Best wines to drink at Easter
Easter is not just about chocolate eggs, of course. Easter is also about family and friends getting together too. Often, for a feast of riches for either lunch or dinner…. Or the lunch that turns into dinner!
Either way, it can be a difficult choice as to what wine you should be serving with dinner, lunch or just eggs. Here are some tips on choosing the best wines for the occasion broken into two parts. The savoury… and the chocolatey & cheesy!
Click here to jump straight to Part 2: What to drink this Easter? Chocolate & Cheese
Part 1: The savoury side of Easter wine….
Lamb & Duck
One of the staple dishes on the table at Easter is Spring lamb. With the Romney Marsh lamb particularly prized by some. Whether you love lashings of gravy, or hasselback potatoes or just some traditional roasties, one great wine to complement this would be Pinot Noir.
Incidentally, Pinot Noir is a very good accompaniment if you are going to have duck instead of lamb. Duck is a classic match with Pinot due to duck often being served with cherries, a fruit character that is very often found in Pinot Noir. The flavours work very well together and the Pinot Noir does not overwhelm the duck in any way.
In both duck and lamb, Pinot Noir has the acid balance to cut through these fatty meats.
What to look for!
Lamb & duck are fatty meats with more delicate flavours. More medium bodied wines work very well here to match the flavour intensity. The wines need higher acid to cut through the fattiness of the meat. Higher tannins also help but some tannic wine is too powerfully flavoured for these meats.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
Other great reds that work particularly well with lamb, and some duck dishes too, are those younger wines from the Spanish region of Rioja, labelled ‘Crianza’, or a more medium bodied wine that is just shy of full bodied. Another suggestion would be a red Bordeaux with lamb.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
What about Gammon?
For those who choose Gammon for their feast, those Pinot Noir recommendations will still work very well. Gammon also a meat that matches well with fruitiness but needs lighter flavours than many darker meats.
Another wine that will go very well with Gammon is a medium bodied red wine from Grenache / Garnacha wine or an oaked white wine as these still have the right intensity to match the flavours of this meat. The white wine will also often add a note of citrus to compliment the dish.
What to look for!
Gammon is another more delicately flavoured meat and more medium bodied wines work very well here to match the flavour intensity. A citrus and smoky oak note in an oaked white wine will also be complementary to Gammon’s flavours.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
Fish & Vegetarian dishes
Fish is an inseparable part of the Easter tradition. Whether that is pink fish or white fish. Steamed fish or roasted fish. And seafood. White wines traditionally go well with fish. Particularly if you have a citrusy lemon sauce. Sprinkle over some roasted flaked almonds and you have a very good match for a Chardonnay wine.
When you think about it, fish is often served with a wedge of lemon, so it makes sense that a higher acid, crisp white wine will work very well.
By the way, if you used a spiced rub on your fish, you can introduce some bolder flavours. A Gamay blend here would be a good choice as it is fruity enough to work with the spiciness and stronger flavours.
Vegetarian dishes also have similar requirements of needed slightly more delicately flavoured and textured wines so as to not overpower the food. If your vegetarian dish is on the robust side of flavour, then those reds and roses mentioned above are excellent options.
(** Wines selected have not been checked for suitability for vegetarian and vegan diets.)
What to look for!
Because fish & seafoods tends to have lighter flavours, if that fish is poached or pan fried, a white wine is a good option. Bold flavoured reds are too intense and the not as refreshing as a white. Any white that you choose for fish should have a higher acid content. Pink fish has more flavour so a rose can work well here.
Of course, don’t limit your choice of white wine to Chardonnay at all. Here is a selection of great white wines that will be very good matched with either fish or vegetarian dishes. All of these would also be superb to drink as an aperitif as well.
A few suggestions to suit all price ranges are:
For a baked or smoked salmon or trout, you can also try a rose wine for instance the El Coto Rioja Rosado is has the texture for either lunch or dinner.
