Choosing Best Value Red, White and Sparkling Wine Picks to Complement Your Holiday MealWhat wine should you serve with your Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes and stuffing? Should it be a red wine, white wine, or rose? Sweet or dry? Something before or after the meal? When you think about pairing wines with your Thanksgiving dinner, consider the following principles:1) Turkey is a mild meat. Consider wines that will not overpower the meal, such as savory white wines, pinot noir or shiraz. Big cabernet sauvignon may  be a bit too much.2) A sparkling wine or champagne can add a pleasant lift to the start of a meal. The Paringa Sparkling Shiraz could be a fun choice here. 3) If looking for a wine to pair with dessert, try to keep the wine slightly sweeter than the dessert itself. A tart fruit plate can take a mildly-sweet wine; rich cake will need a sticky-sweet wine.We’ve selected some of the top-value wine choices that might make sense with your Thanksgiving meal. These were chosen from over 600 wine reviews in Spirit of Wine. Our approach to selecting best value wines is described in an earlier article. No one can predict the type of wine you’ll most enjoy. But choosing a wine from among those featured below is sure to add great value and flavor to your Thanksgiving table. The number of stars represents quality level; the number of dollar signs represents price level.Cheers!Five-star Thanksgiving wine values:***** $$$ Oliverhill Winery “Jimmy Section” Shiraz, 2005, McLaren Vale, Australia***** $$ 2006 Mollydooker The Boxer Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia - Review and RatingFour-star Thanksgiving wine values:**** $ Turner & Cole Riesling Eden Valley, 2005, Australia**** $$ Dr. Thanisch Estate Riesling, 2005, Germany**** $ MandraRossa Fiano, 2006, Italy **** $ Luis Felipe Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, 2007, Central Valley, Chile**** $$ Martini & Rossi Asti Sparkling Wine, N/V, Torino, Italy**** $ Heartland Stickleback Red, 2006, South Australia **** $$ Penfold’s Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz, 2001, South Australia**** $2006 Henry’s Drive Pillar Box Red, Padthaway, Australia **** $ Yellow Tail The Reserve Shiraz, 2006, South Eastern AustraliaThree-star Thanksgiving wine values:

Matching Wine with Ordinary MealsFor ordinary people, having wine during meals on a regular basis is just “too fancy” and fussy. Most of the time however, it is just a defense mechanism, because we have a preconceived notion that wine corresponds to your social status, and normal people like us cannot afford 5-year old  so and so branded wines on our table on a daily basis. Despite this “bitter” fact, what we all fail to realize is the healthy benefits of taking wine everyday, as opposed to say, 3 bottles of beer or caffeinated sodas. Appreciating and gaining the health benefits from wine drinking need not be expensive, sophisticated nor downright pretentious. Many get intimidated with a mere mention of white-sparkly champagne or Sauvignon Blanc. But contrary to popular belief, food and wine matching could be fun, healthy and inexpensive so long as we know what to look for in wines, and most of all, what specific wines do to the taste of specific food or dishes. Switching from unhealthy to healthy drinks can be easy and trouble-free.Thus, there is no need to shy away from wine talk because if we actually educate ourselves on how to mix and match food with a specific kind of wine which we are even too embarrassed to mispronounce, that’s where the personal satisfaction and healthy “European culture”, really begins. After all, we need not be in a five-star hotel or in a business tycoon’s cozy private vineyard to appreciate wines. Even ordinary people like us can have a taste of heaven and a touch of culture at the comfort of our own houses, every once in a while. Now that the economy is at a downward spin, we do not necessarily have to deprive ourselves with good food and fine dining because so long as we are familiar with the basic theories and techniques on food and wine pairings, we can always have a do-it-yourself fine dining and wine drinking at home.