What did you give up for Lent? Work? Religion? Giving things up? If you gave up wine, having duly purified mind and body, you will doubtless have been looking forward to easing yourself into wine’s answer to a luxurious bubble bath. Unless like Kate Moss and Johnny Depp you like both at the same time, the best place for bubbles is in the glass. I’m not the world’s greatest fan of the sweeter kind, but if there is a right time for the naughty but nice luxury of a demi-sec champagne, Easter is it. Not just any demi-sec mind, because a lot of them are too yucky; go for a classy one, like Louis Roederer Carte Blanche, Demi-Sec NV, £34.00 - £40.00, Majestic, Harvey Nichols, Tanners, Berry Bros., or Billecart-Salmon, £29.99- £39.99, Uncorked, Oddbins.

wino forever, pic: the sadwomenscamp

One of the most moreish sweet fizzes is fragrant, low-in-alcohol moscato d’asti. Michele Chiarlo’s 2007 Nivole, £5.99 - £7.99, 37.5 cl., Booths, Oddbins, is a scented, gently foaming liquid muscat that brings delightfully contrasting sweet grapey flavours to a dish such as melon and parma ham, and at only 5.5 per cent alcohol, still leaves you feeling refreshed. If the mouth waters for bubbles of the more conventionally dry kind, Marks & Spencer’s 2002 Union Champagne de St Gall Premier Cru, £26.99, is a seductively creamy cushion of pinprick bubbles, each with its own tongue-dancing sunburst of citrusy flavours; for a more affordable option, Tesco’s Finest Prosecco, £8.99, bubbles under with touches of fresh pear sweetness.

A fitting way to match the occasion for Easter Day is with, well, yes, the superb wines of Ostertag, André Ostertag, that is, one of Alsace’s finest, biodynamic producers. His 2007 Sylvaner Vieilles Vignes, £11.75, Butler’s Wine Cellar (01273 698724), Berry Bros (bbr.com), is delicately floral, spritz-fresh, and intensely flavoured with spice and ginger undertones and a mouthwatering dry aftertaste. The magnificent 2004 Domaine Ostertag Riesling Munchberg, Alsace Grand Cru, around £24.70, Bedales, Spitalfields, Berry Bros, is immensely concentrated and exotically rich in a riot of pineapple, peach and mango flavours, the acidity just softening now into approachability.

The most fitting wine for the religious-minded this weekend is Vin Santo, Italy’s holy wine, aka visanto in Greece. You may have to say three Hail Marys before venturing into this traditional cask-aged blend of trebbiano and malvasia as it can be a bit too ‘traditional’ for its own good. A couple of exceptions are the richly marmaledey 2003 Cantine Leonardo Vin Santo ‘Tegrino’, around £19.99, 50 cl, Noel Young (01223 566744), Valvona (0131 556 6066), Cooden Cellars (01323-649663), and the aromatic, lusciously concentrated 2000 Isole e Olena Vin Santo del Chianti Classico, around £31.49, half-bottle, Philglas & Swiggot (020 7924 4494), Bennetts (01386 840392), Luvians (01334 477752), The Wine Society. Best drunk as a pudding in their own right, or, as the Italians, do, dunking an almond or hazelnut biscuit.

I’m normally sceptical about wine with chocolate. Isn’t it having your cake and eating it? For the hopelessly addicted, I suggest Bodegas Hidalgo Pedro Ximenez Triana, around £12.99, 50 cl, Majestic, Jeroboams, Tanners (01743 234455), Thresher, a sweet liquid treacle toffee pudding in a bottle whose richness can be moderated with dark chocolate or vanilla ice cream. At least you can have your chocolate and drink it: with Marc Kent’s deliciously intense and spicy Cape blend, the 2007 The Chocolate Block, £18.99, Handford (020 7589 6113), winedirect.co.uk, sawinesonline. anthonyrosewine.com

Something For the Weekend 11 April 2009

Under a Fiver

2008 South African Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz

One of the best value chips off South African the block, this joyfully juicy mulberry and cherry fruity Cape blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz from the Swartland winery,is topped off with a light touch of tannin. £4.09, Tesco.

Under a Tenner

2007 Domaine du Petit Chêne Moulin-à-Vent

This is beaujolais is transformed from the humdrum into a juicy red full of strawberry and cherry fruitiness with a touch of oak to add rounded texture and backbone. Worth squirrelling away a few bottles. £9.99, Marks & Spencer.

Splash Out

2006 Louis Jadot Meursault

A classic Côte de Beaune white burgundy, superbly rich in apple and pear-like chardonnay flavours, with the complexity of subtly integrated oak and deliciously succulent balancing acidity. An Easter bunny that’s yours for: £19.99, down from £23.99, Sainsbury’s, to 13 April.