Easter is a period of gathering as family and having a good time over a well-executed four-day ‘weekend’. There’s a number of rituals that come with the holiday. To a large extent, these customs revolve around a gut-busting volume of chocolate, though other foodstuffs also make for a pleasingly gluttonous period.

While there’s nice gatherings and perhaps some beach time, or a bit of camping, maybe a trip to a holiday house, the biggest fun for everyone is the feasting that goes with the season.

What I’ve observed about Easter time is the patriotism for some of Australia’s most iconic produce and dishes. Sure, lamingtons, meat pies and Bunning’s sausages might be sidelined for a four-day spell but our bountiful seafood, our celebration of lamb and our delight in the season’s most famous spiced buns, all come to the fore. Around these staples there’s the bounty of egg-shaped chocolates that seem to emerge endlessly over the period, and, of course, we get a free pass for breakfast consumption of vast amounts of cacao-based products.

Through the period there’s a lot of goodwill, good times and free-flowing fun. With the framework of a holiday in place, merriment typically follows. While there’s no hard and fast traditional Easter beverages, there’s plenty of runway to suggest things that go with the Indian summer weather and the array of foodstuffs most commonly found on our dining tables.

Aussie Lamb
Brave New Wine Small Town 2020
Great Southern, WA, $30

Common wisdom, and classic food and wine matching, will tell you that a medium-bodied cabernet, or fuller figured pinot noir, are the ultimate pairings alongside a perfectly pink piece of roast lamb. No doubt that those wine styles are kindred with our lamby dishes, but when I tried this quixotic red-and-white-grapes blend together with the dish, fireworks went off. Sure, it’s a never done before blend of cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, vermentino, viognier, gewurztraminer and pinot gris (what the?), but the resulting wine is light, fresh, gentle in tannins, bright in acidity, fruity but also lightly spicy,
superbly aromatic and took a chill so nicely. It’s utterly delicious, and delights at every sip.

Hot Cross Buns
NON #1 Salted Raspberry + Chamomile
Victoria, $30

As the burgeoning alternative beverage sector continues to gain traction, NON, a Victoria-based craft producer of high-quality non-alcoholic drinks, continues to be top of my list. This is a superb thing to sip on with hot cross buns, gently sweet, a little salty, a touch sour, a bit dry, a lick of chamomile to lend some character. It feels a little like a pet nat or a gently sparkling wine, refreshing and delicious to consume alongside the spice and sweetness of the buns. Best of all, it’s not a thing that has to be kept away from the younger generation, indeed, it’s a clever enough drink to transcend senior and junior palates.

Whole Fish
Inkerman Rd by Sorrenberg Semillon et al 2020
Beechworth, VIC, $39

This dish deserves an upmarket white wine but more importantly one that is textural yet fresh, aromatic and complex, thirst-quenching and interesting. This wine does it all. The harvest season in Beechworth was devastated by smoke taint from the 2020 bushfires but this wine seems to have transcended those issues almost entirely – better yet, supporting wineries affected by the troubling growing season is a great thing. The white in my glass offers lemon on stone fruit flavours, licks of nougat and cream, a touch of nuttiness and a long, cool finish. It’s a wine that feels pitch-perfect alongside seafood and should work like a beautiful, final squeeze of citrus for the fish in this dish here. A touch of class, high drinkability; a perfect combo.

Chocolate Cake
Autonomy Native Australian Amaro
Victoria, $59

This very complex, very delicious, very lush chocolate (and banana) cake needs quite a potent accompanying beverage to get the best out of it. The aim with this drink matching is to lend some palate-cleansing freshness and digestive benefits – the opulence here needs a spicy, herbal spirit to balance things out. This outstanding amaro is made from ten native Australian botanicals including lemon-scented gum, cinnamon myrtle and mountain pepper-berry. The resulting flavours result in a complex, gently sweet, earthy, herbal and bitter-finishing spirit. It’s delicious served simply over ice, but to really bring it to life, and
the dessert, it’s best dressed up with a chunky blood orange wedge. Bring out your best crystal tumblers and get pouring.

On the hunt for great Easter wines? Check out our festive long weekend wine case, here.