Classic Easter Selection

For those that love classic wine and food pairings but that also love to discover wines, regions and producers from off the beaten track. These three beautifully expressive wines are sure to deliver on all your “egg”spectations.

NV Domaine Schoffit Crémant d’Alsace

What better way to begin Easter than with a glass of something sparkling and celebratory. Domaine Schoffit’s Crémant d’Alsace is a beautifully crafted blend of Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris that is secondary fermented and aged 3 years on the lees in bottle. With elegantly fine and persistent bubbles, a palate of orchard fruit, baked bread and wildflowers, and a satisfyingly creamy finish, this fresh, full-bodied and complex wine is the perfect aperitif to welcome guests through the door and will pair wonderfully with rich, savoury and salty nibbles.

2019 Azienda Grillo Iole Friuli Colli Orientali IL Sauvignon Blanc

From the cool, mountainous vineyards of Friuli in northeast Italy, this late harvest Sauvignon Blanc is something of a departure from the more grassy and pungent styles that many will know. The wine is fermented and aged on the lees in large oak casks for six months, giving it a slightly richer, more Bordeaux-esque style and making it, in our opinion, infinitely more versatile and food friendly consequently. With time in bottle, it has developed a lovely roundness and depth, with flavours of stone fruits, floral notes and toasty oak nuances, cut through with citric acidity and minerality. A superb match for the opening dishes of the Easter table – asparagus with hollandaise, a delicate fish course replete with salsa verde – it will equally more than hold its own alongside more robust, creamy dishes too.

2017 Domaine La Martinelle Ventoux Rouge

Tucked beneath the slopes of Mont Ventoux at around 300 meters in altitude in the southern Rhône, Domaine La Martinelle produces wines of real purity, character and southern warmth. The 2017 Ventoux Rouge, a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Counoise, was fermented and aged in concrete tanks for 10 months with regular lees stirring. Having had plenty of time in bottle to settle into itself and grow in complexity, it is now at its peak, showing generous dark and red fruit flavours of blackberry, cassis and plum, herbaceous notes of bramble and mint and peppery garrigue spice. With a structure that is rounded and smooth and fruit that is both dense and fresh, this is a wine made for the centre piece Easter roast of either a roasted leg of lamb, or richly glazed ham.