Forget about by-the-book sales: by-the-glass is a great way to go at Thanksgiving

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 18, 1996 by Ronn Wiegand

Thanksgiving, one of the highest-traffic days of the year for restaurants, is just around the corner. To boost check averages and simplify ordering for guests, most restaurants offer fixed-price menus. Many restaurants are missing the boat, however, and easy sales, by not providing a by-the-glass menu to accompany Thanksgiving meals.

The most effective means of doing so is by listing several wines right on the food menu, with several recommendations for each food course.

The wines could be ordered a la carte or as a fixed-priced set, in which one wine per course would be priced at less than the wines cost if ordered separately. Because you wouldn't want to overwhelm guests with wine choices, limit the wine suggestions with each course to no more than four wines, or a total of eight to 12 wines for the whole menu.

Other suggestions to help you launch this concept: * Select wines that are a notch or two above what your customers ordinarily purchase. Thanksgiving, after all, is a celebration. If the median purchase price of a glass of wine in your establishment is $4.50 or $5, start your Thanksgiving glass prices at $4.75. Then offer several wines in the $5.75-to-$6.50 range and at least one "splurge" wine, in the $9-to-$10 range. Those wines are in addition to your bottled wines, of course. * Defer to the taste preferences of your customers - all your customers. Provide wines that you know they will like, whether or not you like them yourself or believe they pair well with the meal. Three wine types that should be represented in your selections are an off-dry or fruity wine, whether white or rose, still or sparkling; one dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay; and a lighter-styled red wine, such as Barbera or Beaujolais. Why? Because some people drink only white - or red - wine, regardless of what is on their plates, holidays like Thanksgiving notwithstanding. * In selecting wines that pair well with your menu items, make sure that several people - from the back- and the front-of-the-house - actually taste the courses with the wines you are considering. Some of the worst wine-and-food pairings I have encountered were matched in someone's mind, not their kitchen. * Pair wines according to the entire dish or preparation, not simply its main ingredient. That approach is particularly important with turkey, which often presents a problem because of the sweet ingredients, such as yams and cranberry sauce, accompanying it on the plate. Their slight sweetness make dry wines taste thinner and less fruity than usual, especially if those wines also are noticeably oaky in style.

Thus, ideal wine accompaniments to the traditional turkey dinner include wines that are intensely "fruity" or aromatic - white, rose, or red; still or sparkling - and preferably contain a hint of residual sweetness. Top candidates among off-dry wines include Johannisberg Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Chenin Blanc and Moscato. Among fruity, drier-style white wines, I recommend unoaked or very lightly oaked Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. Recommended red wines include Beaujolais, Gamay Beaujolais, Barbera, Zinfandel and Dolcetto, but only if they have little or no oak flavor.