Of course you can! Wine and food are personal choices so you can drink whatever wine you wish with whatever food you are eating and don’t let anybody tell you different.
Countless articles and books have been written about matching food and wine. Some are useful, others are not. It is, however, true that if you follow a few simple suggestions (there are no rules), your wine is likely to taste better. This can mean full-bodied wines with similar food and lighter wines with more delicate dishes. Red wines tend to go better with red and white meats and firm cheeses. White wines usually taste better with fish, salads and creamy cheeses.
However, treat these as guidelines. I quite often drink my favourite wine with whatever we are having for dinner, including red wine with fish. It nearly always tastes good. As there is usually a gap of 30 seconds or more between a mouthful of food and a mouthful of wine, many of the food flavours will have disappeared by the time the wine reaches your palate.
And so, back to turkey. Turkey, like chicken, is mild in flavour and doesn’t have much fat. It can clash with a very tannic red wine such as a young red Bordeaux. But I have enjoyed mature, softer Bordeaux with turkey many times. On Christmas Day, I usually enjoy a good red Burgundy or other pinot noir and, as one of my relatives doesn’t drink red, I serve a white wine too.
READ MORE
You can drink whatever white you like but I find a richer white such as a chardonnay, viognier, South African chenin blanc or albariño goes very well with turkey and all the trimmings. Don’t serve it too cold as that will kill the flavour.
