Thanks for today’s Thanksgiving meal wine guide, from the American staff. At this time of year there are often guides for wines with holiday meals. They tend to talk about the masses of different flavours that there are often there for the main course and offer approaches for wine. What there tends to be less of is discussion about dessert. That is a pity because dessert is a major part of the holiday meal experience for many of us. Also, the cold dark time of year (in northerly places at least) is suited to many dessert wines.
Some holiday desserts have interesting flavour profiles. For Christmas pudding, I often follow the recommendation from Hugh Johnson pocket wine book of Pedro Ximenez sherry. American Thanksgiving dessert can have similar challenges to the main course. I have been wondering about what matches with pumpkin pie. This year I am going to try Madeira (haven’t had Madeira in a while).
What are other people’s thoughts about holiday desserts and wine?
Madeira is absolutely (one of) the best match(es) for pumpkin pie! But it’s an even better match with the other (for me, preferred) traditional Thanksgiving dessert, pecan pie! But there may be an even better reason that it’s a great choice…
Many, many years ago, Frank Prial in his Thanksgiving wines column for the NY Times, commented that Thanksgiving is such an indigenous, uniquely American holiday that, among other things, it called for American wines. I found that to be a convincing and winning view, and it has been my practice ever since (despite the fact that I generally prefer Old World wines most of the time). The one exception to my rule is Madeira — because it was the wine of the American colonies, because it is so closely intertwined with American history, because it pairs so exquisitely with the traditional desserts (or as an aperitif) … and not least because it is my favorite wine in the world, and can be easily justified! 
One of the comments on ft.com about my festive questions and answers today points out that I should have mentioned PX as an alternative to mulled wine for thos who want a Christmassy drink. It’s lower in alcohol than the tawny ports and sweet madeiras I suggested too.
When I was in the dessert wine section of the wine shop to buy Madeira, I was reminded of Italian Vin Santo which (from my extremely limited experience) might also play here.
That got me wondering why Italian reds do not come up on lists for holiday main courses more often. Most of them are designed to be eaten with rich food.
Funnily enough I write from Milan airport at the end of a few days in the Langhe where we did indeed do our best to prove how well their wines go with their delicious food.
I went with PX for years but i would say bual is the only way forward.
We often buy some Madeira that we end up drinking either as an apertif or sometimes with with dessert or even cheeses that suit it. I do not know very much about Madeira, but the ones that are easy to find here in the UK always seem pretty reliable and it seems hard to make a mistake. Henriques & Henriques usually. It lasts in the fridge as well so you can drink over a period of time, though it goes faster than expected (always the real test of a wine).
This time we have switched to Oloroso. Some Lustau “On the QT” awaits. But that is not to say I wont get tempted and buy Madeira as well.
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For those who find PX a bit much, a lighter alternative (albeit harder to find in the UK) is Moscatel de Chipiona. Still very sweet but a lighter profile - more citrus than treacle.