Easter is just one week away. Many will be celebrating Easter Sunday with a nice lunch that will surely include lamb or other meats and some delicious dessert.

So if you are entertaining and want to match up some great food with similarly great wine, here are some classic home-grown combinations guaranteed to please.

In these warmer temperatures, the urge to drink a wine that is chilled and invigorating, rather than soft and warming, should kick in.

Many of our eating habits will change too and favour lighter and more refreshing food.

So I’ve chosen some dishes where cool, crisp whites and fruit-driven reds will be the best accompaniment rather than the winter warmers we’ve been sipping over the last few months.

For starters, I’ve opted for a choice of dishes that are fairly straightforward.

A crisp salad with a variety of ingredients that deliver sensations of hot, cold and crunch – by using a selection of mixed lettuces, bite-sized pieces of grilled Maltese bacon, chilled seasoned cherry tomatoes and oven-baked croutons, topped at the last minute just before serving, with a good vinaigrette ­– would be a good entree.

As for wine, I would go for a well-chilled bottle of the very latest inexpensive 2011 vintage Pjazza Regina White made from a great blend of four Maltese-grown grapes – Chardonnay, Girgentina, Viognier and Vermentino.

My second choice would be an uncomplicated plate of mixed seafood made up of local swordfish, tuna and octopus if you can find it, all served with a slice of lemon, some fresh rucola and wholemeal Melba toast.

The ideal accompanying white wine would be a chilled bottle of 2011 vintage Medina Sauvignon Blanc DOK Malta.

As for the main course, I would opt for a dish that goes well with red wine. This would keep a more balanced meal.

Dishes like rabbit or other red meats in a sauce, roast joints or local lamb cutlets with a black pepper sauce go perfectly with fruit-packed, velvety reds, which both have a medium amount of tannin.

Two mid-priced red wines that are drinking well at the moment are the 2010 Victoria Heights Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc DOK Gozo, which is very New World style and packed full of ripe jammy fruit flavours.

I also am aware that this wine will only be available for a short period of time before the winemaker Delicata moves onto the 2011 vintage.

So if I were you, I would try it and if you like it, put a few bottles away, as this will be an absolutely stunning bottle of wine in about five years’ time and well worth the investment.

My second choice of red is the 2010 vintage Medina Syrah, another fruit-packed wine that offers great value for money and is an ideal partner for a wide range of red and white meat recipes.

Finally comes the dessert and here we have little to worry about. As long as your dessert is on the sweetish side, especially if it has chocolate in it, serve it with a chilled bottle of 2010 vintage Casella Moscato or the new 2009 Grand Vin de Hauteville Moscato DOK Malta and you will be giving your guests and your dessert a real treat.

If you want a simpler dessert and you love strawberries, just serve them plain, maybe with just a twist of black pepper, and a nice cold glass of Delicata’s lifestyle rosé, Ġellewża Frizzante. Bon appétit!