If breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day, than why not serve it with one of the most beautiful, complex, and timelessly beloved beverages… wine?
I raise my glass to those of you who need no excuse or special occasion to pair wine or Champagne with breakfast or Sunday brunch. Below you can find 12 wines that pair well, depending on what you will be serving. Relax, let your hair down, grab your favorite bathrobe and enjoy!
The 12 Most Breakfast Friendly Wines:
1. Rose Champagne or Sparkling Wine: Cheers to all things bubbly at breakfast (with exception to that one overly chipper morning person). Rose Champagne and sparkling wine is one of the number one wines to pair with breakfast foods, both “demi-sec”, which means slightly sweet, or “brut”, which means dry. Don’t feel pressured to spend the money on true French Champagne when it comes to pairing bubbles with your brunch; sparkling wine is more affordable and may pair just as beautifully. Lobster, shrimp bacon and bagels with lox are just a few of the many foods that pair very well with pink bubbles.
2. Brut Champagne or Sparkling Wine: For those stubborn men who don’t realize that real men drink pink, brut (dry and white) bubbles pairs well with the foods listed above, and is a traditional brunch staple! When serving dry bubbles with breakfast, I recommend serving a cheese plate, which accompanies the bubbles quite well!
3. Demi-sec Champagne: Demi-sec bubbles scream crepes, waffles, pancakes, cheeses, fruit, and other slightly sweet brunch foods. It’s an easy-pleaser with most brunch guests, and rarely fails when your breakfast menu has a sweeter touch to it. 
4. Cremant de Alsace: while not a traditional Champagne, this French bubbly comes from Alsace, near the German border. It is made in the traditional French Champagne method, but instead of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it’s made from Pinot Blanc grapes. This wine has ‘egg dish’ pairing written all over it! It is very affordable, and it pairs phenomenally well with poached eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets, fritatta and eggs Benedict.
5. Prosecco Mimosas: Nothing reminds us of brunch more than the delightful and traditional orange juice mimosa! A Mimosa is bubbly mixed with orange juice, served in a Champagne flute. Prosecco (a sparkling white wine produced in the regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy) is a great sparkling wine to pair with oj. Mimosas are fun, easy, affordable and may appeal to the typically non-wine drinkers at the table. To add a hint of class and beauty to your mimosa, make a ‘mimosa sunrise’ by tilting the glass of prosecco and oj mix and gently pouring a half an ounce of grenadine in the flute
6. Moscato di Asti: Sweet and low in alcohol, this sparkling white wine is produced mainly in the province of Asti, north-west Italy. Due to it’s sweetness, it is an excellent wine for breakfast deserts such as pastries, cannoli, roasted pears, warm apple pie, crepes, cheese cake, and french toast drizzled in syrup and topped with powdered sugar and whipped cream! If you really want to milk the whole ‘wine with breakfast’ thing, skip syrup and drizzle iced wine over those french toast.
7. Iced Wine: Known in Germany as Eiswein, is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The process used to make ice wine results in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet, high alcohol wine. Given that iced wine is a desert wine, it pairs beautifully with all of the foods mentioned above recommended to pair with Moscato Di’ Asti, but I particularly enjoy iced wine with flan, cobblers, custards and strudel. You may also want to pour a little ice wine for your guests after breakfast has been cleared, and people are relaxing around the table, or even better, drizzle it over a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!
8. German Riesling: There are many levels of sweetness to German Rieslings, I typically pair off dry rieslings (which say “Spatlese”
on the label) with my brunches. This wine is versatile, and pairs beautifully with everything from softer cheeses, to bacon breakfast sandwiches, roasted duck, goose, other game animals, and seafood. Rieslings with a hint of sweet also pair extremely well with spicy dishes. If there is anything on your table with a touch of spice, this wine will prove to be a hit!
9. Sancerre: Sancerre is a wine growing region in the Eastern valley of the Loire valley in France, and is made from the grape varietal Sauvignon Blanc. It is an excellent wine for breakfast and brunch that is heavy on goat cheeses. Some other brunch foods that pair well with Sancerre are: deviled eggs, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, avocado, crab, shrimp, and prawns, and the special version of Eggs Benedict known as Eggs Hemingway, where the ham is replaced with salmon.
10. Sparkling Syrah: Yes, you read it right, Syrah with bubbles! This is an amazingly unique wine, with plenty of conversation topic opportunities. Challenge your family and friends to close their eyes and guess what type of wine they are sipping on before revealing the wine. To wow your guests, this wine should be paired with heavier brunch foods, such as cream cheeses, meats, and salty fatty foods. It’s a perfect wine to pair with a cold snowy Winter brunch. Also, if your brunch has decadent chocolate cakes, or heavier deserts, this wine will shine!
11. Pinot Noir: Be it one from Burgundy France, California, or Oregon, for any salmon based brunch, a Pinot Noir on the table is a must. Most of us in the Pacific North West view salmon as a vital ingredient to any self respecting brunch, the way most Americans view sausage. For those of you who prefer the later to the former
, the great news is that… Pinot Noir pairs excellent with sausage as well! Softer cream cheeses, mushrooms, truffle oil, caramelized onions, and herbs also make Pinot Noir sing.
12. Belgium Beer: While obviously not a wine, Belgium beers pair so beautifully with brunch foods that it is well worth the mention. There are many different types of ales from Belgium, and it’s important to choose the correct style for the type of brunch you are preparing. One pairing that works beautifully, is Belgium waffles with Lambic or Framboise ale (and don’t forget to add beer to the waffle mix)! For nutty cheeses and potatoes, sip on white Belgium ales, and for heavier meat dishes, red or brown Belgium ales pair great!
While these are the wines that I like best with breakfast, don’t limit yourself- enjoy every and all type of wine and spirits, it’s so much fun to try new combinations. Whatever you chose to enjoy: Cheers to wine with breakfast, and to the lazy, completely unproductive Sunday afternoons that follow!
Please comment and share with me YOUR favorite breakfast wines!
All content written by Barbara Evans / Seattle Wine Gal
I have to say, Champagne and Mexican food is probably one of my favorite breakfasts of all time.