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.
Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 6:49 pmand is filed under Colorado Lamb, Lamb and Wine, Preparing Lamb, Suggestions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.