How to make the most of what’s in season this month and the wines to match.
April is the month when springtime seasonal stars begin to appear, encouraging a shift in culinary perspective. Simple dishes allow fresh new ingredients to shine, flavours enhanced by complementary bottles. The season is short for some of our best home-grown produce, so make the most of it and get your wine racks spruced up and ready.
Mackerel from British waters is back in season after going off the menu for winter, and rhubarb is just coming on stream too. They’re a surprising heaven-made match, with sweetened baked rhubarb slicing zingily through the fatty meatiness of seared or grilled mackerel. A Portuguese alvarinho (or Spanish albariño) will do the trick here, their lively freshness and fruit standing up to the punchy flavours of the dish. Mackerel on its own loves a wine with acidity – fino sherry or full-bodied rosé would also work.
An absolute classic, British lamb is wonderful every spring. A leg or shoulder cooked as you like it are both succulently wine friendly and classic matches are Rioja or claret. Treat yourself to leaner, finer grained rack or best-end fillet under a herb crust and it’s deliciously different again. Fresh herbs in any combination of your choice work and the end result is a treat. Pinot noir served just a little cool is gorgeous, complementing rather than overpowering the lean herby lamb. A cru Beaujolais will also sing for its, and alongside your, supper too - think Fleurie, Morgon, Brouilly or Moulin-à-Vent, for a mouthwatering match. Finally, cabernet franc’s leafy, graphite-inflected character is a lovely match. Look to the Loire for the grape’s homeland, and Uruguay for something a little different.
Homegrown asparagus is fantastic, with a short but sweet, window of opportunity to make the most of it charms, starting, roughly around St George’s Day on the 23rd of the month. It’s the epitome of spring for me – the very definition of green shoots – but the longer the spears go uneaten after picking the sooner they lose their fresh sweetness. Its assertive grassy flavours can be a challenge for wine, but a great match for simply cooked spears, is dry muscat or muscat-led wines and there’s nowhere better for it than France and Spain. Mirroring the spears’ green herbaceousness, sauvignon blanc is also a cracker with simply steamed asparagus. If luxuriously bathed in buttery sauces like hollandaise, the dish will need something with more richness whilst retaining freshness – think Chablis or lightly oaked chardonnays.
Jersey Royals are seen by many a gourmand as the king of spuds and their limited season makes them precious. Is it odd to feature a potato as a key ingredient? When they’re this good I don’t think so. Make a tender, slightly oozy omelette with softened sweet onions, sliced, cooked Jerseys and some fresh goat’s cheese and you’ve really got something, especially when paired with Loire sauvignon. Omit the cheese and open a bottle of white Rioja. Its nutty, creamy charms will work wonders with the rich melange and earthy taters. Or conjure a potato salad charged with hot horseradish, sour cream and chives to serve with smoked fish. A good match with the last of these is fino or manzanilla sherry; dry, tangy and mouthwatering, while Muscadet-sur-Lie has a bracing bite and texture to cut and stand up to the silky, salty, punchy richness.
Wild garlic, or ramsons, buckram and, rather less attractively, bear leek, is bang in season now. It can be found by experienced foragers in damp woodland spots but will also turn up at plenty of farmers’ markets and greengrocers during its season. It’s a delicious addition to many spring dishes, solo as a wilted veg or tossed with greens. It makes a wonderful vividly green soup (another candidate for fino sherry’s food-friendliness) and makes a fabulous replacement for basil in pesto, with almonds, pistachios or hazelnuts subbing for pine nuts. Toss the pesto through pasta, gnocchi and Jersey Royals, or use for dressing salmon or chicken, with a dry riesling from Alsace, Austria or Australia. Wilt it and make it the star of a creamy quiche with a cheesy custard and it will make a delicious companion for a fruity chenin blanc.
