Lamb, artichoke and Gevrey-Chambertin

Since lamb goes with practically every type of red wine you can think of you might wonder why I’m singling it out as this week’s match of the week.

Two reasons - one being the time of the year. Lighter dishes like this one at the 3 Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at the Connaught call for a lighter wine than you might drink in the autumn or winter or with more robust accompaniments. The flavour of the lamb was really delicate and sweet, perfect with the wine head sommelier Lucas Reynaud Paligot had chosen, a youthful 2021 from David Duband, one of the Connaught’s own selections.

The other is the artichokes which you might think would make it a no-no with a fine red wine but the flavour wasn’t intrusive. I suspect they were cooked right down, almost confited. It’s really only an old-school artichoke vinaigrette that is problematic for wine. And how often do we eat that these days?

For other pairings see top wine pairings for lamb. And for another great Gevrey-Chambertin match see here. (No, I don't spend all my time drinking Gevrey-Chambertin. Unfortunately!)

I ate at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught as a guest of the restaurant

Roast lamb and 20 year old Columella

What to drink with a treasured old bottle of wine is one of the most frequent questions I get asked and the answer I usually give is ‘keep it simple’

At a post-tasting lunch with the Wine Society at their Stevenage HQ the other day they did exactly that serving a perfectly judged main course of roast lamb, mash and simply cooked heritage carrots and broccoli with a 20 year old bottle of Columella from Eben Sadie, only the second vintage of this iconic wine. There was also a port-based sauce but the sweetness was cleverly kept in check.

The wine, one of the original reds that put Swartland on the map, was a Syrah-dominated mourvèdre blend and still drinking perfectly. The most recent vintage - which the Society is now unable to import directly - also includes grenache, carignan, cinsault and tinta barocca but any good grenache or GSM blend would work equally well as would a northern Rhône syrah* or a mature Bordeaux.

You can buy the 2018 vintage of the Columella from Philglas and Swiggott for £94.95, an indication of how much in demand Sadie’s wines now are.

* If you’re a member of the Wine Society try the Côte Rôtie-like Domaine Cuilleron Signé Syrah-Viognier 2018 I tasted which is brilliant value at £14.95 and would age for a good few years too.

I had lunch as a guest of the Wine Society

Milk fed lamb and aged Vega Sicilia

One of the questions I get asked most often is what to drink with a treasured bottle and this week’s match of the week provides the answer it it’s a red.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste but it’s the baby or milk fed lamb much beloved of inhabitants of the Ribera del Duero region in the north of Spain.

I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this but I had it twice in one day last week - with venerable vintages of Vega Sicilia ‘Unico’ - at lunchtime with the 1996, then in the evening with the 1981 and the 1991 and have to admit it was sublime.

Why does it work so well? Well, the flavour of the meat, as you might imagine is delicate and sweet and it’s served on the rare side on its own with just the cooking juices. No heavy charring, no sauce, no gravy. No competing ingredients on the plate - though in the first instance it was served with the classic side salad of lettuce tomato and onion - the raw onion is possibly a bit brutal.

You may well feel uncomfortable about eating lamb at that age (21 days in the case of the evening meal) but you could take the idea and serve a similar wine with rosé veal or older lamb cooked the same sort of way. For some reason aged Ribera - and rioja for that matter - does go particularly well with lamb.

And if you're vegetarian and have read this far? I'm thinking a whole roast celeriac would be a good option.

Needless to say I was a guest of Vega Sicilia.

Oaked white rioja and rabbit terrine

This time of year is full of pre-Christmas get-togethers which means a higher than usual number of meals out and an above average number of interesting wine pairings.

I’ve had a terrific match with a carbonara this week (a dry Italian white called passerina) and a stunning one for a venison casserole (an old Felton Road pinot noir) but the ones I was most intrigued by were with a mature white rioja at a Spanish wine dinner at Asador 44 in Cardiff hosted by wine writer Tim Atkin.

It was a really sumptuous barrel-fermented Finca Allende*, from the 2014 vintage (the most recent vintage) which had the richness and depth of a mature white burgundy - not as intense as the Vina Tondonia blanco but more than most oaked white riojas. (It was also aged in oak for 14 months)

It was officially paired with a rabbit and game terrine with girolles and quince to which it added a quince note of its own but was also great with the next course of confit and roast leg of milk-fed lamb with some pretty punchy sides including charcoal king oyster mushrooms, broccoli with morcilla and romesco and escalivada (a roasted vegetable salad). That was also perfect with its intended match of a rich, spicy Montsant Altaroses 2015 from Joan d’Anguera proving, if you’ll pardon the expression, that there are more ways than one to skin a cat when it comes to wine pairing.

Note neither of those dishes would have worked with the brighter, unoaked style of white rioja which can taste more like a sauvignon blanc - but in the oaked style behaves more like and can be substituted for a red.

For other white rioja pairings see The Best Food Pairings for White Rioja.

I attended the dinner as a guest of Asador 44