Best Of

Best Wines for Christmas Dinner 2026

From the first toast to the cheese board — 5 bottles for every course

Christmas dinner is a longer and richer meal than Thanksgiving, and it usually has a centrepiece — a rib roast, a glazed ham, a turkey or a goose — that deserves a wine chosen for it rather than around it. The mistake most hosts make is opening one big red at the start and pouring it through every course. Wine works better when it moves with the meal: something sparkling and cold while people arrive, a crisp white with the starters, a red matched to the main, and something sweet and fortified to finish. That sounds like a lot of bottles, but it is not more wine — it is the same amount, spread across the right moments. These five bottles cover the whole evening, all tasted blind by our panel.

1Best Aperitif92 pts • Champagne, France

Veuve Clicquot Champagne Yellow Label

Champagne • $65

Open Champagne as guests arrive and the evening starts on the right note. Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label has the Pinot Noir backbone to handle canapés with real flavour — our recorded pairings are seared scallops and, yes, fried food — and its brioche and yellow-apple profile is as comfortable with smoked salmon blinis as with a bowl of salted nuts. Serve at 42–45°F. At $65 it is the most dependable bottle of Champagne you can put in front of a mixed crowd.

Buy — $65 Full Review

2Best with Seafood93 pts • Sonoma Coast, California

Flowers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

Chardonnay • $45

For the seafood course — or the whole Christmas Eve table if your family keeps the Feast of the Seven Fishes — Flowers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is the pour. Lemon zest, white peach and crushed oyster shell on the nose, a flinty mineral spine, and a saline finish that tastes made for shellfish. Raw oysters and grilled halibut are our recorded pairings. It is Chardonnay without the butter bomb, which is exactly why it works with delicate fish. $45, 93 points, served at 48–52°F.

Buy — $45 Full Review

3Best with Turkey or Ham95 pts • Willamette Valley, Oregon

Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve

Pinot Noir • $85

If the centrepiece is a turkey, a glazed ham or a goose, you want Pinot Noir: enough acidity to cut the fat and salt, soft enough tannins not to turn bitter against a sweet glaze. Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve is the Pinot Noir we would put on this table — forest floor and dried rose, then juicy raspberry, red plum and exotic spice on a silky, mid-weight palate. Roast duck is among its recorded pairings, and goose follows the same logic. $85, 95 points; serve at 55–60°F.

Buy — $85 Full Review

4Top Pick97 pts • Calistoga, Napa Valley, California

Chateau Montelena Estate

Cabernet Sauvignon • $185

A standing rib roast is the one Christmas main that wants a serious Cabernet, and Chateau Montelena Estate is the serious Cabernet. Cassis and black cherry under tobacco leaf, cedar and graphite; dense and powerful but kept in balance by fresh acidity and fine-grained tannins. Côte de boeuf is our recorded pairing — prime rib is the same conversation. It is young and structured, so decant it for about an hour before dinner and serve at 65°F. At $185 and 97 points, it is the bottle that makes the roast an occasion.

Buy — $185 Full Review

5Best with Dessert97 pts • Douro Valley, Portugal

W. & J. Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos The Stone Port 2021

Port • $200

End with Port, the way Christmas dinner has ended for a couple of centuries. Graham's The Stone Terraces 2021 is a rare single-site Vintage Port from just three hectares of hand-built terraces at Quinta dos Malvedos — blackberry and kirsch with a flicker of tropical mango, then black fruit and dark chocolate on polished tannins. Stilton and chocolate fondant are our recorded pairings; Christmas pudding and a cheese board sit happily between them. Serve at 60–64°F. $200, and it will keep improving for decades if you can resist it.

Buy — $200 Full Review

The Verdict

Pour the Veuve Clicquot as people arrive and the Flowers Chardonnay with the starters. For the main course, match the bottle to the centrepiece: Domaine Serene with turkey, ham or goose, Chateau Montelena with a rib roast. Finish with the Graham's Port and the cheese. If you are only buying one bottle, buy for the main course — that is the pairing your guests will remember.

Get our top pick — Chateau Montelena Estate · $185

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