Want to drink like a Thanksgiving Pilgrim? Drink cider

Puzzled over which wine pairs well with brined turkey, candied yams, garlic mashed potatoes, challah stuffing, cranberry sauce and, possibly, tofu turkey? Why not take another bite at the apple, and think cider instead?
A cold glass of hard cider has been the hot beverage for a while now, with sales growing exponentially. And while many U.S.-produced ciders have leaned toward catering to the American sweet tooth, drier styles are emerging that provide a good underpinning for the rich — and often oddly contrasting — excesses of the traditional Thanksgiving.
“I always think about Thanksgiving as an endurance meal and cider works really well,” said Dan Pucci, cider director of Wassail, a New York City restaurant specializing in cider pairings.
Cider typically is lower in alcohol than wine, averaging 5 to 7 percent, but has enough acid and tannins to do the job of a Thanksgiving beverage. Meaning, it can cleanse and refresh your palate to get you ready for the next bite.
Bonus point: You’re drinking like the Pilgrims, who were avid hard cider fans.
Picking ciders poses a few challenges. Since the cider surge is relatively new, labeling rules and regulations still are being worked out, so you don’t have as much information to work with as you find on U.S. wine labels. Some labels will tell you if a cider is made from eating apples or traditional cider apples, known as bitter sweets or bitter sharps, or a blend of both.
There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking ciders made with cider fruit tend to have more structure, presence and palate, said Pucci. They also develop more secondary flavors and are earthier. Ciders made from eating apples are going to generally have a more primary fruit profile and are easier drinking.
A good choice for an aperitif is a Downeast Cider House Original Blend, made from Red Delicious, McIntosh, Cortland and Gala apples. Based in Boston, Downeast strikes a balance between super sweet and bone dry and is “a good sipper by itself,” said Pucci.
For the main course, look for something with body and richness to match the intensity of the various dishes. Possibilities include Vermont’s Eden Sparkling Dry Cider, made with traditional heirloom apples and cider varieties. Half of the blend is Kingston Black, a British cider variety. Eden Sparkling Dry is 8.5 percent alcohol by volume and has an in-bottle secondary fermentation similar to Champagne.
Another choice is Dragon Head Kingston Black, which comes from apple-rich Washington state, home to a thriving cider industry.
For a mainstream, easy-to-find pick you could try Strongbow Gold Apple from the United Kingdom. The website has a handy page where you can enter your ZIP code to get the closest store.
Looking at U.S. producers, Pucci recommends Farnum Hill from New Hampshire. “Very dry, it’s got a lot of texture to it, a lot of acid. It’s widely available in most of the country.” And, most importantly, “it’s pretty delicious.”
Dessert calls for sweeter wines and here you might veer off into an apple wine. From Washington state there’s Finnriver’s Spirited Apple Wine, which is fortified with apple brandy and aged with oak. This is stronger than a cider, at 18.5 percent alcohol, so should be served in smaller glasses.
The third way to drink apples is calvados, the apple brandy from the Normandy region of France. This can be incorporated directly into the meal. “I’ll put a splash in whipped cream or creme anglaise,” said Janet Fletcher, publisher of the e-newsletter Planet Cheese and author of “Cheese & Wine.” Another thought from Fletcher — parsnips and carrots braised in butter and apple cider with a dash of calvados at the end. And “how about a steamed persimmon pudding or pumpkin pie with calvados whipped cream?”
If you’re serving calvados straight, use a rocks glass or sherry glass and not the traditional large snifter, said Alex Day, a principle in Proprietors LLC, which owns several bars in Los Angeles and New York, including Death & Co. in New York. The big glass will “concentrate the aroma on your nose and do a disservice to the flavor of the calvados.”
And if you want to drink like the Normans, you can follow the tradition of “le trou Normand,” the Norman hole, in which diners take a nip of calvados in between courses of a long meal. “It’s essentially just a way of prolonging eating,” said Day.
And what could pair better with Thanksgiving than that?
Online:
http://downeastcider.com/
www.finnriver.com/
www.dragonsheadcider.com/
www.calvados-drouin .com/calvadosDROUIN-home Gb.html
www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/
www.edenicecider.com/
www.strongbow.com/