As Mother’s Day approaches, meals en famille will abound throughout America and Europe. In my family, we have Mother’s Day celebrations at noon rather than the evening and because of that, lighter wines are in order, also because my mother-in-law is 86. As an aperitif, I will start not with champagne, but with cava, a Catalan bubbly, generally with more fruit flavor and slightly more sweet than champagne, made in Spain since 1872. I usually opt for an Extra Brut, which can have a maximum of only 6 grams of sugar per litre; the Brut has twice that. My choice will be Segura Viudas, served very cold in chilled champagne glasses, and so good that I will probably have a second bottle waiting just in case.
I don’t especially like roasted ham but my mother-in-law does, so that will be our main meal. That is good because you can pair ham with reds, whites, and good rosés, but the latter—for me—only if we eat outside on the terrace. If we go with a red, I will take a bottle of fruity variety, probably a fine Beaujolais made from the Gamy grape, not more than two years old. The cherry flavors always go well with ham and at the same time is never heavy. If we go with a white, I might pick a lovely Attems Pinot Grigio, 2008. It comes from the Collio region in Italy, bordered by the Alps and the Adriatic. Always good and refreshing, it should go nicely with the ham that is not too spicy. If I add cloves to the ham, the spice flavor needs to be married with a deeper, spicier wine. In that case, I will drink a German Riesling or a Alsatian Gewurtzraminer, either of which will marry beautifully with the spicier part of the ham.
Dessert is easy: chocolate in some form, particularly Swiss, and if my daughter makes her famous chocolate cake, then no one will go away from the table unsatisfied. But here we run into a personal problem: the only wine I like with rich, creamy chocolate is Port. So many people have tried to match chocolate and wine, but frankly I have never been satisfied with strong Cabernets or Syrahs. I need something pungent and sweet that will accent the chocolate, not the other way around. There are several kinds of port that will work. An inexpensive Ruby Port, which does not improve with age, often works well as a young flavor, but I prefer Tawny Port, a blend of vintages stored in wood and indicated on the bottle by a label description in years—10, 20, etc. years—which are general target dates for drinking, not the age of the fortified wine. Older ports and vintage ports can be overtaken by the chocolate to the point that neither is complimentary.
After all this eating and drinking, a siesta is usually in order. What I drink before a nap to help induce lovely dreams is another story, but don’t forget that the hero of the day is Mom, not you, so make your picks in accord with the honoree.
