Colet Vatua! Spain NV (from £14.40, Bottle Apostle, Roberson Wine) For heathens like me, Easter is basically a more relaxed, less rabidly materialistic Christmas. But it’s also a pretext for a feast, and all feasts should start with a bottle of bubbly, shouldn’t they? I’ve mentioned it here several times before, but if your budget doesn’t stretch beyond a tenner it’s hard to look past Aldi’s Philippe Michel Crémant du Jura 2012 (£7.29), a creamy soft champagne-alike, while the Co-operative has £3 off another old favourite, the magnificent Les Pionniers Champagne 2004 (£22.99), if it has to be The Real Thing. Betwixt the two in price, I loved Colet’s super-dry, precise, subtly floral, delicately fruity fizz from cava country, which, unusually, but very successfully, includes a bit of aromatic gewürztraminer and muscat alongside the traditional cava grape parellada.
Contino Rioja Reserva, Spain 2006 (£24, Marks & Spencer) Lamb is the centrepiece of most Easter feasts and the mature, mellow, savoury reds of Rioja are the classic match for the tender, slow-roasted meat. In the supermarkets, Asda’s Extra Special Gran Reserva Rioja 2004 lives up to its billing with its softly rendered layers of coconut, leather and blackberries in ultra-classical style at a very reasonable £9.97. Pound for pound it just pips Tesco’s Viña Mara Gran Reserva 2007 (£11.49), made by the same producer, Baron de Ley. Even better is Contino’s quite gorgeous reserva, which is seamlessly silky and deep with brothy umami, tobacco and the purest brambly fruit.
Mas Amiel Maury Vintage, Roussillon, France 2011 (£13.50, 37.5cl, Lea & Sandeman) A great deal of the internet is taken up with theorising on which wines work with the inevitable glut of Easter chocolate. But my own “research” suggests the original idea of sweet fortified reds is still the best: these are the only wines, it seems to me, with sufficient power, sweetness and kinship in texture to stand up to the forceful, palate-coating qualities of the cocoa bean. Port is the classic example, and a mellow tawny, such as Sainsbury’s 10-year-old (£13.99) will give a cosy cuddle to milkier styles. A more vivaciously black-fruited style such as Fonseca Terra Prima Organic Reserve (£17.99, Waitrose) is better with dark chocolate, as are the slightly lighter, juicier fortified reds of Maury in the Roussillon in southern France, of which Mas Amiel makes a particularly vivid and vibrant example.
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