It’s spring, the season for lamb! Lamb chops, lamb roasts, lamb kebabs, here a lamb, there a lamb, everywhere a… wait, where’s the wine?
It’s lamb season and I’m fixing a nice little savory roast, but what about the wine? I love lamb. I love wine. But I’m not the best at the pairing part.
With a little help from the internet, Ron and I decided on a nice Chianti Classico. So, off I went to our local Sunny Farms Grocery for the little lamb, stopping on the way home at Agnew Grocery for two bottles of Chianti.
To prepare our little lamb I stuffed it full with garlic cloves and covered it in fresh rosemary. Then set it on a rack over a pan full of a red wine blend and dry vermouth. Not sure why the vermouth, it just smelled to me like it would work.
As it sat on the counter waiting to go into the oven, and all the while it was roasting, enticing fragrances mingled together forming a heavenly anticipation of what was to come.
Taking it from the oven, I let it rest for a bit then sliced it up. Cooked to lamby perfection we couldn’t wait to savor every bite.
Ron filled our glasses with the Chianti Classico and with great anticipation we sipped and ate. We tasted the lamb, then the wine. Then tasted and sipped again. Humm, the lamb was savory, tender and juicy, but the wine was… flat, flavorless, thin.
Of course, we drank it all because it’s a sin to leave wine in a decanter all by itself. But, we didn’t especially enjoy it.
We should have thought earlier to ask our partners what they would suggest.
Perry “would select a fruit forward red wine for roasted lamb… perhaps even as radical as a Beaujolais! I also think Chianti is a good choice with lamb!”
Katie says, “the fruit flavors in the Syrah I chose (Boom Boom Syrah) complement the earthy flavor of the lamb.”
In thinking it over we aren’t sure how our choice of Chianti was a mistake, if it leaned too far on the herby side, or clashed with the wine I used in roasting, or if the particular brand of wine itself was disappointing. Next time choose a wine with a more definite fruity vibe. Think mint-ish, peachy-mango chutney-ish. A little sweet to compliment the savory.
When you think about a savory, garlicky, rosemary-herby roasted lamb, what type of wine would you pair with it?
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