You’ve probably heard all of the Thanksgiving wine advice that you need to hear: “Drink good Beaujolais! DrinkLambrusco! Drink Champagne! Drink Riesling!” Thosesoundlike different recommendations, but really, they’re all variations on one theme: A rich meal ofturkey,stuffing, and the works needs a beverage that’s refreshing and juicy to cleanse the palate between bites. Luckily, many wines can get the job done.
But if you’re going to the trouble of making a special cocktail for the evening (or if, like me, you’re considering a holiday meal that’sjusta pan of stuffing and a cocktail ortwo), you can have a more active hand in making the pairing work. Combining ingredients for a mixed drink means that you can purposefully layer multiple flavors together until they directly echo the flavors in your home-cooked feast.
ThisThanksgiving cocktail recipefrom Lynnette Marrero, the bar director of Llama Inn in New York, shows how it’s done. She takes all the pairing powers of Riesling—a favorite at Thanksgiving for its refreshing qualities—and heightens them by adding a few brilliant additional ingredients. “Dry Riesling has great acidity,” she says, describing how it evokes zesty citrus, fragrant peach, and tart apples.
It’s that apple flavor that Marrero latches on to. “Apple notes go with all of the flavors in traditional Thanksgiving meals,” she explains. So she mixes the Riesling with fresh apple cider and also bourbon, which contributes vanilla notes that complement the caramelized flavors on a bronzed bird or a tray of stuffing’s crispy edges. To add a nutty, mellow character to the drink—which mirrors the earthiness of the wholeThanksgiving menu—she sweetens the mix with a honey syrup that’s blended with dried figs. Lemon heightens the bright, clear tartness of the Riesling. And linking them together, there’s a touch of floral liqueur.
Stay with me now. There was a time when elderflower liqueurs likeSt-Germainwere so overused that they came to be called bartender’s ketchup. But when employed with a very gentle hand, elderflower liqueur can give a cocktail a lush floral quality that you can’t quite put your finger on. It’s akin to aromatic white wine but more so: a flavor that hints at the tropical. This touch—the moment where thesuggestionof floral flavor meets apples and figs and whiskey and tart wine—is what makes this drink better than any cocktail you’d usually whip up at home.
The other good news about Marrero’s Thanksgiving cocktail is that stocking up on what you need for the recipe will give you a full array of Thanksgiving beverage options: Apple cider to heat up for drinking by thefire pit, a bottle of crisp Riesling that can carry you through the meal, andbourbonyou can sip after dinner withpie. If you’re lucky, there will be enough for another round of these cocktails onBlack Fridayto go with the second (or third) round of stuffing.
