MIKE TIPPING recommends wines with Easter in mind for this week’s TIPPING’S TIPPLES.

Some folks love to dabble by matching chocolate and wine. This is all very well, but it’s not my cup of tea. Or should that be glass of wine?

So, despite the fact that vast swathes of the population will be devouring chocolate by the kilo next weekend, I won’t be suggesting wines to match.

I am, however, keen, since Easter is almost here, to recommend three reds that fit the chocolate theme. The words dark chocolate crop up in the wine notes I scribbled for all three of this week’s wines.

But it is a savoury chocolate-ness, not a sweet one, more like cocoa than Cadbury’s Bournville.

I know it is spring now, but the unseasonal weather means few of us are going to be tucking into salads over Easter.

Roasts and casseroles would be a more warming alternative and this trio of wines will work well with both, with the added benefit of that hint of chocolate, as befits the holiday.

Vinalba Patagonia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2010 is on offer at The Co-operative, with £2 off until April 23. This Argentinean take on the Bordeaux blend is an absolute steal at the price. Rich, wholesome and with sturdy tannins, it has heaps of raspberry and plum fruit flavours, with cassis and dark chocolate.

Or from the Paarl region of South Africa, try Linton Park Café Cabernet 2011. As the name suggests this powerful 100 per cent cabernet sauvignon has pronounced coffee flavours, with dark bitter chocolate too, blackcurrant, notes of mint and firm tannins.

New to The Co-operative’s ‘‘finer’’ wine range is an absolute corker from the sunny sud de France. Les Grandes Costes Pic Saint Loup 2009 is a spicy, characterful blend of syrah and grenache, half of which is aged in French oak for 16 months.

Full-bodied but not too heavy, it suggests flavours of brambles, cherry and Garrigue herbs, with nicely integrated polished oak, vanilla, leather and, of course, dark chocolate notes.

Vinalba Patagonia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2010, £6.99 down from £8.99 at The Co-operative 18/20

Linton Park Café Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, £8.99 from thedrinkshop.com 17/20

Les Grandes Costes Saint Loup 2009, £12.99 at The Co-operative 18/20