Wine Pairings and Cocktails for Easter Dinner

Even if your Easter dinner is smaller than last year's (thanks to social distancing), you can still create a delicious meal at home – including wine pairings for all your favorite dishes. Go beyond whites-and-reds with these perfect wine pairings for turkey, ham, lamb, and everything else on the dinner table.

A Note About Easter Foods

Easter Sunday often centers on a feast shared with family and friends. The holiday is a time to reflect on what we've sacrificed so we can earn great things to come. While every family has their own dinner traditions, baked ham, turkey, or roasted lamb are commonly served meat dishes of this spring holiday. (We share a great roasted lamb recipe below.) While you and your family figure out who is going where for the holiday, we’ll help you choose the right wines to go with dinner, and of course, some of that Easter Chocolate.

Perfect Wine Pairings for Turkey, Ham, and Lamb

Easter ham can be deliciously salty, so we want to look for wines that help cut through that saltiness and balance the richness. Two crowd-pleasing wines that impart great flavor and keep everyone at the table happy: 

• Sittmann Riesling
• Vouvray Les Lys

If you want to buck the 'white wine pairing with ham' trend, try reds:

• Beaujolais Villages Vienot
• Chateau Du Cray Bourgogne Rouge

Roasted lamb is a traditional (and delicious) Easter meal – try this incredible recipe for Roasted Leg of Lamb with Carrots and Honey-Mint Sauce for proof. It's also one of the easiest meats to pair with wine. With lamb, you have plenty of options, including:

• Flechas de los Andes Gran Malbec
• Chateau des Graves Red
• Terraces Zinfandel
• Chateau Malmaison

Wines to Pair with Easter Chocolate

Ready to relax and chew the ears off that chocolate bunny? Try these delectable options to make each nibble count.

Wines to pair with milk chocolate:

• Chateau des 1000 Anges
• Pra Vinera Reserve Pinot Noir

Wine to pair with dark chocolate:

• Spice Block Cabernet
• Ramos Pinto Tawny Port

Easter Cocktails You Can Serve Before, During, or After Dinner

We've come up with some ideas to help get you and the people around your table relaxed and refreshed with drinks that suit the occasion. These recipes are easy and fast, so you can spend more time with your family and friends.

Blood Orange Mimosas

Ingredients:

• 3 cups fresh blood orange juice (from about 10 oranges)
• 1/3 cup Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 750-ml. bottle Cavatina Prosecco, chilled

How to Make Blood Orange Mimosas

1. Stir together juice, liqueur, and sugar in a two-quart pitcher until sugar is dissolved.
2. Chill until cold, about one hour.
3. Slowly pour in Bacio Della Luna Prosecco, stirring to combine.
4. Serve immediately.

Fresh Peach Bellinis

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe peaches, seeded and diced (or frozen)
• 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 bottle chilled Bacio Della Luna Prosecco or sparkling wine

How to Make Fresh Peach Bellinis:

1. Place the peaches, lemon juice, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until smooth.
2. Press the mixture through a sieve and discard the peach solids in the sieve.
3. Place two tablespoons of the peach puree into each Champagne glass and fill with cold Bacio Della Luna Prosecco.
4. Serve immediately.

Red Snapper Cocktail (Gin alternative to the Bloody Mary)

Ingredients:

• 2 pinches celery salt
• 2 pinches freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lime wedge
• 2 oz. gin (we recommend Bombay Dry Gin)
• 4 oz. tomato juice
• 0.5 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 6 dashes hot sauce (Tabasco)
• 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• ice

How to Make a Red Snapper Cocktail

1. Pour the salt and pepper onto a small plate.
2. Rub the juicy side of a lime wedge along the lip of a pint glass.
3. Rim the glass with the salt and pepper and fill the glass with ice.
4. Add the remaining ingredients into a shaker with ice, and shake until chilled.
5. Strain into the prepared glass, and garnish with a celery stalk and lime wedge.

Malibu Driver Recipe

• 2 oz. of Malibu coconut rum
• 4 oz. orange juice

How to Make a Malibu Driver Cocktail

1. Chill your ingredients first.
2. Build the ingredients in the glass of your choice.
3. Stir, and serve.

Kentucky Mule Recipe

• 1.5 oz. bourbon whiskey (think Kentucky bourbon)
• fill with ginger beer
• 1 splash Rose's® lime juice
• ice

How to Make a Kentucky Mule

1. Fill glass with ice and add bourbon.
2. Fill with ginger beer and a splash of lime juice.
3. Garnish with fresh mint sprig.

You can find any Easter meal wine pairing at Haskell's. Visit our shop for all your Easter drink needs. Here’s to a memorable and meaningful Easter together.