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With summer out of the picture, it’s time to box away your bottles of sauvignon blanc and get ready for a change in season. Autumn, with its hearty and flavourful seasonal dishes and roasts, demands a different kind of wine.

A perfect match for autumn appetisers is sparkling wine. The underlying sweetness of sparkling wine cools the effects of hot, spicy or salty foods, while the acidity makes it a refreshing wine for appetisers, which tend to include an array of intense flavours. Try Castellblanch Cava Brut Zero Reserva from Penedes, a refreshing sparkler from Spain. Floral aromas and almond flavours combine with a waxy texture to get the digestive juices flowing. Castellblanch blends the grapes carefully to harmonise flavour, crispness and body. The Brut Zero lends a refreshing blend of apple, pear and citrus aromas that carry through from the nose to the palate.

For a seasonal autumn lamb roast, Spanish rioja reserva stands up well to the intensely rich flavours. Rioja reserva is aged in oak barrels and finishes off maturing in bottles. Palacio de Valdeinfante has mustered 11 international awards and has been a perennial favourite for years. A mature ruby red, this wine has aromas of bramble fruit and wild strawberries with notes of tobacco and spice, finished with vanilla-scented oak and teems perfectly with roasted lamb.

When poultry is on the Sunday table, look for wines that are full-bodied but with light tannins, which make reds equally suitable as white. Pinot noirs offer a nice balance between savoury flavours of vegetable, mushroom and succulent berry fruits. These light reds have a fruity nose, with notes of spicy raspberry and strawberry as well as touches of vanilla and cola.

Prime steak, roast beef or other beef dishes pair perfectly with a big fruity red zinfandel. Fresh, lively, blackberry aromas and loads of juicy ripe fruit provide a perfect balance for the richness of the meat. Quality Californian zinfandels offer a perfect mix of dark fruit aromas with a touch of chocolate, zinfandel’s full-bodied frame and light tannins. It is the perfect food and wine pairing when beef is on the menu.

Autumn desserts, such as apple pie or crumble, have sweet, spicy and earthy elements. The perfect pairing for these flavours is sauternes, a naturally sweet white wine from Bordeaux. Sauternes have the subtle sweetness to stand up to the flavours of hot autumn desserts and will enhance the sweet, spicy, earthy flavours. 

Picture caption: A drop of Spanish rioja is a perfect accompaniment to an autumn lamb roast.