Thanksgiving - and my first deep-fried Turkey ...
I finally got my first invitation to a Thanksgiving party in the UK! The host says he is going all out and doing us a whole deep fried turkey this year. Now the questions is, what champagne should I bring to the party? I will not be beaten by a deep-fried turkey!
The traditional Thanksgiving spread usually includes a really boring roast turkey, bread stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato mash, cranberry sauce and gravy. Because there is so much variety, you want a champagne that can accompany many different flavours across the board. But if you mash all the dishes up in your mouth, you basically get savoury with a ton of sweetness, therefore you want and easy drinking champagne, that’s a bit more fruit forward. I would recommend, R. Pouillon, Réserve, Brut or the JL Vergnon, Eloquence, Extra Brut. Both are Turkey and crowd pleasers.
If you get invited to a vegetarian Thanksgiving, you will most likely have something similar to a nut roast. I have never been to a vegetarian thanksgiving, nor have I ever eaten a nut roast, but I can imagine that the flavours would be quite earthy, and, of course, nutty! The champagne I will bring to this party would be something with a bit more spice and richness. I would recommend, all of the champagnes from Francoise Bedel, especially her couve ‘Entre Ciel et Terre’, Extra Brut. All of her champagnes go through longer lease aging therefore her style is always nutty and rich.
I am happy to accept any vegetarian Thanksgiving invites!
If you are lucky to have a very fancy chef as a friend, you might get invited to a dinner where they might prepare a Turducken (an elaborate deboned chicken stuffed in a deboned duck stuffed in a turkey). Since the Turducken is the highlight of the party, we need to highlight the Champagne for it. The addition of the duck in the turkey takes a whole roast into game territory. Therefore, the champagne I would bring to this party needs to have more structured and perhaps a bit of tanin. I would recommend, Laherte Frères, Rosé de Meunier, Extra Brut.
Back to my deep-fried turkey… I think I will give two Champagnes a try. The first champagne will be based on the fact that the turkey is deep fried, needing a lot more acidity and freshness. The second champagne I will bring, is based on the fact that the deep-fried turkey is actually going to be more savoury that the normal roast turkey, therefore I will bring…Georges Laval, Garennes, Extra Brut for the freshness yet enough structure and spice. The second bottle I would bring would be the Olivier Horiot, Soléra, Brut Nature. I am not really sure why but my gut feeling is that I would want to drink this one with a fried Turkey.
Follow me on my Instagram to see my Thanksgiving weekend party.
P.S. I will no longer be breastfeeding so I am going all out!