Wines of the Week: Nine bottles for Easter Sunday

Don’t get left high and dry this weekend: Terry Kirby recommends the perfect holiday wine pairings

From aperitifs to matches for chocolate, our list will see your meal from start to finish

Need to buy some wine for an Easter meal tomorrow? You’ll need to make your choices today, as it’s too late to order online and Easter Sunday is one of the handful of days of the year when the vast majority of high street supermarkets are closed, leaving open only corner stores, which tend to have very limited selections.

Of course, if you are lucky enough to have a decent independent wine shop nearby, you are probably fine for a late buy tomorrow, but it might be leaving it a little too much to chance...

Fortunately, as with Mother’s Day a couple of weeks ago, there is, of course, a splendid variety of wines available in supermarkets today, so here are some suggestions to accompany a family meal tomorrow.

There are currently loads of discounted big name champagnes in high street supermarkets, as well as plenty of cremants, proseccos and English sparkling wines, so just a couple of choices to highlight: the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Cremant de Loire (£9.00 sainsburys.co.uk), made by the long-established house of Bouvet Ladubay – a great party or aperitif sparkler but also lovely with canapes and smoked salmon; or for something more serious, Waitrose is discounting its own excellent English sparkling Leckford Estate Brut NV (£19.99 normally £26.99; until May 14, waitrose.com) made by the esteemed Ridgeway winery from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes grown on Waitrose’s own estate in Hampshire. Complex and rich, but full of youthful apple-y flavours and very refreshing.

Now for a couple of big whites: The Lodge Hill Riesling, Jim Barry, Clare Valley 2018 (£12.99 or £9.99 if bought as part of a minimum six-bottle purchase; majestic.co.uk) is classic Clare Valley riesling: bone dry, steely, with forward flavours of grapefruit and tropical fruits; excellent for seafood of all kinds and for early season English asparagus.

For roast chicken or fish as a main course a lightly oaked chardonnay is a good choice: the Florent Rouve Vire-Clesse (£14.50 marksandspencer.com) is classic white Burgundy: full flavoured, with honeysuckle, peach and some citrus touches, but crisp and mineral on the palate.

For lamb, the other traditional Easter Day dish, something red has to be on the table. For pinots, check out my recent selection here. So, three really good-value, robust reds: for a bargain claret from the Cotes Du Blaye, the Chateau Les Martins 2014 (£9.49 waitrose.com) has very ripe fruit flavours of red plums, damsons and blackberries, which would also be fine with roast chicken.

If that feels a little too conventional, try the equally good-value Lirac Les Closiers, 2017 (£10.00 marksandspencer.com) from one of the best appellations in the Rhone, a powerful blend of grenache, syrah, mourvedre and cinsault, with big aromas of tobacco and tar, followed by opulent fruit flavours and a touch of spice. Even more power-packed is the ever so slightly rustic De Bortoli 1628 Durif (£10.99 or £8.99 as part of a minimum purchase of six bottles; majestic.co.uk), made by a family with Italian roots in Victoria state in Australia, it’s a rare outing for the grape also known as petit syrah in other parts of the world. Rich, dark fruit flavours of plums, blackberries and blueberries, with touches of chocolate and vanilla.

Talking of chocolate, it is likely to be the favoured pudding on Easter Sunday, whether it’s a fine chocolate mousse or the remnants of the children’s Easter eggs, and actually, the Durif just about also works with chocolate, a notoriously difficult food to match with wine.

However, there is one wine that reigns supreme with chocolate: PX sherry; unctuous, viscous and utterly, darkly, moreish, with complex layers of dried fruit flavours, and very, very sweet. Try the Delicado Pedro Ximenez (£15.99 for 50cl waitrose.com) from one of the best sherry producers, or a slightly more budget suggestion, the Taste the Difference 12-year-old PX (£7.50 sainsburys.co.uk), both of which will also work with almost any other puddings, as well as being simply brilliant poured over vanilla ice cream.