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If you’re one of those people who reaches for Bailey’s or Mozart Chocolate Liqueur on Easter Sunday, you’re missing a trick.

Because, you know that drink that never sees the light of day? The one you probably didn’t even know was at the back of your drinks cupboard, hiding in plain sight. Well, it’s the wine industry’s well-kept Easter secret as the best drink to pair with chocolate, bar none.

And, I’m about to get all Antiques Road Show on you as I disclose its value…

No, I’m not talking about Advocaat or Galliano, those retro bottles gifted to you by your Ned Flanders of a neighbour, which you can’t for the life of you think what to do with. They’re the drinks equivalent of a lava lamp and have no business being near an Easter egg.

I’m referring to sherry, the Swiss army knife of a drink that comes in styles ranging from dry, cream, nutty to a version so sweet that when you drizzle it over your dessert, it becomes the dessert. Guaranteed, no other drinks journalist will be writing about sherry for Easter as they want it all for themselves. The greedy guzzle gannets.

You can forget port, it’s not Christmas, we’re looking at sherry and chocolate all the way when the bunny is in town.

Why? Because to a greater or lesser degree, all sherry styles have lightly nutty, dried fruit notes that allow them to do the cha-cha with chocolate. That’s why fruit and nut chocolate is a thing in the first place.

Do a taste test if you don’t believe me. No need to commit to an entire egg, do it with a square of chocolate first. Take a sip of sherry, keep it in your mouth for a bit then swallow it. Take a chunk of chocolate and let it melt on your tongue, and when it’s roughly two thirds melted, take another sip of sherry and let them bask on your tongue together.

Thank me later, but first, here are the sherries to sip before, during and after the kids have hunted for the eggs…

Nutty Chocolate x Cream

Try: Baron Amarillo Pale Cream Sherry, £7.69 from Aldi

Cream sherry is usually mentioned in the same sentence as ‘your granny’, but I’m not going to be so predictable. But, what is it? It’s an Oloroso sherry that’s had sugar added to it to make it significantly sweeter. If your chocolate has praline, or in this case, pistachio paste inside, these guys will mesh well. I’m clearly referring to the Dubai chocolate bar, which seems to be everywhere at the moment. They’ve now reshaped the bar into an Easter egg, which was the logical next step, let’s face it. Crunch the two together and tell me what you think.

Caramel Chocolate x Oloroso

Try: Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Oloroso Sherry, £9.75, www.sainsburys.co.uk

Oloroso sherry is the full nut-fest due to its oxidative ageing, as it doesn’t have the protective layer of yeast the other styles do (flor). These wines are dry, dark in colour and super rich in style, think walnuts, dried figs and soy sauce, in a great way. Chocolate with caramel, nougat or marzipan in the mix makes a worthy pairing partner for this style of sherry. There’s a smidge of caramel flavour in the sherry too, which they both share, and together they take each other to the next level.  

White Chocolate x Moscatel

Try: Lustau Moscatel Emlin Sherry 37.5ml, £14.95, Secret Bottle Shop, www.secretbottleshop.co.uk

Forget opposites attracting, here’s an example of twinning and winning. Not quite the sweetest style of sherry, that’ll be Pedro Ximenez, Moscatel is made from the, well, Moscatel de Alejandria grape. The only grape you can get away with saying it tastes ‘grapey’. Like PX, the grapes are sun dried and fortified, giving it a floral, marmaladey and honeyed flavour profile that greets the white chocolate like its long-lost sibling.

Dark Chocolate x Pedro Ximenez

Morrisons The Best Pedro Ximenez Sherry, £7.25, www.groceries.morrisons.com

This is the money-shot of Easter pairings. Pedro Ximenez looks like treacle and tastes like molasses put in the whizzer with Christmas pudding. It acts like a dessert wine though its officially a sherry. There’s a scurrilous amount of sugar in this style, we’re talking 300 – 500 g/litre, which is why a little goes a long way. Though, I find a lot goes a longer way. The combo of that and a bitter 85 – 100% chunk of dark chocolate will make your head explode, in a good way.

Milk Chocolate x Palo Cortado

González Byass ‘Leonor’ Palo Cortado 12 Year Old Sherry, £22, Majestic, www.majestic.co.uk

This is my favourite style of sherry and this particular bottle is my go-to. This actually started out life as a Fino, the lightest form of sherry, it’s then exposed to the elements and takes on a flavour profile between a nutty Oloroso and the freshness of an Amontillado. It’s dry in style, with beautiful saline notes, giving the chocolate a cheeky sea salt moment, which we know works diabolically well. Make it a decent quality milk chocolate pairing, please, I don’t want to see any Dairy Milk wrappers lying around or we’ll be having words.  

Spicy Chocolate x Manzanilla

Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla Sherry, £15.50, Waitrose, www.waitrose.com/

This bottle is to Manzanilla what Tio Pepe is to Fino, aka the benchmark. It’s like sipping on sea mist, with a whisper of nuts and bruised apple flavours in the mix. This whip-fresh style yearns for the cheekiness of a chilli infused chocolate, or at least a high quality smoky dark chocolate. You see, the more ‘out there’, spicy chocolate styles are balanced out by the saline nature of the sherry. Either that, or guzzle it with an inhuman amount of salted almonds. You’ll enjoy it either way.

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