Kosher Food and Drink

This article first appeared in JMore, “Delicious Dishes, Perfect Pairings,” Nov. 25, 2025.

Pairing wines for Thanksgiving can seem like a daunting task, but it’s best viewed as an opportunity to explore our immense universe of wines.

In this vein, I would suggest venturing outside of your normal wine tastes and selecting a variety or style with which you might be unfamiliar.

Fortunately, the classic Thanksgiving dinner foods allow for a multitude of options for wine pairings, and our burgeoning world of kosher wine allows us to meet the challenge.

Red Pairing: Pinot Noir

Twin Suns, Reserve, Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir, 2024

While Pinot Noir is perhaps considered the classic wine for the Thanksgiving dinner, it still falls off the map for many more casual wine drinkers.

Pinot and poultry are a perfect pairing, and while I continually see Zinfandel suggested, consider me as solidly in the Pinot camp for Thanksgiving dinner. Considering we want a “friendly” Pinot, and we are celebrating our homeland, let’s choose an American wine.

We head to the Willamette Valley in Oregon for this lovely Pinot. Over a decade following its launch, Twin Suns wines have come to be known as a brand delivering on its promise of high-quality wines at attractive prices.

Willamette Valley, an official American Viticultural Area since 1983, today produces award-winning Pinot Noir that is the envy of the world. Pinot Noir is a notoriously fickle variety and Willamette Valley’s temperate environment allows the rare opportunity as a proper sub-climate to achieve success and well-balanced wines.

“Willamette Valley is the ultimate region for Pinot Noir, easily rivaling Burgundy,” says Ami Nahari, of The River Wine, producers of Twin Suns. Nahari worked with one of Willamette Valley’s top winemakers in creating one of the only kosher Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs.

With a nose screaming cranberry, Thanksgiving is the perfect pairing for this Pinot. Other aromas include dried cherry, hibiscus, green tea and forest floor. This wine shows a clean, medium body, with nice tart red fruit, bright acidity and enough tannins for structure. This wine shows nice restraint for American Pinot and highlights Oregon’s Willamette Valley climate and terroir.

$30, 14.2% ABV, non-mevushal

White Pairing: Chenin Blanc 

J. de Villebois, Chenin Blanc, IGP, Val de Loire, 2024

Chenin Blanc is criminally underrated and a perfect pairing for your Thanksgiving meal. Its aromatic, fresh profile and natural high acidity, and citrus and floral notes can satisfy a variety of palates.

When choosing Chenin Blanc, it only makes sense to select an offering from France’s Loire Valley, the 174-mile region abutting the Loire River, and considered perhaps the best region for Chenin Blanc in the world.

The Loire Valley appellation system began in 1936 and today 51 regions exist in Loire, with Chenin Blanc being one of the most notable grapes. This expansive area contains many different climates and soils, and produces many different styles of Chenin Blanc.

This new 2024 Chenin Blanc is produced by Domaine Villebois, the growing Loire Valley family winery and vineyards, a label now synonymous with good quality and great value.

The J. de Villebois, Chenin Blanc, IGP, Val de Loire, 2024 is fabulous. Pale gold, with beautiful aromatics of honeysuckle, pear, apple, chamomile, and with high acid, nice fruit, elegance and good minerality, it is sure to be a crowd favorite.

$22, 11.5% ABV, mevushal

Sparkling Pairing: Blanc de Blanc

Binah Winery, Blanc de Blancs, Pennsylvania, 2021

Bubbly can be served as either a pre-dinner aperitif or as a food pairing with nearly anything you serve. The bright, acidic style is suitable for all sorts of foods, but something about sparkling wine feels festive and proper for the holiday occasion.

While most wines in the dry sparkling wine category would work here, Blanc de Blanc made in the Champagne method offers more backbone for a heavy Thanksgiving dinner.

You may be surprised to learn that Champagne-method sparkling wine is being produced kosher right in Pennsylvania. As it happens, Lancaster Valley is a well-established American Viticultural Area, and this wine is produced from 100% Chardonnay from Chester County. Allentown is home to the all-kosher Binah Winery, founded in 2019 by owner-winemaker Kevin Danna.

The Binah, Blanc de Blanc, 2021 is a very well-made sparkling wine produced in the méthode champenoise, the traditional method of Champagne’s sparkling wines, a tedious but time-honored practice.

The 2021 Blanc de Blanc shows persistent bubbles, with yeasty notes of brioche and a citrusy and floral nose. On the palate, there is very nice acidity, with lemon and pastry and a creamy mousse. The wine is aged sur lie for 24 months, which gives the wine its notable depth and interest. Available at binahwinery.com.

$44, 12% ABV, non-mevushal 

Dessert Pairing: Late Harvest Gewürztraminer

Carmel Winery, Late Harvest, Gewürztraminer, 2019

Gewürztraminer is a gem. Tremendous aromatics, fresh and acidic enough to pair with your salad course, with enough body and depth to pair with your entree, and with the sweetness to complement your dessert, Gewürztraminer is a winner on all fronts.

Gewürztraminer is famous for having an aromatic profile of lychee fruits and is best grown in cold climates. And while one would not think of Israel this way, Israel is a topographical and geographical oddity: arid deserts, lush green mountains, coastlines, valleys, hills.

This Carmel Winery, Late Harvest, Gewürztraminer is cultivated in the Macphea Hill vineyard in the northeast Upper Galilee at an elevation of 3,280 feet above sea level, very close to the famed “Valley of Tears,” known for the heroic battle Israel fought in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Medium gold with slight depth in the center that fans towards pale on the edges, this Gewürztraminer gives your nose all it can handle of lychee, with tropical citrus, and brandy. Full-bodied, with nice citrusy acid and pleasant rich sweetness. No doubt this wine will age gracefully for two decades or more.

Why wait? Enjoy it with your Thanksgiving dessert or all on its own.

$55, 9% ABV, non-mevushal