine Report 2008

On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape.

I've got so much tryptophan in my blood stream and chaos in my house that all I can manage this week is to scrape myself off the couch long enough to tell you where you can go to do some Friday-morning wine quarterbacking.

If the site traffic here on Serious Eats and on my own blog was any indication, Americans were seriously concerned about what wine to serve with Thanksgiving. Despite my own best efforts to keep it low-key and relaxed, people worried.

You all did great--at least that's what the data on CellarTracker!, my preferred online cellar management program, tells me.

Every year, they track what people are opening and drinking for the 24 hours of Thanksgiving--including the night before spaghetti feeds and beef dinners (yes, we did have cameras in your house!) and the last drops of Port and Sherry that weary cooks downed before bedtime.

Because I had to get this post written and in to Serious Eats HQ, I last checked the stats at 4 pm EST on The Big Day. That means much of the country was not yet at the table. More than 5000 bottles had already been opened up, and some patterns were clear.

Pinot Noir was the preferred red wine of the holiday, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends, and then Zinfandel. Among Pinot Noirs, wines from Oregon's Willamette Valley and California's Russian River Valley were neck-and-neck, with the beautiful Sonoma Coast (where I'm writing this) just behind.

Chardonnay was the preferred white wine, followed by Sauvignon Blanc and sparkling wines such as Champagne. In Chardonnay, it was Russian River Valley leading Napa Valley by a nose, with Carneros coming in third.

I was thrilled to see the variety and range of wines showing up on people's tables, including Malbec, Syrah, and Nebbiolo. People were drinking what they liked, and what they felt comfortable serving their friends and family. The results may be a bit different this morning, and if you want to share in the fun of peeping into people's windows and seeing what they drank for Thanksgiving, check out the final tallies on CellarTracker!

What did you have on Thanksgiving day, and how did it work out for you? Share your own results below.

Photograph from Neeta Lind on Flickr

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