7 hour leg of lamb with Cot (Malbec)

When you’re roasting lamb you’re almost spoilt for choice. Almost any red you enjoy will go with this most wine-friendly of dishes but my pick of Thierry Puzelat’s quirky KO In Cot we Trust (2005) proved a winner

Both wine and lamb were bargains - the lamb snapped up by my husband at our local branch of Somerfield for just £9.49 (you’d be lucky if you got a couple of lamb shanks for that these days), the wine (originally £12.99) on a 25% off promotion in Waitrose earlier this year, though I’m not sure whether they still stock it*

We simply made a few cuts in the lamb and inserted slivers of garlic and a few rosemary leaves, smothered it with olive oil and put it in the hot oven of the AGA until it got going (about 20 minutes) then transferred it to the low oven and left it for the best part of the afternoon - about 7 1/2 hours in total. A sliced onion and a glass of red wine (and one of water) got added along the way. The result was wonderfully savoury, far more complex than one has any right to expect from supermarket meat and a perfect match for this luxuriant off-the-wall ‘natural’ wine with its dark, damsony fruit.

There’s an interesting article about Puzelat here if you want to know more.

* Green and Blue in London sells it for £14.40. Their recommended matches are venison, hare, game pie or sweetbreads.

Oxtail cooked in Priorat with prunes matched with 2004 Vall Llach Priorat

The highlight of last week was my trip to Priorat so this week’s pairing has to be one of the wines I tasted. Oddly it wasn’t one of the wines I enjoyed most although it was in the upper echelons of what the region has to offer : a Vall Llach 2004, a blend of 65% Cariñena (old vine Carignan), 20% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The winery was apparently set up by the Catalan singer Lluis Llach and this is their top cuvée. Unlike a couple of other strongly Carignan-influenced wines I tasted (Clos Mogador’s Manyetes and Mas Martinet’s Cami Peserolles) I found it quite overwhelming on its own (it was 15.5% ABV): very dark and brooding with a lot of wood on the nose and some massive tannins (I made a suggestion of roast ox as a suitable pairing in my tasting notes!) But it became as sweet as a pussycat with a rich winey oxtail stew with which I partnered it at the small hotel (Cal Llop) in which we were staying in the hillside village of Gratallops.

The oxtail, which tasted a great deal nicer than the rather blurry photo above might suggest, was cooked in Priorat (not Vall Llach, I’m sure) with prunes which freshened the wine, tamed its ferocious tannins and brought out its more exotic flavours. The wine also paired very well with some aged Manchego cheese.

Vall Llach is available in the UK from Justerini and Brooks. See wine-searcher.com for US and other stockists.

Ceviche and Susana Balbo Torrontes

I’m currently away in Priorato in Spain (of which more later this week) but this was a great combination I came across last week at the Gaucho Grill in Swallow Street, London.

They’ve always served ceviches (raw fish marinated in citrus juice) but the selection has recently been refined by their executive chef Fernando Trocca who I met earlier this year in Argentina.

There were three kinds: a salmon tiradito (a layered version of ceviche) with citrus oil, lobster with white gazpacho and grapes and raw scallops with coconut dressing - all quite spicy. (You can order any three as a single course.)

The Susana Balbo Torrontes comes from the cool Salta region to the north of the country and is considered one of Argentina’s best. It has a perfumed floral character, not unlike a Gewürztraminer and took all the exotic and spicy flavours in its stride. I like the fact that being one of the grape varieties Argentina has made its own it’s the obvious local pairing too.

(Obviously it goes without saying we had steak and Malbec too but I probably don't need to point out again what a good combination that is!)

Steak tartare and Côteaux du Languedoc

You might be surprised to know that red wine isn’t the first pairing I think of with steak tartare, which for those of you who haven’t tried it is chopped raw beef flavoured with punchy seasonings such as capers, parsley and hot pepper sauce. I actually think it pairs really well with sparkling wine, especially Champagne but last week I was down in the Languedoc and that didn’t really seem appropriate.

My husband had ordered a dish called hachis parmentier which is a French version of shepherds' pie so we compromised on a medium bodied red in the form of the 2006 vintage of Château de la Negly’s basic wine ‘La Côte’. A blend of Carignan, Grenache and Syrah, it comes from the La Clape part of the Coteaux de Languedoc (see this more detailed description from K & L wine merchants)

It’s one of those easy-going reds that should be in everyone’s cellar, refreshing, quaffable but in no way simple or jammy. It was a great companion for both dishes, especially the steak tartare (and chips, I must confess). Almost as good as Champagne ;-)

In the UK H & H Bancroft carry the Château de la Negly range. The restaurant where we were eating is called Larcen in Agde, one of our current favourites in the area.