Thanksgiving is the time of year when it's especially challenging to be an inexperienced wine lover. More wine is consumed on Thanksgiving than any other day, but much of it by people who are only occasional wine drinkers.

        Moreover, the Thanksgiving meal features so many dishes that food and wine pairings can be a challenge for even a knowledgeable wine drinker. And, of course, if you've shown even a small interest in wine, odds are your family or friends have asked you to select the wines for the meal.

        So, what do you do?
       When selecting Thanksgiving wine, look for the three F's: flexibility, forwardness and fruitiness.

        • Flexibility refers to wine pairing well with different foods. It is essential because Thanksgiving tables are loaded with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn and other family favorites. Limited, one-track wines, such as cabernet sauvignon, won't work.

        • Forwardness refers to the boldness of the flavors of a wine. It's necessary because many Thanksgiving dishes are so fully flavored that delicate wines, such as chenin blanc, won't stand up.

        • Fruitiness refers to how strongly a wine expresses its basic ingredient — grapes. This is important because Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, so grapes should dominate the flavors of the wine. I'd avoid, for example, heavily oaked chardonnay.

        Fortunately, the search for the three F's isn't too difficult, because these characteristics often go hand-in-hand. Find a fruit-dominated wine and it is likely to be forward in flavor and flexible with foods.

        The best white wine to pour for Thanksgiving is gewurztraminer — my favorite Thanksgiving wine for 15 years.

        Gewurztraminer ranges from sweet to dry, so choose whatever will please family and friends. California and other U.S. gewurztraminers tend to be sweeter (and less expensive) than their counterparts from the Alsace region of France.

        When considering a red wine, good choices include pinot noir, zinfandel, syrah, grenache and French beaujolais. With pinot noir, avoid wines where acidity masks the fruit. Also, zinfandel can be less food-flexible than the others (although it or syrah is ideal with smoked turkey).

        But why choose between white and red? I recommend selecting a bottle or two of both and broaden your chances of pleasing everyone at the table — and meeting the three F's.

        Here are a few suggestions for inexpensive to moderately priced wines:

        • Thomas Fogarty 2000 Gewurztraminer “Monterey” ($16).

        • Beaulieu (BV) 1999 Pinot Noir “Coastal, California” ($10).

        • Bogle 1999 Zinfandel “Old Vine Cuvee, California” ($13).

        • Woodbridge 1999 Syrah “California” ($8).

        • Borja 2000 Grenache-Tempranillo “Borsao, Campo de Borja” ($7).

        • Georges Duboeuf 2000 Beaujolais “Morgon” ($13).

       Contact John Vankat by mail: c/o The Cincinnati Enquirer; fax: 768-8330.

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