Dress the table with wines

You probably can’t remember what music was playing in the background the last time you were at a restaurant

with your significant

other or grandchildren.

That’s because the

music was not important to the

occasion. It was background — wallpaper.

This time of year, many of us begin to worry about what kind of wine we should have with Thanksgiving dinner.

Actually we should cool it and concentrate on what’s important about Thanksgiving.

First and foremost, as Spencer Tracy would say, are the guests who are coming to dinner. Choose the wine to please the diners.

If you really like California reds, you may want to try our favorite— Rosenblum Contra Costa Zinfandel at $20 a bottle.

Or if you prefer white, try Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay at $21 a bottle.

Actually, it’s better to have both on the table so your guests can pick their favorite or sample some of each — red with drumsticks, white with breast.

Do consider White Zinfandel (Beringer at $8) because most people like it, wine aficionados notwithstanding.

Next in importance is the turkey, chestnut stuffing and giblet gravy. A nice Pinot Noir may be best with the turkey. Try Elk Cove Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at $25.

Or if you’re going for original Colonial (you know, multicolor maize and Indian pudding), try Madeira with the turkey and do remember to baste the bird with some of it.

Just before the American Revolution, our forefathers’ favorite libation was Madeira, and when King George laid on the Stamp Act, he included it as well as tea.

The tavern owners hid the wine in rain barrels outside their establishments so that the king’s tax collectors couldn’t find it and the name stuck. Try Blandy’s Madeira Rainwater at about $19 a bottle.

Finally, in importance to Thanksgiving comes the rest of the feast and the trimmings — the candied sweet potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the pickled beets, the creamed onions, the pumpkin pie and, oh yes, the wine.

With this eclectic combination of sometimes-compatible foods, the wine should be especially food friendly. Sparkling wines are just that and you may want to choose one of those. Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante at $15 is a nice inexpensive sparkler, sweet, of course, but then so are the green beans with bacon and brown sugar and the watermelon pickles.

Try a dessert wine with the pumpkin pie. We enjoy a few ounces (about the amount in a shot glass) of Chaddsford Spiced Apple at $11.

Or better yet, go to a local winery that makes fruit wines and taste several of them.

Most people really like sweet raspberry wine with brownies and have a nice ruby port with Stilton (or bleu cheese) after dinner.

Jo and Tom Chesworth are both AWS certified wine judges and can be found in the winecellar@7ms.com.