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Anthony Nappa’s Anomaly, a white pinot noir, is on one wine blog’s list of 12 Long Island wines you should be drinking now. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder file photo)

“Don’t worry about it too much.”

That’s the first bit of advice I offer anyone who asks me what wine they should pour for their friends and/or family on Thanksgiving. You have enough to think about already. It takes hours, or days really, to prepare a Norman Rockwell-worthy Thanksgiving dinner.

The wine shouldn’t be an afterthought, but it shouldn’t be a source of stress either.

The “perfect” Thanksgiving wine is like Bigfoot or la Chupacabra — a myth. It just doesn’t exist. Stop chasing it. For a pairing to be “perfect” both elements need to be elevated. The wine must taste better with the food. The food must taste better with the wine.

Turkey. Sweet potatoes. Green bean casserole. Brussels sprouts. Stuffing. Cranberry sauce. The buffet is just too diverse. And this is without getting into the details of each dish. Smoked mussels dressing sure is different from my wife’s Italian sausage stuffing. Maybe you deep fry your turkey. Or maybe you smoke it. Or maybe you rub it with well-spiced butter.

How can any single wine – no matter how amazingly food-friendly or delicious – make each of these taste better, while also tasting better itself? It can’t. So, don’t worry so much about it.

I have three simple rules when I pick wines for Thanksgiving. Choose fruity over oaky. Choose refreshing over flabby. And most important of all, choose wines that you like.

Why would you drink a wine you don’t like just because some idiot with a wine column says you should?

With that all said, here’s handful of local wines that fit these criteria for me. Grab a bottle (or two) of each, open them all and I think you’ll have a great holiday as long as the food and friends are good.

Sipping sparkling wine during a long day in the kitchen is a holiday tradition in our house and Lenz Winery 2010 Cuvee ($40) is a favorite. Bright and focused, it will get your palate ready while you cook – or refresh your palate with every sip during the meal. Look for crunch white cherry flavors accented by zesty citrus and a sprinkle of bready yeast notes.

Each autumn’s release of Macari Vineyards 2014 “Early Wine” Chardonnay ($18) is an exciting one. It means that the year’s grape harvest is over, it offers the first taste of the current vintage and announces the holiday season. Flavors and aromas of green apple, juicy pear, jasmine tea, lime and white grapefruit mingle within an off-dry wine that has plenty of acidity and verve. This isn’t a wine to think too much about. It’s a wine to enjoy, preferably with food and friends.

Only a handful of Long Island wines have anything approaching a cult following, but Paumanok Vineyards 2014 Chenin Blanc ($29) is one such wine, year after year. The Massoud family is planning to release this next Wednesday, literally just in time for Thanksgiving. It’s not even bottled yet, but I got to taste it out of one of the tanks last weekend and it will definitely be on my Turkey Day table. It’s fruity and fresh with a touch of honeyed melon.

Some people only drink rosé in the summer, but with bouncy red fruit flavors, the style is also great with a wide array of foods. Anthony Nappa Wines Anomaly ($20) is a white pinot noir with the kind of lively red fruits that you already see on many Thanksgiving tables, particularly cranberry, with a sikly-but-balanced texture and a long finish.

The newest kid on the Long Island wine block, Southold Farm + Cellar is closing its tasting room for the season after this weekend, so if you want to get a bottle of Southold Farm + Cellar 2013 Grace Under Pressure ($75), get it now. A co-fermented blend of cabernet franc and malbec – and a squirt of merlot – this red has darker fruits, think blackberry and even a touch of blueberry, but the start is the spicy edge that I know will complement that sausage stuffing that I eat by the plateful. Plus, it’s only available in magnum (double bottle) which means it’s a celebration anytime.

Lenn Thompson is the founder of NewYorkCorkReport.com. He writes about the wines, beers, ciders and spirits of New York from his home in Miller Place which he shares with his wife, two kids and trusty dog Ben Roethlisbeagle. 

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