It's best not to overthink your Christmas day wine pairings.

The turkey dinner festive feast is a riot of different dishes, textures, flavors, salt and sweet.

So, as such, you can match the meal with sparkling wine, white, rose and-or red and be a winner.

My family and I always start the 25th with sparkling wine.

Bubbly is celebratory and decadent and delicious — especially when sipped while you open your presents in the morning.

In keeping with the tradition my mom and dad started, we put a teaspoon of light peach syrup in a flute, fill the rest up with sparkling wine and add a peach slice.

It's an elegant twist on a mimosa — the ultimate Christmas morning drink.

I have the Hester Creek 2021 Old Vine Brut ($40) chilling and ready for this ritual.

You can also keep extra bottles of the Old Vine Brut in the fridge to have without peach at turkey dinner.

Sparkling is so food friendly and will cut through the fat of dark turkey meat and elevate the taste of relatively neutral light turkey meat.

Photo credit: Prchi Palwe on UnsplashThe Christmas turkey is oh-so-easy to pair with wine.

Personally, I'm a fan of Riesling with Christmas dinner.

That's why I'm recommending not one, but two lush Rieslings to go with turkey and all the fixings.

The Fort Berens 2024 Riesling ($23) from Lillooet is a classic off-dry Riesling with a lemon-and-honey profile that will complement everything from turkey and gravy, herbed dressing and buttery potatoes and vegetables.

If you like your Riesling drier, the Fort Berens 2023 Reserve Riesling ($30) is also an excellent match.

Along the same lines as Riesling, the Sandhill 2024 Sovereign Opal ($19) (Kelowna), is an off-dry and aromatic white that is also divine with turkey and all the sides.

Sovereign Opal is a hybrid created in the Okanagan by crossing Golden Muscat and Marechal Foch and Sandhill is the only winery to make it.

My wife, Kerry, swears by Chardonnay with turkey.

Be sure to choose an elegantly oaked Chard rather than a heavily oaked number because too much oak can make the food taste bitter or harsh.

Two such ideal Chards are the Fort Berens 2023 White Gold Chardonnay Reserve ($35) and Domaine Artema 2024 Village Chardonnay ($35) made by the Oliver winery of imported grapes.

We have to include Pinot Gris as a turkey wine because Pinot Gris is the most popular white wine in the Okanagan.

However, with the January 2024 cold snap that decimated the fall 2024 harvest, this 2024 Pinot Gris ($21) from Red Rooster is actually made of Washington state grapes by the winery on the Naramata Bench.

Pink is an inspired pairing for turkey dinner because Rose is light enough to go with the white meat from the bird, but also dark enough to go with the brown drumstick meat.

If you like your Rose pale pink, reach for the Liquidity 2024 Rose of Pinot Gris ($36), made by the Okanagan Falls winery of grapes from Oregon.

For a more robust pink, the Hester Creek 2024 Rose of Cabernet Franc ($23) can be your go-to.

It's made by the Oliver winery of grapes from Washington state.

The only red wine varietal I'd suggest for turkey dinner is Pinot Noir because it's light-bodied and lightly oaked.

If you go too big and bold with a red, like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, you run the risk of the full-bodied and tannic wine making the turkey taste dry or bitter.

So, stick with premium Pinots like the CedarCreek 2022 Platinum South Kelowna Slopes Pinot Noir ($67) from Kelowna or the Quails Gate 2024 Field & Flight Pinot Noir ($23) made by the West Kelowna winery of grapes from Oregon.

Dessert

Dessert can be tricky for wine pairing.

Should you simply forgo wine with dessert?

Or, do you go the icewine or port route?

Icewine definitely embraces the sweet with sweet philosophy when paired with anything caramel, chocolate, cheesecake, pie or trifle 

Port-style wines are less sweet and fortified with a little more alcohol to be lush and dense.

They too can complement Christmas dessert or cheese.

Two prime Okanagan examples are Black Sage 2017 Pipe ($24) from Oliver and Domaine Artema Eau de Noir ($28) also from Oliver.

Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at smacnaull@nowmediagroup.ca. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.