The perfect pairings for your Easter menu

Those who decide to spend Easter Day at home, with friends or family, set up a festive lunch where the courses often have a particular significance tied to history and local traditions, and the food-wine pairing also has its importance.

From region to region, the Easter lunch brings to the table classic dishes and traditional recipes typical of a feast day. Every family chooses, in fact, whether to honour their own rites that repeat from generation to generation, or to try something new, helped by the spring season which offers delicious new produce.

But, speaking of wine, what is the best wine pairing for the Easter lunch? What are the oenological pairings to avoid mistakes and the rules to not fail?

From north to south, Italian menus are imaginative and original, but they will certainly not lack the classic Easter savoury pies based on eggs, seasonal vegetables and cheese such as the famous Torta Pasqualina, a Ligurian speciality made with ricotta and spinach which is usually chosen as an appetiser. The pairing for this classic dish is with a white and fresh wine, ideal for opening the meal, such as the Streda from the Villa da Vinci collection: Vermentino grown in the Tuscan hills with a pronounced fruity fragrance.

First courses are usually made with fresh pasta, flavoured with seasonal vegetables – such as asparagus or artichokes – or filled with sumptuous cheeses or enriched with savoury sauces that celebrate the feast day. The wine pairing leans towards easy and versatile bottles that pair well with every version of pasta, such as the Portocanale di Cesenatico from the 1502 Da Vinci in Romagna collection, an unusual rosé from Sangiovese grapes with surprising character.

For those who eat meat, lamb is certainly the most traditional option. Throughout Italy there are various recipes for preparing it for Easter: fried, roasted, stewed, with ‘cacio e ova’, or in earthenware. With sheep meat the wine pairing calls for a full-bodied red of great personality: the choice is wide, from Leonardo da Vinci Chianti to the Brunello di Montalcino from the I Capolavori collection or again the S.to Ippolito – a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah. Alternatively, there is no shortage of a fresh and fragrant white to pair with fish-based preparations, such as the Duomo di Faenza, a Trebbiano interpreted in a modern key included in the 1502 Da Vinci in Romagna collection.