Not everybody craves a glistening golden turkey at Thanksgiving. Here's a luxurious holiday menu with a bit of twist. If you wish to serve sweet potatoes or squash, I'd suggest roasting and mashing them for an elegant side dish.
Roasted salmon with shrimp mousse
BEPPI'S WINE PICKS
This is a time to give thanks for the harvest, but for wine lovers, Thanksgiving meditations extend into the past. Bottles on your table this year represent harvests of years gone by – 2013, 2012 or, in the case of cellared trophies, further back.
For Lucy's enticingly offbeat seafood menu here, I'd zero in on excellent Canadian chardonnays from 2013 or 2012. A moderately oaked style works best. You want some buttery, toasty depth to stand up to the silky salmon and roasted vegetables yet also sufficient acidity to pierce through the rich mousse. If you prefer red, consider a crisp, fruity and relatively light Beaujolais (or Canadian gamay – same grape). A top-quality cru Beaujolais would be my first choice. These are the richer Beaujolais from top villages in the region that carry such names as Fleurie, Morgon, Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent. Beer? An Oktoberfest or wheat ale would be nice.
For the dessert, I'd recommend a late-harvest Canadian sweet wine, ideally made from the aromatic and spicy gewurztraminer grape, but vidal or riesling would be lovely, too. Alternatively, an apple brandy, such as Calvados, would be grand.
Beppi Crosariol
Lucy Waverman