The Best Holiday Wines For Every Food And Occasion

The winter holiday season is upon us, and people everywhere are craving delectable meals of classic recipes representing family and cultural traditions. Whether you spend blustery days building snowpeople, skiing, ice skating, and winter nights with family around the fireplace; or your days are filled with sunny surf, sand, and palm trees, we can all agree on one thing –- the holidays are a time of indulgence.

The holidays call for sparkling opulence, glittering lights, a beautifully set table, and the smells of hot-from-the-oven gingerbread, grandma's Norwegian lefse, mom's holiday cookies, rich walnut fudge, and peppermint bark, wafting from kitchens. Prosecco and cocktails flow at company holiday parties. Warmed spiced cider is a delicious treat for holiday pageants and plays. Bags of freshly roasted chestnuts and cups of piping hot mulled (spiced) wine are requisite accompaniments when shopping at chilly Christmas markets.

Holiday parties and meals are a time to bring out your best recipes to celebrate the season and the special people in your life. Sometimes, pairing holiday dishes can be challenging, but we have you covered this year. Keep in mind that seasonings, spices, and sauces, are where the wine-pairing magic happens. So bring out your favorite Champagne, tins of caviar, icy bowls of plump shrimp cocktail, and briny oysters on the half-shell, and get ready for the best wine and holiday food pairings to impress your guests. Remember, Champagne pairs with everything!

Few things impress like an ample charcuterie board stacked with savory, smoked, or cured meats, flanked with crunchy crackers, bruschetta, crisp vegetables, and a selection of tangy mustards and dips. Charcuterie boards should include five things, according to MasterClass: a selection of meats, pickled vegetables, fresh or dried fruits, a few kinds of cheese, garnishes, and crackers or bread.

With all of these flavors, picking a wine might be confusing. Pair your wine with the strongest flavors, often the meats. Salty-cured meats like salami, prosciutto, smoked meats and fish, and gravlax need a wine with a strong backbone and bright acidity to balance the fat and salt. Rosé Champagne is a gorgeous choice, as is effervescent Italian Lambrusco. Consider aperitif wines like amontillado sherry and Madeira: Both have nutty, saline, and dried citrus peel notes, but maintain refreshing puckery acidity.

Everyone has their favorite mashed potatoes recipe, and the best mashers are creamy, and buttery, and have delicious accents like garlic, herbs, and cheese (in our opinion). Mashed potatoes are easy enough to pair with a buttery chardonnay, but what happens when you drizzle (or drown) your fluffy potatoes with gravy? That depends on the gravy. Not all gravies are created equal.

Some are intensely flavored and others are delicate. Mushroom gravy calls for savory, earthy wines like pinot noir. Turkey gravy needs a boost of flavor from an aromatic white wine like riesling or Madeira. Beef gravy stands up to rich merlots and cabernet sauvignons. If you use a certain wine to deglaze your pan before whisking up your gravy, use a great quality wine and serve it alongside your meal.

Ham is a classic celebratory dish served for several religious and secular holidays, including Christmas. Spiraled, smoked, honey-baked, studded with cloves, or draped in pineapple, ham can be a pairing challenge. A salty-sweet meat, ham is often glazed with brown sugar, maple syrup, and tropical fruits. Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, crafts a tangy glaze for her signature ham that includes dijon mustard, brown sugar, orange, garlic, and mango chutney.

With its sweet nature and layers of honeyed, brown sugar, and clove accents, glazed ham needs a fruity, fun wine like spritzy Lambrusco, cru or Nouveau Beaujolais, Salice Salentino, or a fruit-forward German zweigelt. Smoked or barbecued ham can stand up to a smoky Rhône red wine, fruity cinsault, and a solid merlot.

Holiday classics like succulent prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, or a standing rib roast harken back to Dickinson Christmases past. The holidays are the perfect time to splurge on expensive cuts of beef like rib roast and prime rib. Rich and packed with flavor, these tender and juicy cuts, often cooked rare or medium rare and have generous marbling and a delicate sweetness.

Prime rib and rib roasts are often accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, little doughy cakes made from the flavorful pan drippings of the beef. Beef begs for bold and tannic red wines with prominent fruit and ripe tannins. Check out Italian Amarone or Barolo, zinfandel, primitivo, or a sturdy Californian cabernet sauvignon.

Whether it is braised, roasted, or smoked, brisket is delish. You can slowly braise brisket in a Dutch oven with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, herbs, dry red wine, and tomatoes, to ensure a juicy and tender result. The vegetables can be served alongside the brisket or whipped into a flavorful mash. The absolute best wine pairing for this style is the wine used in the braising.

Look for a red wine with moderate acidity, body, and tannins, like a sangiovese or tempranillo. The acidity tenderizes the meat and the cherry and herbal notes of the wine pair beautifully with the finished dish. Smoked brisket needs a brawny, substantial wine: think peppery syrah, muscular cabernet sauvignon, or smoky pinotage. Many high-end kosher wines make use of boldly flavored grapes, according to Wine Enthusiast.

Tofurky is a brand-named plant-based vegan holiday "roast" prepared from wheat gluten and organic soy tofu that has been infused with savory flavors. Tofurky resembles a roasted turkey breast or rolled roast filled with bread and rice stuffing, but meatless meat like Tofurky can be bland and needs a boost of flavor. Special care must be taken when roasting a delicate Tofurky because it dries out easily or becomes too firm and chewy.

Tofurky is a salty dish that takes on the flavors of its side dishes or gravy. Its mild flavors and textures are balanced out with a buttery chardonnay, medium-bodied rosé, aromatic sipping vermouth, or a young and fruity pinot noir with prominent acidity which gives the dish a boost of flavor and moisture.

According to NPR, the tradition of Jewish people dining at Chinese restaurants on the Christian holiday of Christmas dates back to 1899. At the time, holidays were taken much more seriously than they are now, and most businesses, restaurants included, would be closed on weekends and holidays. In a largely Christian country, Jewish folks found camaraderie dining in Chinese restaurants on the most important of Christian holidays.

Whether it be lo mein, Szechuan, fried rice, triple delight, Peking duck, Kung Pao chicken, or sweet and sour pork, Chinese food isn't a natural fit for red wine. Soy sauce, ample spice, and tangy flavors pair well with acidity, floral notes, and zesty lemony aromatics found in sparkling white wines like chenin blanc sparkling Vouvray, and effervescent Basque Txakolina.

The best way to top off any holiday meal is with something sweet. Autumn pies are requisite on Christmas tables. Deliciously spicy, classic pumpkin pie doused with a heavy dollop of sweetened whipped cream or a crisp Granny Smith apple pie topped with cheddar cheese shavings are signatures of autumn and winter. Buttery maple-scented pecan pie graces Christmas tables alongside classic minced-meat pie or vegetarian minced 'meat' fruit pie. One thing these pies have in common is aromatic spices. Traditional pie spice often contains cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg, according to Martha Stewart.

Add a pinch of mace and cardamom for an elevated flavor. In the world of wines, one white wine stands out for its spicy clove and lychee fruit fragrance, and that is gewürztraminer. It is the perfect pairing for autumn pies. Look for a dry Alsatian gewürztraminer or a slightly sweet late-harvest selection.

Fruit bread: fruitcake, stollen, and panettone are a perfect way to wake up on a sleepy holiday morning. Yeasty, eggy, and warm, studded with dried fruits, nuts, and glazed or unglazed, fruit bread is delicious. Some fruit bread, like fruitcake, is soaked in generous pours of brandy before and after baking. Stollen is iced with crunchy white royal icing. Panettone is the lightest holiday fruit bread. Pair fruitcake and bread with Italian Vin Santo (which means holy wine in Italian). Its dried raisin, date, honey, and roasted nut aromas pair perfectly with fruit bread.

Repurpose fruit bread into custardy bread pudding and panettone French toast for brunch. Pair with floral and sweet wines like zesty white Port, peaches and cream-scented Moscato D'asti, and moscatel Sherry, which exudes notes of honeysuckle and jasmine.

Sufganiyot is a traditional Jewish jelly-filled donut served during the eight-day Hanukkah celebration honoring the ancient rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after it was destroyed in war, per Britannica. It is tradition to nibble on fried foods during Hanukkah, nodding to the miracle of the small vial of holy oil that burned for eight days, rather than just one.

My Jewish Learning explains that sufganiyot is a yeast-leavened pastry, filled with strawberry, apricot, or raspberry jam, and deep-fried until just browned. Topped with a sprinkling of granulated sugar, the little warm pockets of sweetness are best paired with a sweet wine like peaches and cream-scented effervescent Moscato D'Asti, a gorgeous wine from Piedmont, Italy. By matching sweetness levels in the dessert and the wine, the delicious fruity flavors shine through.