Lamb and chocolate anyone?

This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the days in the run up to Easter and with it the end of Lent. Some of you, no doubt, have been giving up something for Lent and are probably eagerly looking forward to gorging yourselves on whatever the forbidden fruit has been. I don’t seem to have the constitution for depriving myself of things I enjoy, so I haven’t joined in with any Lenten fasting – but I am ready and prepared to participate in the Easter feasting with gusto.

Lamb is a popular choice for Easter Sunday and the good news (for us, rather than for the lambs) is that it is a very wine-friendly meat.

If you’re eating the first of the spring lamb, such delicate and tender meat would go best with a lighter red such as a Pinot Noir or Gamay, or even a full-flavoured rosé such as a Spanish rosada.

I prefer the flavour of older lamb; and last year’s lambs, now known as hogget, may require more cooking, but offer more meaty flavour too. A trip to Rioja in May a couple of years ago provided more than ample evidence for the affinity of the region’s red wines with lamb. Having eaten more of the tasty little beasts in a few days there than I would normally do in months, I got the message: Rioja and lamb make a good match.

The other prime constituent of most of our Easters is of course chocolate. Wine and chocolate is not a natural combination you might think - and you’re probably right.  Chocolate is quite a challenge for any alcoholic drink, with its dense, rich sweetness, its sheer “sticks around in your mouth for ages”-ness.  Mostly I’d probably go for a cup of tea, or coffee, if I’m eating some chocolate.  But in the interests of research I have been looking around for wines that might just work.

Which leads me to the first issue – chocolate is such a broad term.  There’s a world of difference between your Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and your 70% cocoa solids plain chocolate; what might go with an airy, creamy milk chocolate mousse is probably not going to suit a dark chocolate roulade with raspberry coulis.  Chocolate itself has different characters – and, to add to the complexity, we love to use it in all manner of puddings, sweets, biscuits and to combine it with cream, nuts, fruit – you name it.

So chocolate and wine combinations have more to them than meets the eye.  Here are some suggestions, based on the type of chocolate you’re dealing with.

White chocolate

White chocolate is hardly chocolate in some ways, as it contains no cocoa mass, just cocoa butter, vanilla and masses of sugar of course.  This makes it the lightest and sweetest type of chocolate which needs a light and sweet wine to match.

A fun option would be a Moscato d’Asti, from Piedmont in Italy.  It’s lightly sparkling, light in alcohol (only 5-6%) and definitely sweet.  Treat it as a guilty pleasure – it might be uncool, but its sweet, grapey, pear-tinged bubbles are a delight with white chocolate puddings (as well as fruit salads, incidentally).  The Wine Society lists Elio Perrone Moscato d’Asti 2013 at £7.50.  A less refined version is wine labelled “Asti” rather than “Moscato d’Asti” which you can pick up for between £5 and £10 more widely.

Milk chocolate and light chocolate puddings

If you’re planning on helping the children finish their supply of milk chocolate eggs, then you could do worse than try a glass of tawny port to go with it.

All port starts out life as a deep-coloured red wine, whose fermentation is stopped by the addition of grape spirit, leaving a fortified, naturally sweet wine as a result.  Ruby port, the regular stuff, is aged for a short time in barrel, then bottled while it is still deepest ruby and full of brambly fruit. 

The tawny version of port has a lighter, yes tawny, colour, brought about by long term ageing in barrel.  As the wine loses its deep colour, it takes on a more mellow, nutty character, making it a remarkably versatile drink, one that can stand up to milk chocolate and lighter chocolate puddings.

Look for an aged tawny, at least 10 years old:  the older the wine, the more mellow and complex it will be.  A good introduction to the style is Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny Port, around £13.50 for 50cl at Tesco, Waitrose and elsewhere.

An interesting twist on the tawny port style is Mavrodaphne of Patras; Kourtaki’s version is fairly widely available for at around £5-6. It’s made in the same way as port, but from the splendidly-named Mavrodaphne grape, native to Greece.  It has also been aged in casks, giving it that hallmark caramel flavour with a hint of spice.

Another option is Nuy Red Muskadel (£8.95 a bottle from The Wine Society), a fresh yet very sweet fortified dessert wine from South Africa, with the emphasis on red fruit with a hint of rose petal.

Dark chocolate and rich, dark chocolate puddings

These can be some of the most difficult things to pair with wine, because of their full-on flavours and richness.  You might come across some surprising matches, however.

You could echo the richness and slight bitterness of the food with a wine with similar traits.  Ruby port could work here, as could wines from Maury or Banyuls in the Southwest of France: another form of sweet, fortified red wine made in a similar way to port – who knew there were so many of these things around? – the young versions of these wines combine a bitter chocolate character with a trace of black fruit.  If this sounds like the pudding you’re eating, then give a Maury or Banyuls a go.  Waitrose have an own label Seriously Plummy Maury at £10.99 for a half bottle.

In all these matches I’m obeying the food and wine matching premise that the wine should be sweeter than the food that you’re eating.  Though I’m generally not a fan of rules when it comes to choosing wines, I do find wines that are less sweet than what I’m eating end up tasting overly dry and lacking in fruit.

However, it’s horses for courses (as the frozen lasagne manufacturer said to the food inspector) and people who baulk at the idea of any sweet wine might prefer to have a dry red with chocolate.  Again, it makes sense to look for wines which have plenty of ripe, dark fruit with a hint of chocolate flavour – full-on Zinfandels from California, for example.  I would also recommend an Amarone from Italy:  these wines are made from partly dried grapes, which give a full-bodied wine with masses of dark, ripe black cherry fruit and an edge of bitter chocolate.  Not a cheap option (£20 and up), but Phil Jones of The Vineyard in Dorking is a fan of the style and should be able to point you in the right direction.

If all that sounds a little overwhelming, remember it’s hard to beat the great British cuppa with anything sweet.

Easter, chocolate and wine

Easter comes round again and with it the foremost question exercising the minds of epicureans everywhere: is there a wine that goes with an Easter egg?

Some bright sparks have taken the idea of wine and chocolate matching what you might consider a step too far: instead of packaging together a bottle of wine and some chocolates, they've cut out the middle man and just gone and put the chocolate flavouring directly into the wine.

The “wines” in question are designed to accompany chocolate-based desserts, apparently. Now I enjoy Boeuf Bourgignon – but, ye gads, I don't want the flavour of the meaty stew actually in the glass of wine I'm having with it. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather my wine tasted of wine and my meat of meat. Whatever next? Festive wine with a hint of roast turkey, complete with sage and onion stuffing?

If I want to find a wine to sip while I guzzle my Easter egg, I'll choose one that naturally complements the flavours of what I'm eating. And what would that be?

After some exhaustive tasting, I have gleaned the following:

Really sweet milk chocolate – it's very hard to find any wine sweet enough to combat the sheer amount of sugar and mouth coating fat in traditional “English” milk chocolate. The closest I found to a match was a rich old Oloroso sherry, which has enough weight and density to stand up to it – just. Your best bet though is a good cup of tea with your Cadbury's egg.

Good quality dark chocolate – this is a much more forgiving beast for wines. Again the Oloroso would be a good choice, though I really enjoyed a 10-year old Tawny Port with a dark chocolate infused with orange oil and spice. Lovers of Green & Black's Easter eggs take note.

Chocolate cake – so much depends on what you put on the cake, as well as in it. If you have slathered the cake in a mountain of chocolate butter cream, cupcake style, then a cup of tea is probably the safest choice. If your cake is altogether less sweet, with more bitter dark chocolate flavour, then the fortified wines again come into play. I found the Oloroso just a bit better balanced than the Tawny Port with the substance of the cake.

The wines that I was tasting were:

Quinta do Infantado 10 year old Tawny Port - £12.99 for a half bottle (case price) from The Wine Reserve in Cobham

Tawny ports are, you guessed it, tawny coloured, due to long ageing in barrel. As well as changing colour, this style of port also takes on lovely caramel and nutty flavours as it ages, making it a great match for chocolatey things.

The Wine Society's Exhibition Viejo Oloroso Dulce Sherry - £10.75 for a full size bottle from The Wine Society

Dry sherries are starting to gain something of a following, thanks in part to the hip tapas and sherry bars that are starting to pop up, at least in London. Sweet ones, though, are still very much looked down upon, hence this bargain price for what it a very classy drink. To be classed as Old (Viejo), the sherry must have aged for 20 years. In that time it has gained additional weight and flavours: nuts, figs, raisins, coffee – this is one of those wines that evolve in the glass and you find something different every time you sip it. Sugar levels are not for the calorie-conscious, but a little goes a long way.

Other than a choc fest, Easter is also associated with a sit down family feast. The meat of choice at this time of year seems to be lamb which, I am pleased to report, is a most wine-friendly animal.

If you have forked out for some of the first Spring lamb, you don't want to overwhelm its delicacy with a wine that is too assertive. Good options here would be either Pinot Noir or a Beaujolais, which both have plenty of juicy red fruit and little in the way of tannin. Or even a dry rosé would work.

Martinborough Vineyards Te Tera Pinot Noir 2010 – £13.50 from The Wine Society

Burgundy is of course the home of Pinot Noir, but it's hard to find a worthwhile wine for under twenty quid in the best known areas. A better strategy is to search out something from the lesser known bits of Burgundy like Givry and Mercurey. Or you could look further afield and try this New Zealander: this has plenty of juicy red fruit with some clove-y spice.

Older lamb, and especially year-old animals known as hogget, which are halfway to becoming mutton, have much more robust flavours and can stand a more full-bodied wine to go with.

The French would tell you that roast lamb should be served with a claret – specifically one from the commune of Pauillac, and I am not about to contradict them. One from the 2004 vintage, if you can get one, would be perfect now. If not, don't worry, almost any full-flavoured red wine will do.

Scala Dei Prior 2008 - £18.49 from Wine Rack

Try this one with your roast lamb with rosemary and garlic. The name has religious overtones: Scala Dei means the ladder of God, or Stairway to Heaven perhaps, if you're a Led Zeppelin fan. The blend of grapes here, Grenache, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, might sound more southern French than Spanish, but this wine from the Catalonian region of Priorat has a distinctly Iberian flavour. At 14.5% alcohol the liquorice-tinged, inky fruit packs a punch, but there's also a delicious, tangy freshness that makes it eminently food friendly.