Holiday meal merits several wines

There's no trick to selecting the perfect wine for Thanksgiving. The feast of a thousand flavors and textures can accommodate a wide spectrum of wines: red, white, rose, sparkling, sweet, spicy, dry or fruity.

In fact, I recommend serving a selection of wines to pass around with the cornucopia of dishes at the holiday table.

I like to think of shopping for Thanksgiving wines as an excuse to indulge and splurge on your favorites.

Some of my favorite white wines for Thanksgiving include Alsatian gewurztraminer, German spatlese riesling, viognier, and rich, creamy chardonnay. Reds include the traditional Nouveau Beaujolais, burgundy (or pinot noir), Pennsylvania chambourcin or cabernet franc, Italian chianti, Spanish rioja, or the all-American red zinfandel.

In fact, the only red wines that wouldn't do justice to the turkey and trimmings are young, tannic blockbuster California cabernet sauvignons. Save those for a big, juicy steak.

While dessert wines aren't a traditional finale to the Thanksgiving feast, they are such a civilized way to end a meal. Why not linger over pumpkin pie with a sweet sparkling wine or ponder the state of the world while nibbling pecan pie and sipping a luscious tawny port?

Here are my impressions of a half-dozen dessert wines sold at Pennsylvania State Stores and area wine shops.

Banfi's "Rosa Regale" Brachetto d'Acqui ($19.99) is a sweet, sparkling red dessert wine from Italy's Piedmont region. Lively, fizzy and fruity with hints of strawberries, it is delicious served with fruit pies and tarts.

Achaia Clauss "Imperial" Mavrodaphne of Patras ($7.99). With its heady stewed-fruit aromas, this fortified Greek red dessert wine is somewhat rustic with an unusual herbal edge. It would work best with somewhat bitter, dark-chocolate-based desserts. Unusual, exotic, and a remarkable value.

Madeira wines, from the Portuguese subtropical island of Madeira, off the coast of North Africa, were a favorite of the American colonists because they were not taxed by the English. So they may be the most appropriate toast to Thanksgiving.

Justino's Rich Fine Madeira is on sale for $10.49 at State Stores until Nov. 28. Great madeiras sell for more than $100, so this is a shadow of the real thing, but it has hints of the toffee/coffee flavors that characterize them.