Splendid sips for a Mother’s Day afternoon tea

Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, March 10, and restaurants and hotels will be busy with bookings for lunches, dinners and afternoon teas. If you don’t have a booking, whether due to lack of planning or funding, it’s not too late to host your own. Pick up some baked treats and macarons, smoked salmon or chicken liver pate, mix up an egg mayonnaise and finely slice those cucumbers, and dust down your finest china. Then, all you’ll need to add is a bottle of something delicious to set the tone, whether that’s the finest champagne or a classy, alcohol-free sparkling tea.

Many sommeliers are turning to tea as an alcohol-free alternative to wine, especially for tasting menu pairings. Dealcoholised wines are improving dramatically, but remain a long way from offering the complex drinking experience that wine can when it hasn’t undergone reverse osmosis or vacuum distillation to remove the booze. At Terre restaurant in Castlemartyr Resort, Co Cork, which was recently awarded a second Michelin star, they offer a bespoke tea pairing created by their own tea sommelier, showcasing Taiwan’s finest teas, brewed for very slow extraction and served at 5C-14C.

Brewing and serving the world’s most exquisite teas requires expertise, not to mention access to the teas themselves. To capture this kind of quality and complexity at home, Copenhagen Sparkling Tea was created by top sommelier Jacob Kocemba while working in a Michelin restaurant in Copenhagen. I featured the range a few years ago but they have recently switched importers, so hopefully we’ll be seeing more of their intriguing blends.

If you’d like to fully embrace the tradition of making those crustless triangles an excuse for top-class afternoon tippling, today’s selection offers two bubbles for very different budgets: a Loire sparkling rosé made by one of Champagne’s best-loved houses, and the best champagne in the world, as voted in 2022. Its hefty pricetag looks more approachable when you consider that it’s cheaper than an afternoon tea for four in a fancy hotel.

Also here today, a seafood-friendly white and an alcohol-free Ginger Switchel.

Wines of the week

Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Lysegron, 0pc, €22-€25 A new addition to a range of intriguing blends of hand-brewed teas, this newcomer is designed with champagne afternoon teas in mind: blending Earl Grey Sencha, Darjeeling and green teas, it is bright and lively with notes of lemongrass and lime peel, cucumber and green apple, and would be a brilliant match with oysters or any shellfish or seafood. Other blends include Bla, a gorgeous meeting of jasmine and first flush Darjeeling, with notes of chamomile and citrus. Redmonds of Ranelagh, redmonds.ie; Whelehans Wines, whelehanswines.ie

Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2010, Champagne, France, 12.5pc, €269 Named Supreme World Champion at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships, this top cuvee from the oldest Champagne house (est 1729) is a blend of Grand Cru Chardonnays. It’s extraordinary, with aromatic notes of black tea, sweet nutmeg, fig leaf and hazelnut, among others. The Corkscrew; thecorkscrew.ie

Langlois-Chateau L’Extra par Langlois Rosé, Loire Valley, France, 12.5pc, €22.95 Brilliant-value, bottle-fermented sparkling rosé wine made by Champagne Bollinger but in the Loire. This is restrained, dry, crisp and mineral with a fine mousse and notes of apricot and lemon, acacia and hedgerow blossom. Think bakewell or lemon tart, smoked fish or chicken liver pate. O’Briens Wine; obrienswine.ie

Mother Root Ginger Switchel NV, London, 0pc, €26.95 (480ml) Conceived by wine professional Bethan Higson while pregnant, this is a blend of cider vinegars, sweetened with blossom honey, given fiery notes from added ginger and chilli and aged for four months. Add to soda over ice for a layered savoury drink with a fresh bite. Each bottle contains 20 serves, with a decent shelf life. wineonline.ie

Villa Des Croix Picpoul de Pinet AOP 2022, Languedoc, France, 12.5pc, €17-€19 If you’re serving any seafood in your afternoon tea, Picpoul de Pinet from a limestone Languedoc plateau near Montpellier will make a great match. This one from Villa Des Croix brings a saline bite and floral lift to this fresh and easy style. Blackrock Cellar; Neighbourhood Wines; Sweeney’s D3, sweeneysd3.ie; The Vintry, vintry.ie; Baggot Street Wines; baggotstreetwines.com