Wine with Latkes: What to Pour for Hanukkah, by Topping
By the Sommy Team — AI-assisted, human-edited.
Updated Oct 1, 2026
Contents (9)
- What Wine Goes With Latkes, in One Paragraph?
- Which Wine Goes With Each Latke Topping?
- Why Do Bubbles and Acidity Work With Fried Potato?
- How Dry Should the Sparkling Wine Be?
- Does Riesling Go With Latkes and Applesauce?
- Can You Serve Red Wine With Latkes?
- What If Brisket or Sufganiyot Are on the Table?
- Does Hanukkah Wine Need to Be Kosher?
- How Do You Pour for Eight Nights of Latkes?
TL;DR
The best wine with latkes is a dry sparkling wine labelled Brut, because acidity and bubbles strip fried oil off the tongue. Pour off-dry Riesling when applesauce is the topping, Extra Brut with smoked salmon, and skip tannic reds. Kosher is a handling certification, so any of these styles can be kosher.
Wine with latkes has one job: clear the oil. A latke is shredded potato and egg fried in oil, eaten across the eight nights of Hanukkah to recall Temple oil that lasted eight days. That makes the plate rich, salty and crisp, and the wine that works best is the one with the most acidity and the finest bubbles. A dry sparkling wine labelled Brut does it at the lowest cost. The topping on the latke then decides whether you add a second bottle.
What Wine Goes With Latkes, in One Paragraph?
The best wine with latkes is a dry sparkling wine labelled Brut, with an off-dry Riesling as the second bottle when applesauce is on the table. Brut means under 12 grams of sugar per litre, dry enough to cut through fried potato and sour cream. With smoked salmon, go drier still: Extra Brut, under 6 grams. With applesauce, a Riesling labelled Feinherb, or Kabinett without the word Trocken, has enough sweetness to match the fruit and enough acidity to handle the oil. Leave big, tannic reds for another night. Champagne, Cava, Crémant and Brut Prosecco all qualify, so price is the deciding factor.
Which Wine Goes With Each Latke Topping?
Match the wine to the topping, because the potato and oil stay the same while the topping changes what the bite needs. The tradition is sour cream or applesauce, and many tables add smoked salmon. If the topping is sweet, the wine needs a touch of sugar; if it is creamy or salty, the wine stays dry.
| Topping | What it adds | Pour this | Why it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain, with salt | Oil, salt, crunch | Brut sparkling | Acid and bubbles clear the oil; salt makes the fruit taste rounder |
| Sour cream | Fat, gentle tang | Brut sparkling or crisp unoaked white | High acidity clears the cream as well as the oil |
| Applesauce | Sugar, tart fruit | Off-dry Riesling (Kabinett, Feinherb) | A touch of sugar matches the apple; acidity still cuts the frying |
| Smoked salmon | Salt, fish oil, smoke | Extra Brut sparkling or dry Riesling (Trocken) | Very dry wine stays clean against salt and smoke |
| Sour cream and applesauce together | Fat and sugar | Off-dry Riesling | The sweet element sets the floor; a dry wine would taste sour |
The table follows the general wine pairing rules for fat, salt and sugar. The full method behind them sits in the food pairing hub.
Why Do Bubbles and Acidity Work With Fried Potato?
Oil coats the tongue, and acidity (the tartness that makes your mouth water) strips that coating away, so the fifth latke tastes as clean as the first. Food-pairing writers call this a contrasting pairing: in fatty, oily or salty dishes, acidity in the wine "cuts" the richness.
Sparkling wine adds a second tool. Carbon dioxide bubbles scrub the palate physically, the way a sip of soda water does after chips.
A still wine can do the first job but not the second, so it needs more acidity to keep up. The wine acidity guide shows which grapes keep the most.
How Dry Should the Sparkling Wine Be?
Pick Brut, which means under 12 grams of sugar per litre. Brut is also the most common style, so it is the easiest to find. The sugar level is set by the dosage (a small dose of sweetened wine added just before the cork goes in), and the label word tells you how much:
- Brut Nature or Brut Zero: under 3 g/l, bone dry. Best with smoked salmon.
- Extra Brut: under 6 g/l. Also best with smoked salmon.
- Brut: under 12 g/l. Works with every topping.
- Extra Dry: 12 to 17 g/l, noticeably fruity-sweet. Suits applesauce.
- Sec and Demi-sec: 17 to 50 g/l. Too sweet for latkes; keep them for dessert.
The trap is Extra Dry, which is sweeter than Brut despite the name. If the label says Extra Dry, Sec or Demi-sec, pour it with applesauce or the doughnuts and keep Brut for the salmon.
Traditional method or tank method?
How the bubbles get into the wine changes the flavour. In the traditional method (used for Champagne, Cava and Crémant), a second fermentation happens inside each bottle, and the wine rests on the spent yeast, which adds bready, toasty notes. In the tank method (used for most Prosecco), the second fermentation happens in a pressurised steel tank, which keeps the wine fresher, lighter and more fruity.
Both work with latkes. Toasty traditional-method wine suits sour cream and salmon; fruity tank wine suits plain latkes and applesauce. The sparkling wine types guide maps every style, and Champagne vs Prosecco vs Cava compares the three most common bottles. For a traditional-method bottle at a lower price than Champagne, look at Crémant.
Does Riesling Go With Latkes and Applesauce?
Yes, as long as it is off-dry (with a little sugar you can taste) rather than fully sweet. Riesling is one of the most versatile food wines because it balances sugar against high acidity. That balance is what applesauce needs: the sugar meets the apple, and the acid still cuts the oil.
German labels tell you the sweetness in words:
- Trocken: dry. Use it with smoked salmon or plain latkes.
- Feinherb or Halbtrocken: off-dry. The best match for applesauce.
- Kabinett: light-bodied and low in alcohol, often with a touch of sweetness. Also good with applesauce.
- Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese: dessert wines. Too sweet for latkes.
Sweetness without acidity is the failure here. A soft, sweet wine with low acid tastes flat against oil. Off-dry Riesling works because its acidity stays high. Sweet wine also contrasts with salt, so an off-dry Riesling handles salty, crisp edges better than its sugar suggests. The Riesling wine guide covers the regions and styles, and sweet vs dry wine explains why fruity is not the same as sweet.
Can You Serve Red Wine With Latkes?
Only a light, low-tannin red, served cool. Tannin (the drying grip on your gums) needs protein to soften against. In dishes with little protein, tannin tastes more astringent, so a big, grippy red turns harsh and dry beside plain fried potato.
If you want red, choose one you can see light through in the glass, with low tannin and fresh acidity, and give it a short spell in the fridge. The serving temperature chart gives the range for light reds. The guide to tannins, acidity and body explains how to spot a grippy red before you buy it.
What If Brisket or Sufganiyot Are on the Table?
Keep the sparkling wine for the latkes, open a medium-bodied red for brisket, and pour a wine sweeter than the doughnut for sufganiyot. Brisket is more closely tied to Rosh Hashanah, Passover and the Sabbath, so on a Hanukkah table it is an extra course that needs its own wine.
Brisket changes the rules because it brings protein and slow-cooked fat. That protein softens tannin, so a red with medium body (weight in the mouth, like whole milk versus skimmed) works with it. If brisket is the main, open that red for the meat course and keep the bubbles for the latkes beside it.
Sufganiyot are round, jelly-filled doughnuts, the other fried food of Hanukkah. Any dessert needs a wine at least as sweet as the food, or the wine tastes sour. A Demi-sec sparkling or a sweet Riesling works with the jam. The dessert wine guide lists more sweet styles.
Does Hanukkah Wine Need to Be Kosher?
Only if you or your guests keep kosher. Kosher is not a style but a certification of how a wine is handled. From the moment the juice is separated from the solids until the wine is sealed or heat-treated, only Sabbath-observant Jews may handle it.
Kosher wine is made around the world in every style, including Brut sparkling, dry and off-dry Riesling, and light reds.
Mevushal (Hebrew for "cooked") kosher wine has been heated during production. After that, non-observant people can open and pour it without affecting its kosher status. This is why kosher caterers and restaurants with non-observant staff often serve mevushal wine. The heating can change the flavour.
If a guest keeps kosher, look for a kosher certification symbol on the back label, and choose mevushal if non-observant people will be serving. Ask the guest when in doubt: practice varies by family.
How Do You Pour for Eight Nights of Latkes?
Buy two bottles, a Brut sparkling and an off-dry Riesling, and rotate them across the eight nights by topping. An opened sparkling wine loses its fizz faster than a still wine, so close it with a sparkling stopper and finish it first. A resealed Riesling in the fridge lasts longer; how long wine lasts after opening gives the timings.
If you only buy one bottle, buy Brut sparkling: it works with plain latkes, sour cream and smoked salmon, and only applesauce asks for something sweeter. On the night with the most guests, open the traditional-method bottle; on quieter nights, a tank-method Brut does the same job for less. Pour sparkling wine well chilled and in a tall glass so the bubbles last, as the guide on how to taste sparkling wine shows.
Tonight, fry or buy a batch of latkes, open a Brut, and taste it once with sour cream and once with applesauce. Note which bite turned the wine sour. The Sommy app's AI-guided tasting mode walks you through look, smell and taste after you photograph the label, and saves the result in your tasting journal for next year's Hanukkah.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
What wine goes best with potato latkes?
A dry sparkling wine labelled Brut is the safest choice. Latkes are shredded potato fried in oil, and the wine's acidity and bubbles clear that oil from the tongue between bites. Champagne, Cava, Crémant and other Brut sparkling wines all do the job. If you want a still wine, pick a crisp, unoaked white or an off-dry Riesling.
What wine goes with latkes and applesauce?
An off-dry Riesling, labelled Feinherb, or Kabinett without the word Trocken, on German bottles. Applesauce is sweet and tart, and a bone-dry wine tastes sour and thin next to sugar. Riesling keeps high acidity even with a little sweetness, so it still cuts the oil from the frying while matching the sweetness of the apple.
What wine goes with latkes and sour cream?
A Brut sparkling wine or a crisp, unoaked white. Sour cream adds fat and a gentle tang, so the wine needs enough acidity to clear the cream as well as the oil. Avoid heavily oaked whites here, because their own creamy, buttery texture piles onto the sour cream and makes the whole bite feel heavy.
Can you drink red wine with latkes?
Yes, but only a light, low-tannin red served slightly cool. Plain fried potato has little protein to soften tannin, so a big, grippy red tastes harsh and drying against it. Choose a red you can see light through in the glass. If brisket or another meat dish is on the table, a medium-bodied red works with that course instead.
Does wine for Hanukkah have to be kosher?
Only if you or your guests keep kosher. Kosher wine is made under supervision so that only Sabbath-observant Jews handle it during production, and it is made in every style, including dry sparkling and Riesling. Mevushal kosher wine has been heated, which allows non-observant people to pour it, so caterers and mixed tables often choose it.
Is Prosecco good with latkes?
Yes, if the label says Brut. Most Prosecco is made in pressurised tanks, which keeps it fruity and light, and its bubbles still clear the oil. Check the sweetness word, though: Extra Dry on the label means 12 to 17 grams of sugar per litre, sweeter than Brut, which suits applesauce better than smoked salmon.
Sommy Team
LinkedInFounder & Wine Educator
The Sommy Team is building the world's most approachable wine education app, helping beginners develop real tasting skills through structured courses and AI-guided practice.
