Your Official Guide to Christmas Wine Pairings

Few dishes wow quite like a dramatic ham centerpiece. Ham Stuffed with Prunes and Apples does the trick; it’s served with a sweet-sour sauce that mingles rich pan juices with tawny Port and sticky cherry preserves. Serve it alongside this medium to full-bodied red, which delivers concentrated flavors of ripe dark plum, black currant and a hint of loam.

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Of course, who’s to say you have to choose just one showstopper dish? Our Oven Roasted Rack of Lamb with Gremolata, roasted over a bed of fresh thyme and rosemary, makes for an elegant affair. Between bites, sip this dark ruby-hued bottling, which delivers flavors of blackberry, black cherry, anisette, menthol and violet against a rigid tannin backbone.

Partaking in the Feast of the Seven Fishes? Perhaps add to the menu an Italian-inflected Salt Cod Stew, cooked into a luscious, spicy ragu and served over ultra-creamy polenta. It cries out for this textured and glossy Crete bottling, which conveys balanced notes of citrus and melon.

You can’t go wrong with a simple Roasted Whole Fish with Herbs rubbed with olive oil and stuffed to the gills with pungent garlic. It’s a lovely accompaniment to this rich, full-bodied Chardonnay, which offers mild acidity amid generous accents of butter, vanilla and nutmeg.

Think you don’t like bitter greens? Try these holiday-appropriate, butter-glazed Brussels Sprouts with Radicchio and get back to us. It makes an unlikely dream team with this singular Pinot Gris, which packs a fascinating aroma of struck flint, herb and soil after a rain.

Don’t settle for a standard potato gratin. Mix things up with a hot, bubbling Pear and Parsnip Gratin swimming in heavy cream and butter. Don’t worry, it still counts as a vegetable. (It’s the holidays, OK?) Pair it with this acid-forward Sauvignon Blanc, which fittingly serves up flavors of warm apple and pear.

Lighten things up (but not too much) with this pomegranate molasses-swathed Barley and Butternut Squash Salad studded with toasted pecans, dried cherries, red onion and sage. It’s hearty enough to stand up to this dense wine from the Minho Valley, which in addition to great acidity and bright fruit also delivers a deep richness.

We’re in dessert territory, people! It’s hard to argue with Whiskey Pumpkin Pie spiked with dark maple syrup and a hit of liquid smoke, so don’t even try. It plays nicely with this Australian Para Grand Tawny, which in addition to a lovely acidity on the palate, conjures aromas of dusty library books and leather armchairs (good things, we assure you), plus baked raisins, molasses, coffee beans and warm spice.

Don’t forget to leave some cookies out for Santa. Easy Crescent Cookies, packed with ground hazelnuts and dusted in a blanket of confectioners’ sugar, perhaps? While you’re at it, don’t forget to leave the big guy a glassful of something lovely, like this white Trebbiano-Malvasia blend. With sweet notes of marzipan and acacia honey, it presents aromas of maple syrup, ripe apricot and vanilla.