Easter lunch wine pairings: what to drink with lamb, spring dishes and seasonal favourites

Written by Michele Longari IWA

Easter lunch is one of those occasions where the table tends to say a lot before anyone even starts eating. There’s usually something roasting, something green and buttery, a few dishes that only appear once a year, and at least one person insisting they are “just having a small plate” before piling it with everything in sight. I respect the ambition!

For me, Easter is one of the most interesting meals of the year to pair with wine, because it sits in that lovely middle ground between winter and spring. The food still has comfort and depth, but the mood is lighter. You want wines with freshness and energy, but also enough substance to stand up to roast lamb, gratins, glazes, herbs, pastry and all the little extras that make the meal feel generous.

As a Sommelier, and as someone who has spent a lot of time around family tables in Italy where seasonal food is treated with the seriousness usually reserved for more important matters, I tend to think of Easter wine pairings in a very simple way. Don’t build the whole lunch around one bottle. Build around the rhythm of the meal. Start bright, move into something more textured, and then bring in reds with enough charm and structure for the main event.

That approach works far better than trying to force one heroic wine to do everything. Easter lunch is rarely a one-note meal, so the wines shouldn’t be either.

Start with the spring feeling, not the roast

One of the easiest mistakes at Easter is jumping straight to heavy reds just because lamb is on the menu. Lamb matters, of course, but it is usually only part of the picture. Before that there might be nibbles, a savoury tart, asparagus, peas, broad beans, courgettes, eggs, ham, salmon, goat’s cheese, herby salads or lighter starters that feel unmistakably spring-like.

That means the first wine on the table should often be white, or sparkling.

A crisp sparkling wine is one of my favourite ways to open Easter lunch. It immediately lifts the mood, works brilliantly with salty snacks and can handle tricky little starters better than many still wines. If you’re serving canapés, devilled eggs, cheese straws, smoked salmon bites or anything fried and golden, bubbles are your friend. They tidy up the palate and make everyone feel like the day has properly begun.

After that, I’d usually look at fresh, aromatic whites with clean acidity. Albariño, dry Riesling, elegant Sauvignon Blanc, Falanghina, Vermentino, good Pinot Bianco or a restrained Chenin Blanc can all be excellent here. What matters is brightness, shape and drinkability.

Spring vegetables are the real reason for this. Asparagus, peas and artichokes can be awkward with wine, but fresher whites generally cope much better than tannic reds. Herbs matter too. Mint, parsley, dill, thyme and tarragon all push a dish toward wines with lift rather than weight.

If your Easter table leans heavily toward fish starters, vegetarian dishes or lighter first courses, a white with a bit of texture can be even more useful than a super-zippy one. You still want freshness, but you may also want a wine that feels a little broader on the palate. That is where something like Chenin Blanc comes into its own, especially if the dish includes creamy elements, roast chicken, leeks, mushrooms or buttery pastry.

Lamb changes the conversation, but it doesn’t need a bruiser

Now we come to the famous Easter lamb. Yes, red wine is often the natural choice, but I don’t think lamb automatically calls for the biggest, richest bottle in the room. In fact, with spring lamb especially, I often prefer reds that are refined, savoury and juicy rather than overly powerful.

Why? Because the accompaniments matter. Lamb at Easter is rarely served alone. You’ve got herbs, garlic, roast potatoes, spring vegetables, maybe a touch of sweetness from slow-cooked onions or carrots, maybe a bit of mustard or a glossy jus. This is a dish with layers, and a wine with freshness and structure usually handles that better than something thick and jammy.

Classic options include Claret, Cabernet Franc, Rioja Crianza, elegant Syrah, Sangiovese-based reds and Pinot Noir if the dish is lighter or pinker in style. These wines give you savoury notes, red and dark fruit, herbal edges and enough backbone for the meat without flattening the rest of the plate.

A good Bordeaux, especially one that is supple rather than stern, can be a very smart Easter choice. It speaks the language of roast lamb naturally. Cabernet and Merlot blends often pick up the savoury, herbal and slightly earthy elements of the dish beautifully. They also tend to feel composed at the table, which is always useful when lunch starts drifting toward late afternoon and no one seems willing to leave.

If you want to keep things more Mediterranean, Sangiovese is often excellent with lamb seasoned with rosemary, garlic and olive oil. There is a brightness and tang to it that keeps the pairing lively. Syrah can also work beautifully, especially when the dish has a peppery or more rustic edge.

For richer lamb dishes, you can lean into warmth a bit more

That said, there are Easter lunches where lamb is cooked in a fuller, richer style. Maybe it’s slow-roasted, maybe the sauce is deeper, maybe there are roast roots on the table, maybe the whole thing feels more abundant and generous than delicate and spring-led. In those cases, you can move into a red with more warmth and body.

This is where a wine like Primitivo can be a lot of fun. Used well, it brings dark fruit, comfort and a sort of generous Mediterranean hug to the table. And yes, I’m going to say it plainly, if you’ve never tried a good Primitivo with lamb, Easter is an excellent excuse to correct that oversight. It’s the sort of pairing that makes people go quiet for a moment, then immediately ask what’s in the glass.

If you’re hosting and want a ready-made selection that works particularly well for celebrations, sharing-style meals and spring-friendly dishes, it’s well worth having a look at The Dinner Party Case. It isn’t an Easter case as such, but it was built exactly for the kind of table where different courses, different palates and a bit of occasion all come together. The line-up includes an organic sparkling wine, two versatile whites, two food-friendly reds and a sweet Tokaji to finish, which makes it a genuinely useful mixed case for seasonal entertaining. And yes, I would absolutely point you toward the Trastullo Primitivo in that case for lamb!

Don’t forget the side dishes, they often decide the pairing

One thing I always say when helping people choose Easter wines is this: pair to the whole plate, not just the centrepiece.

Side dishes can change everything. Minted peas, honey-roast carrots, cheesy gratins, buttery greens, cauliflower cheese, dauphinoise potatoes, salsa verde, spring onions, braised fennel, broad beans, asparagus, roast garlic. These are not background details. They shape the wine.

If your table is full of herb-led, green, bright spring flavours, stay with reds that have freshness and control. If the sides are richer, sweeter and more roasted, then you can comfortably move toward fuller reds.

This is also why having more than one wine open at Easter lunch makes so much sense. A white and a red is often the minimum. A sparkling wine to begin, a white for the first part of the meal, then a red for the lamb is even better. It sounds more elaborate than it really is. In practice, it just means each dish gets a better chance to shine.

And if there are a few different tastes around the table, there always are, you avoid forcing everyone into the same lane. One guest wants white all the way through, another only drinks red, another will happily stay with sparkling because they’ve correctly identified the best survival strategy. Let them, wine is fun.

What about Easter dishes beyond lamb?

Not every Easter lunch revolves around roast lamb, of course, and that is where wine gets even more interesting.

If you’re serving ham, especially glazed ham, think about whites with fruit and acidity, or reds with low tannin and plenty of juiciness. Dry Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir and lighter Grenache-based reds can all work well.

If the main dish is salmon, trout or another fish preparation, I’d stay firmly in white territory unless the sauce pushes you elsewhere. Albariño, textured Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay without too much oak, or even a sparkling rosé can all work beautifully.

Vegetarian Easter dishes deserve proper wine too. Mushroom tarts, spinach and ricotta bakes, asparagus quiche, roast leeks, pea risotto, goat’s cheese starters. These pair brilliantly with textured whites and lighter reds. In fact, some of the best Easter lunches I’ve had have been the least meat-heavy.

For dishes with eggs or pastry, sparkling wine is often a very good answer. It has the acidity and energy to cut through richness, and it keeps the whole meal feeling celebratory rather than heavy. Which, let’s be honest, is quite useful when there is usually chocolate somewhere in the near future!

Cheese and dessert deserve a plan as well

If your Easter lunch rolls naturally into a cheeseboard or pudding (which it should if we are behaving properly!) then it is worth thinking beyond the main course.

Sweet wines are chronically underused at home, and Easter is a perfect moment to bring them out. Fruit tarts, baked cheesecakes, lemon desserts, spiced buns, even some chocolate dishes can all work beautifully with the right sweet wine, especially if the wine has freshness as well as sweetness.

I’m particularly fond of sweet wines with citrus lift or botrytis complexity at this time of year because they feel indulgent but still bright. They finish the meal with generosity, without making everything feel too heavy.

This is another reason why The Dinner Party Case works so nicely for spring hosting. It has that full-meal logic built in, from sparkling at the start to Bodvin Tokaj Sweet Cuvée at the end, and the two whites in the middle are exactly the sort of bottles I’d want around seasonal dishes, lighter starters and mixed Easter tables where everyone is eating slightly differently. It’s a dinner party case by name, but it translates very easily to Easter lunch, especially if you like the idea of opening wines in a natural progression rather than placing all your hopes on one bottle and a prayer.

My practical rule for Easter wine pairings

If I had to reduce Easter wine pairing to one simple rule, it would be this: choose wines with freshness first, then match weight.

That means starting with energy, acidity and drinkability. Then, once you know how rich the dish really is, bring in more body where needed. It sounds obvious, but it saves people from a lot of over-buying and over-pouring.

You do not need the heaviest red in the house because the word “lamb” appears on the menu. You need balance. You need wines that suit spring. You need bottles that can move with the meal, not fight it.

That is why Easter is such a pleasure to pair. The meal has generosity, but also colour and freshness. The wines can be serious, but they should still feel joyful. There is no need to make it stiff or overly technical. This is a lunch that should feel like a celebration.

Open something lively to begin. Pour a white that loves herbs and spring vegetables. Bring in a red that understands lamb. Keep a sweet wine back for the final flourish. Then sit down, pass the potatoes, and enjoy the bit where theory gives way to actual lunch.

Which, in my experience, is always the best part.