Honey Ham: My favorite pairing with honey ham is actually a white wine: Chenin Blanc. See, the soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture of the ham is overpowered by a red wine with too many tannins, and those same tannins make the sweetness of the ham taste bitter. I love a Chenin Blanc because it’s full bodied (matching the richness of the ham), it has natural honey aroma (even when fermented fully dry) so it’s a great flavor match, and its high acidity lightens the dish up. Note that you can find Chenin Blanc in both dry and off-dry (aka lightly sweet) renditions, depending on your preference. For dry styles, look for sec on the label and, for sweet, look for demi-sec (partially dry) or doux (sweet). If you want a red wine, look for one low in tannin with a nice ripe, fruity quality to compliment the honey… such as a New World Pinot Noir, Zinfandel or Malbec. Selections from California, Australian, Argentina and South Africa are great options!

Leg of lamb: This is where you can pull out your tannic reds. Lamb has a lean, structured texture, so the drying tannins bind with the protein in the dish and help make both the wine and the meat smoother. And lamb can have an earthier, gamier flavor than some meats, so I recommend Old World wines here - which are less prominent with fruit flavors and more prominent with earthy ones. If you’re roasting a lamb with lots of herbs and spices (rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic, pepper etc) then my favorite pairing is a Northern Rhone Syrah. Tannic, peppery and gamey itself, Northern Rhone Syrah is a natural match to the flavors in the dish. If you want something slightly less astringent, I’d go for a Southern Rhone GSM blend (like a Chateauneuf-du-Pape) or a Spanish Priorat (also a GSM blend - from black slate soils in NE Spain).

Whole roast fish: If you’re pescatarian but still want the experience of a fancy Sunday roast, then a whole fish is a great way to go. I LOVE stuffing a whole fish with herbs and roasting it - not only is it delicious and surprisingly easily, but it’s visually stunning and always impresses guests… and I always look for white wines from maritime regions as the perfect pairing (since what grows together, goes together!). So Albariño (from Spain’s coastal Galicia region) is a fabulous pairing - it’s citrusy and aromatic, and compliments the fresh herbs and lemon perfectly. Or another great (and unique) option is Assyrtiko from Santorini. Also citrusy and refreshing, Assyrtiko has amazing minerality from those volcanic soils, so is great with a leaner, less oily fish. Another great budget option is Muscadet, from Atlantic France - a natural seafood pairing and hyper-affordable!

Spring asparagus: Asparagus is famously one of the hardest foods to pair wine to (along with artichokes and cabbage). The very green note in these stalky vegetables can clash with wine and make them taste metallic and bitter. So the solution is to find wines that have a green note to match! The most famous is Grüner Veltliner from Austria. Grüner literally means green and the wine literally tastes like green apple, lime and snap peas, sometimes with a sweet note of tarragon. Grüner also has a natural white pepper flavor that pairs perfectly with grilled asparagus with lemon and pepper. Another great option is Sauvignon Blanc, which has high levels of pyrazines - the compound found in green peppers. Or a neutral grape like Chardonnay grown in a cold climate (like Chablis or the Willamette Valley) so that it’s less fruity and more citrusy, with refreshing acid.

Chocolate eggs: What’s Easter without chocolate? And what’s chocolate without port? Yes, it sound obvious, but chocolate and port are natural bedfellows. As a general rule, you always want a wine to be as sweet as the dish it's served with so, if you’re enjoying chocolate, you need a sweet wine like port. There are many styles of port, but the two major ones - ruby and tawny - pair better with different types of chocolate. Ruby ports are younger and aged without contact with oxygen, so they retain more of their original red fruit flavors. So if your chocolate has fruit involved (i.e. chocolate covered strawberries, raspberry chocolate cake, blackberry truffles), then ruby port is best. Tawny ports are older and aged oxidatively (in contact with oxygen) so the red fruit flavors fade in favor of nutty, toffee, caramel notes. So if you’re chocolate has nuts, caramel or coffee, go for a tawny!