Chocolate and wine may seem like an obvious pairing—but the truth is, it really isn't as wine and chocolate rarely harmonise, these two can put up a bit of a fight.

We think people like to pair them as both chocolate and wine help some to relax, or perhaps it’s that the process of making chocolate is very similar to wine: both cocoa beans and wine are fermented with the very same type of yeast.

Regardless, there’s only one way to survive Easter as a wine lover, and that’s by following these golden rules:

1. Because white chocolate doesn’t contain any actual cocoa, but rather cocoa fat this makes it an easy number to pair with wine. Try: vintage port or a rosé port, or even a Noble Late Harvest.

2. Milk chocolate also has the aid of a bit of fat from the cream—making it also a cool customer for your chocolate eggs. Try: a cream sherry, Shiraz or a vintage port.

3. Break out the bubbly for caramel flavoured chocolate: try a demi sec MCC, or if you’re not into that kind of thing a cream sherry will do too.

4. The trickiest of the lot is dark chocolate, which is high in tannin, so don’t go pairing it with high tannin wines. Try: a light red, Noble Late Harvest and vintage port.

Have a happy Easter from all of us at the Wine-of-the-Month Club!