No doubt chocolate will feature over this coming Easter Weekend! We have been working with Karen at “I’d rather be eating chocolate” to match wines and chocolate and have some great ideas! Listen to our tasting session with her on our GWO On Air podcast (at the bottom of this page). Steve ‘The Cheese’ puts his Chocolate hat on and comes up with a few surprises – the pairing with white wine being one!
What other sweet treats might we be eating?
Hot cross buns of course, with lashings of butter. I like mine best toasted with home made jam. But a straight forward currant fruit bun – not really into those white chocolate and dried raspberry ones, or toffee and salted caramel. With a Hot Cross Bun, less is more – well, unless it is butter!
Vin Santo from Italy- ‘Holy Wine’ appropriately – is delicious – but another pudding wine would be just as delicious such as a Muscat de Baumes de Venise or a Noble Riesling – we have a fabulous one in the range from New Zealand (Tohu Raiha).
Being a lover of marzipan and fruit cake, I will definitely be eating Simnel Cake and a sherry would complement the rich fruitiness of this. Or another pudding wine like a Trockenbeerenauslese from Austria. BTW – our lovely winemaker from Austria makes great cocktails with her Trockenbeerenauslese! Hopefully we will find out how when we invite her to host one of our tastings in June!
Clearly, we need to eat some proper food too! And we plan on having English Spring Lamb this year.
The classic pairing is Rioja and Lamb, but a good Chianti is also a good choice – Reserva in both cases preferably.
If you are going for roast turkey, then I would go for one of my favourite wines – a Pinot Noir from Chile or New Zealand. A good white wine pairing would be a Chardonnay – slightly oaked. You don’t want a wine that is too full bodied as it will overpower the meat.
My grandmother always cooked a ham at Christmas and again at Easter. I may well do that this year too – and this would go well with the Pinot Noir I am planning to have with my lamb too. Or a Beaujolais, from the Gamay grape which is not dissimilar to Pinot Noir.
Good Friday is Fish Friday (as are most Friday’s) and something like salmon cooked in the oven with slivers of ginger, and if I can get some new season asparagus, even better. A nice unoaked chardonnay would be fabulous with fish, or a Riesling or Albarino, but I will probably try the German Pinot Gris which we plan on tasting in early May with Matt from the Dr Loosen winery.
If the weather is a bit damp and cold, I will probably cook my luxury pie (well, Delia Smith’s recipe actually) with salmon, haddock, prawns and scallops topped with cheese rosti potato. The creamy sauce in the pie needs something like an oaked Chardonnay (a Chablis or a new world such as Argentinian or South African which has only spent a little time in the barrel). Talking of South Africa, a Chenin Blanc would be perfect with this. But perhaps a luxury fish pie needs a few bubble – so a champagne, cava or English sparkling would be delightful.
Whatever you are drinking or eating this coming Easter, the team at GWO wish you a happy one.
