I wonder if Easter had something to do with the fact that my dentist told me she had just discovered PX. This unique Spanish sweet wine discovered me a while ago, which is why I went to see my dentist. PX, or Pedro, short for Pedro Ximénez is one of the darkest, richest, stickiest wines in the world and by rights shouldn’t exist as a wine at all. Oozing with viscous sucrosity, it’s the perfect blending sweetener, in small doses, for cream sherry and sweet oloroso. Did someone dunk a finger in a cask of Pedro one day and think ‘wow, I could get a pat on the back from the mouthwash industry for bottling this on its own’?

Unlike the pet mouse in the González Byass bodega, which gets its own custom-built ladder to help it up to a gooey nightcap, I find most PX stickily sickly. When a judicious amount of acidity adds a nip of freshness though, it can stand up to puddings, even chocolate, as in the case of the Gran Barquero Pedro Ximénez, £9.39, half-litre, Waitrose, the dark quintessence of liquid prunes from Montilla that coats the tongue with a radio malt-like syrupiness. I also have time for Emilio Lustau’s Rare Pedro Ximénez, £7.49, Marks & Spencer, for its aromatic intensity and raisin and fig richness, delightfully saved by just enough acidity. Best of all though is to use it as a sauce for vanilla, coffee or chocolate ice cream.

Blandy's must think that Madeira is a match for dark chocolate because they sent me a bar of Green and Blacks with a sample. They’re not wrong. The Blandy’s Alvada 5-Year-Old Rich, half-litre, around £12.99 - £17.50, Waitrose, Booths, Harrods, exudes a smoky, coffee-like aroma and complementary raisined richness but the best thing is Madeira’s typically lively citrus-zesty palate-cleansing tang on the aftertaste. In similar mould, but back in Spain, Lustau’s Oloroso, Añada 97 Rich Oloroso, half-litre, £18.99-£25.00, www.thedrinkshop.com, Turton Wines (07791751682), Corks Out (01928531886), is full of the smoky scents of vanilla, prune and coffee with an intense rich figgy, apricoty fruitiness and complex, walnutty depth.

A world apart for its delicately refreshing fruit, Germany’s luscious sweet wines could hardly be more different. The 2010 Göttelman Dautenpflänzer Riesling Auslese, Nahe, half-litre, £24.99, Waitrose flagship stores, John Lewis, waitrose.com, is irresistibly moreish sweet riesling of exceptional intensity and refreshing spritz in which essence of ripe peach dissolves into mouthwatering zest. Another rung on the stairway to heaven, the 2006 Wirsching 2006 Silvaner Beerenauslese, from Franconia, half-bottle, £39.50, Fortnum & Mason, is as wickedly decadent as it’s frighteningly expensive, an immensely rich and luscious passion fruit and peach cordial of just 9.5% alcohol, with the most trenchantly crisp fresh aftertaste imaginable; the ultimate Easter bonnet.

Something for The Weekend

Something For the Weekend 23 March 2013

Night In

2010 Torre del Falco Nero di Troia, Puglia

Made from the local Puglian grape variety known as Trojan black, this scented, southern dark-hearted rosso is full of dark berry fruit flavours infused with spicy notes works beautifully with spaghetti puttanesca. £5.59, down from £8.59, Waitrose.

Dinner Party

2011 Talinay Chardonnay, Limarí Valley, Chile

New to the Majestic list, this stylish chardonnay from Limarí is made close to the Pacific, oceanic air-conditioning bringing intense aromatics and a rich, mouthwateringly dry quality with a steely mineral Chablisesque character. £16.99, buy 2 = £12.99, Majestic.

Splash Out

2009 La Grola, Allegrini, Veneto

Bright and cherryish in aroma, the richly concentrated morello cherry supervalpolicella character is underpinned by a structure of spicy oak, juicy fresh Italianate acidity and firm backbone. £18 – £21.99, bottle/ case of 6, Tesco, Halifax Wine, Secret Cellar, Noel Young.

Ends