Building on a note posted last year by Robin Garr, I've been thinking about one of my favorite conundrums, enjoying wine with turkey, the traditional Thanksgiving main course.

Robin gives a concise summation:

• DRINK WHAT YOU LIKE. Turkey is a tough match, because it offers both white meat (often bland and sometimes dry) and dark meat (rich, earthy and gamey, distinctly my preference) on the same bird, and it's hard to find a single wine to match them both. Simply set up something extra-special to celebrate the holiday. Don't fret about perfection in wine-and-food pairing for this feast; just enjoy the holiday with an exceptional wine for its own sake.

• NOT EITHER-OR BUT BOTH-AND. It's a celebratory feast! Throw caution to the winds and open both a red and a white, offering each guest the option to pick the wine of preference ... or take two glasses and enjoy a little of each.

• FOLLOW THE CRANBERRY SAUCE RULE. If you really want to try for a complementary pairing, think about cranberry sauce, the traditional condiment with turkey, and seek wines that show a similar flavor profile: fruity, tart but smooth. This leads us to Riesling, Gewurztraminer or Chenin Blanc for the white; Pinot Noir or Beaujolais for the red. In fact, you might consider the seasonal Beaujolais Nouveau. Although some wine "geeks" dismiss it as too simple and frivolous, in many ways Beaujolais Nouveau is ideal for holiday feasts. It's seasonal, it's fresh, and it's fruity, and it will quaff well enough with light and dark meat, and maybe the dressing and sweet potatoes, too.

• CELEBRATE YOUR FAMILY HERITAGE. Some wine enthusiasts feel that Thanksgiving - tracing its inspiration back to the Pilgrims' first harvest feast - should be celebrated with an American wine. Maybe. I don't find most modern Zinfandels with their high alcohol and blockbuster fruit a great match with turkey, though. The American native grape Norton is an interesting possibility, but rare and hard to find. And Concord and its native wild-grape cousins? Fahgeddit. I suggest, rather, looking back to the Old Country and celebrating this American holiday with a salute to our family roots. If you're a "Heinz 57 Varieties" American like me, with English, Germans, Italians and French cluttering up my family tree, this opens up a wide variety of choices. 

To what Robin wrote, I'd add that there are plenty of American-produced wines that can be enjoyed with turkey and its traditional accompaniments, even if the grape varieties originated in Europe.  Being in New York State, I have easy access to the delightful wines of the Finger Lakes, notably whites such as Riesling and Gewurtztraminer   These wines are also produced in California and the Pacific Northwest, as well as other regions of the U.S.

Perhaps the best advice is, as Robin suggests, buy good wines that you enjoy.  Don't worry about a perfect matchup with wine and food.  Good wine can still complement the food even if it is not a traditional perfect pairing.