An Occasional Tipple: Pondering life's mysteries with wonderful wine

It depends a lot, dear tipplers, on what you're eating. For Easter Sunday dinner at my lovely home, Rose Cottage, my beautiful wife, the illustrious Madame G., plans to roast a stuffed chicken like only she can and to serve it with her famous chicken gravy and all the usual trimmings.

A perfect match to this is the fabulously fresh, fragrant and very lively 2022 Suelo Sauvignon Blanc (currently £7.99). This zingy, zesty Argentinian white bursts with sharp lime and kiwi flavours alongside grassy aromatics with backnotes of almond before a clean, tingly finish.

There’s an equally impressive, exuberantly juicy and extravagantly flavoursome 2022 Suelo Malbec Rose (£7.99, Lidl) that’s also well worth checking out. Checking out in the sense of buying the bottle for the pleasure of drinking it, not giving up the ghost entirely. Don't be checking out in that way, if you can help it.

If the Lord deigns to bless us with some sunshine over the Easter weekend you may wish to get tore into today’s WINE OF THE WEEK, the delightfully dry, elegant and gloriously refreshing 2022 Crocodile and Palm Tree Rose (£11.99, Lidl).

This well-rounded, supple Rhone Valley drop is packed with red berry and citrus flavours which will go wonderfully well with a nice platter of cold meats, cheese and olives which you may wish to enjoy on the patio on Easter Monday before backing the winner of the Irish Grand National- my money’s on Intense Raffles.

Those of you eating lamb tomorrow should rush out now and buy today's final recommendation, the superbly balanced, subtly spiced and sumptuously smooth 2020 La Masseria Del Borgo Primitivo Manduria (£12.50, Sainsbury’s). One to decant and allow to breathe for an hour or so before serving. Vibrantly aromatic with a rich palate full of berry and plum flavours before a peppery finish.

Sitting, standing, thinking, pacing, pondering the mysteries of life, glass in hand. Our Lord lying battered and bleeding on the cross one day, rising from death in glory the next. Nothing lasts forever, it seems, disaster or triumph, or any other earthly thing. But we still have much to be grateful for. Like my glass, life goes from full to empty and then back to full again. Then empty. Then full again. Then empty (I feel certain there's a poem in there…). Time to fill it up again so. Till next week, tipplers, have a happy, holy Easter and sante!