Easter Wine: What Goes With Ham

When many people think about Easter dinner, they’re thinking about serving ham. So, naturally, when it comes to wine, they’ll want to know what goes with ham.

However, in our house, Easter dinner was more of a pasta meal. Plus, there were always decadent desserts — including Bill’s grandmother’s pigna Italian Easter cake. And you can’t forget the chocolate candy.

Easter Wines That Go With Ham and So Much More

So this article is all about choosing the right wine to pair with your Easter feast. Here’s a look at some suggested wine pairings.

Sparkling Wines

Sparkling wine is the perfect way to start any celebration. It’s light and refreshing and adds a touch of elegance to any occasion. Plus, it pairs well with a wide variety of foods.

For Easter, consider serving a brut sparkling wine. Brut is a dry style of sparkling wine that has a crisp, refreshing taste. It pairs well with appetizers, salads and light entrees.

Prosecco

Prosecco is an extra-dry style of sparkling wine with Italian origins. It is a great choice to use when making mimosas for Easter brunch. Fill a fluted wine glass three-quarters full with Prosecco and top with your favorite juice for a refreshing and festive cocktail.

“For a traditional Easter ham, I often pair it with something light and somewhat dry like Prosecco,” said Gen La Rocca of Two Cloves Kitchen. “The brightness and acidity of the Prosecco balance out the rich, salty meat really well.”

Sparkling Rosé

If you’re looking for a more indulgent option, consider serving a rosé sparkling wine. Rosé sparkling wine is made by allowing the skins of red grapes to rest with the white wine transferring flavor, color and a small amount of tannin.

This process gives the wine a beautiful pink hue and a fruity flavor that pairs well with strawberries. It’s a great choice if you’re serving ham, lamb, or salmon. So, if you like sparkling wines and want something that goes with your ham supper, there you go.

White Wine

White wine is a versatile option that can be paired with a wide variety of dishes. Consider serving white wine with a medium to full body. In our house, we’ll reach for Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc. One year my brother in law served Pecorino, an Italian wine variety named after sheep. It was delightful. Here are some other Easter dinner options to consider.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a classic option that pairs well with creamy dishes like scalloped potatoes or risotto. It has a buttery flavor with notes of vanilla and oak.

Riesling

Riesling is a fabulous white wine choice that you feel confident will go with almost any dish. It is a versatile wine that can pair well with a wide range of dishes. It has high acidity, fruity flavors and varying levels of sweetness. This makes it a great wine to pair with ham as well as other traditional Easter menu items such as fish and lamb or anything with rich, creamy sauces.

Albarino

Albariño is another excellent white to pair alongside Easter fare. It is a light-bodied wine with high acidity, floral and citrus aromas, and flavors of peach, apricot and green apple. It is native to the Galicia region of northwest Spain. However, now it’s grown in other parts of the world, including California and Australia. It pairs well with seafood, ham, spring vegetables and salads.

Rosé Wine

Rosé wine has become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason. It’s light, refreshing and pairs well with a variety of foods. Dry rosé has a crisp, clean taste and makes a great Easter dinner wine to go with a wide variety of dishes. In this instance, we’re talking about the still version of Rosé wine, not the sparkling kind mentioned earlier.

Red Wine

Red wine is a classic choice for any dinner party. Easter dinner is no exception. Here are some ideas.

Cabernet Sauvignon

If you’re serving a more robust dish like beef or lamb, consider serving a full-bodied red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet Sauvignon has a bold flavor with notes of black currant and spice. It pairs well with hearty dishes and adds a touch of elegance to any meal.

Gamay

Another lesser-known red that also makes an excellent wine pairing for Easter is Gamay. It is the grape varietal used in the production of Beaujolais in France, in a wine region just south of Burgundy.

Gamay is a light-bodied red wine that’s similar in taste to Pinot Noir but with notes of bubblegum on the nose. Pair this dinner wine with turkey, pork, roast chicken, duck or fried calamari.

Dessert Wines

Dessert wine is a sweet wine that pairs well with a variety of desserts. Moscato d’Asti is a great choice that has a light, fruity flavor with notes of peach and apricot. It pairs well with fruit-based desserts like pies and tarts.

If you’re serving a richer dessert like chocolate cake or cheesecake, consider serving a port wine. Port wine is a sweet, fortified wine that has a rich, complex flavor.

This article originally appeared on Food Drink Life.