Wines and Cocktails You Should Try With Thanksgiving Dinner

Picking the appropriate wine to go with your Thanksgiving dinner doesn't have to be an intimidating or expensive process.

The staff at  is making wine shopping easy for their customers by making their own recommendations for Thanksgiving wines and offer the following "tasting notes" for some of the wines.

Don't feel restricted.

"Contrary to popular belief, you can serve red wine with turkey," said Kelly Dean, of WineStyles at Seven Bridges. "There's room for both red and white wines on your Thanksgiving table."

Here are some of WineStyles' recommendations for this Thursday:

• Hook & Ladder Gewurztraminer. A white wine from California's Russian River Valley, this is an "intensely aromatic wine with flavors of exotic spice, ripe apple and honey, carrying through this sleek crisp wine, leaving a note of sweetness in the finish." $17.99
• Taz Chardonnay Santa Barbara.  "Aromas of lemon and tropical fruit with coconut, lead to a silky, creamy balanced (white) wine with a refreshing acidity and lengthy finish." $18.99
• Kennedy Shah California Merlot "A lush, rich wine with raspberries, blueberries and spiced throughout. A full yet silky smooth wine with bright acidity to support the fruit." $14.99
• Siduri Pinot Noir.  From their vineyards in Wilmette Valley, Ore., this is a "beautifully crafted wine, ripe rich and full bodied, with layers of ripe plum, blackbery and black cherry flavors that are sharply focused and finishes with a long rich after taste." $24.99

If you'd prefer to mix up some cocktails before or after dinner, be adventurous and check out these recipes for the Jack-O-Lantern, The Lazy Boy, the Autumn Leaf, the Burnt Turkey  the Gobble-tini or the Turkey Trot. Non-alcoholic drinks include Applejack Mulled Cider, Apple Ginger Sparklers, Rosy Cranberry Cider, the Morning Star and a Pomegranate-Ginger-Chile Nojito Cocktail.

All the mixings for these drinks should be easily available at area stores including , , , , , ,  and .