By Gil Whiteley
If I prepare a special meal and I want to impress my guests, I use Summit Creek Natural Lamb Chops or Rack of Lamb, period. It doesn’t get any better than that for me. I recently broiled a couple of racks with a dry rub (recipe below) for New Years Eve dinner. I never go out on New Years—amateur night on our highways. First, you can’t drink a bottle of wine and drive. But even if you are sober, drunken people will crash into you. Still, New Years is special, and to me that means serving lamb. This New Years, I served an extravagant bottle of Clarendon Hills 2005 Astralis Syrah, which has a street value of around $350.00. In 2007, Astralis was the highest rated wine in the world. I only drink it with lamb, although it goes terrifically with other things.
Clarendon Hills is in Southern Australia where lamb is what they eat five days a week. The wines of that region are grown to accompany lamb—perfectly paired for any dinner highlighting lamb. Summit Creek Natural Lamb is a perfect choice for the complex unfiltered wine of Clarendon Hills, which can make a great meal memorable. No skimping here.
It’s funny but my favorite wines with lamb are from what I refer to as the mostly overlooked red grapes: Syrah/Shiraz, Grenache, Zinfandel, Sangiovese and the newly discovered, in America at least, Pinot Noir. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, a nice Spanish Rioja, maybe a Meritage style blend, or even a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, all can be incredible with lamb.
These wines—big luscious fruit—have enough heart to stand up to and enhance the rich flavor you find in lamb. When shopping for wine for lamb think big, but give a try to some of the grapes you don’t always reach for. It should be special, and not the same ol’ same ol’.
Lamb allows us to experiment with so many great wine varietals, and the same preparation of you lamb can be a completely unique experience by just changing your wine selection. Experimenting with different wines can be a luxury, but also an adventure in your wine life. The rules set down by the wine geeks (that would be me to an extent) can be limiting.
It’s your palate and pleasing your palate is all that is necessary. Don’t be afraid to try a buttery Chardonnay or a Rose Brut Champagne with lamb either. Lamb is one of our great culinary treats, and should always be looked on as such. It’s a staple comfort food for much of the planet, and at its best it stands alone.
If I had to match a wine with lamb tonight, I’d head back to Clarendon Hills and open a 2005 Bakers Gully Syrah, it’s about $70.00 a bottle, but is in the top five bottles of wine I’ve opened (about 600 Bottles) in the past eight months. The Lamb? That’s easy, Summit Creek, of course.
Gil Whiteley is a sommelier and has been writing about wine for the past 10 years, he is currently the wine columnist for Wild Blue Yonder, the in flight magazine of Frontier Airlines. Gil discusses wine regularly on his radio show; Gil Whiteley, Sports and More, on 1510-AM, Mile High Sports Radio in Denver.
Posted in Colorado Lamb, Lamb and Wine, Preparing Lamb, SuggestionsBy Gil Whiteley
I’ve owned and operated several restaurants over the years; I’m a chef by necessity, a sommelier by trade and I’m devoted to finding perfect pairings of wine and food. Most people have never had a perfect pairing, or not taken the time to notice what wine best compliments the fare served. But in my business One plus One can equal Three or if you’re extremely lucky, Four, when done right.
I was early in my teens before I first tasted lamb, coming from a lower-middle-class family. Both of my parents worked every day of their lives while I was growing up. It was only later in their lives that they actually got to enjoy more of a lifestyle. Food was consumed for survival in our house; it was rarely celebrated or enjoyed. To this day, I still refuse to go into a restaurant that advertises, “Just like Mom made.”
My sister Mary requested lamb for our family dinner on her 16th birthday (May of 1960; I was almost 12). Our family tradition was to allow the birthday boy or girl to ask for a special meal—within reason—on birthdays. I was introduced to steak the same way a couple of years earlier when my older brother asked for it. Mary had eaten lamb at one of her friends’ houses and loved it.
The taste of lamb made me pause. It seemed exotic, not that I knew what exotic meant back then, but my thoughts understood the concept. My sister was an excellent cook, and I always loved it when she had time to make dinner. It somehow was just better.
I remember thinking, “Wow!” I’m not sure what cut of lamb we had—most likely a roast or a leg—but I couldn’t believe how good it was! It looked like beef, but had such an elegant flavor that I couldn’t put my finger on it. My father was of English heritage, and insisted we have a mint sauce or jelly with our inaugural lamb, and, boy, was he right. I’d never had jelly with meat before either, but I remember thinking on that day that food was a wonderful world I was about to discover.
Just a few short months later, I had lamb again on my 12th birthday because I requested that my sister prepare it just as she did for her own birthday. I’m not sure what she did because it was even better. My romance with lamb had a dramatic beginning. And to this very day when I have lamb (and that’s once or twice a week), it’s special…every time. It’s my twelfth birthday all over again. I can tell you now that we weren’t enjoying the quality lamb that only an all natural Summit Creek Lamb provides. I liked lamb from the beginning, but now I love it.
Imagine my delight when I discovered Summit Creek Natural Lamb—a perfect blend of nature and control of our otherwise toxic environment. Summit Creek lambs consume nothing but the finest natural nutritional feed. The end result is consistency of product—perfect lamb every bite, every time. When you come down to it, stability is all we can hope for. And once you discover Summit Creek Natural Lamb and learn that you never have to fear a lapse in consistency, it’s reassuring to know that you can rely on the same great meat each and every time. Lamb you buy in a supermarket can be as inconsistent as a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck, so in order to make your wine choices easy, you need to narrow down your options by buying a controlled, but all-natural cut of lamb from Summit Creek. It is only that way you can have the confidence of serving the very finest meal possible.
Gil Whiteley is a sommelier and has been writing about wine for the past 10 years, he is currently the wine columnist for Wild Blue Yonder, the in flight magazine of Frontier Airlines. Gil discusses wine regularly on his radio show; Gil Whiteley, Sports and More, on 1510-AM, Mile High Sports Radio in Denver.
Posted in Colorado Lamb, Preparing Lamb