Awesome Champagne Pairings for New Years Eve

Sparkling wine and NYE (that’s shorthand for New Year’s Eve) are best buds. While we could provide you with a wine pairing guide that included and wine varieties, chances are, you’re probably most interested in how to pair the bubbly. So, with that in mind, here’s a look at great pairings for every course as you wave “bye-bye” to 2017 and prepare to usher in 2018.

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Appetizers

• We just love these hush puppies. They’re meat-free and, since they’re fried, offer a healthy dose of satisfying fat. They’ll balance the crispness of a good sparkling wine, and make for easy finger food.
• This one is fancy! A perfectly seared sea scallop sits atop a potato pancake and is dressed with Not only does this dish pair well with sparkling wines, you’ll use the wine in the cooking of the dish! It’s a show stopper, all right!

Main Courses

• You really can’t talk about sparkling wine without talking about Oysters Rockefeller. This baked dish is so rich in flavor, that it was named after one of the world’s richest men. Serve as an appetizer or a full-on
• How about a quiche! Pairing eggs, bacon, cheddar, and onions creates a bake that has all the savory you need to offset the delicate bubbles in your wine flute. When properly baked, this buttery crust provides a balancing sweetness to the flavor combination.
• A rich short rib in Chile sauce is heavy enough to benefit from a sparkling wine nicely. We’re fans of this recipe for its pairing with black beans!

Desserts

• Since sparkling wine does best with desserts that aren’t overly sweet, sticking with fruit-based dishes will be important. This Strawberry soufflé recipe is the best of fruit and pastry, providing a sweet end to a heavy meal.
• Tart berries in this crostata will balance the sparkle of your wine. It uses a coarse sugar to provide a targeted sweet in the crust that allows the berries to have personality unmasked by overwhelming sweetness.
• Finally, a Meyer lemon shortcake will absolutely bring out the tart-sweet nature in your sparkling wine. Citrus almost always pairs well with sparkling wine, and this recipe incorporates heavy cream to balance the palate well. It’s like a shortcake, but all grown up!

Finally, a word on cheese pairings. If you plan on offering a cheese board for your bubbly, keep these tips in mind:

1. Match flavor to flavor. What do we mean by this? If your sparkling wine boasts a light body with fruit influences, reach for a lighter cheese, perhaps with notes of lemon. Conversely, a Prosecco or Rose does much better with a heavier cheese, we like an alpine variety.
2. Shop local. Picking a Swiss bubbly to go with your Swiss cheese (the region of origin, not the type of cheese) will almost always work well. A French cheese goes best with a French sparkling wine or champagne, German with German, and so on. The regional flavors will complement effortlessly when you match the regions of origin between wine and cheese.