Offbeat wines to pair with lamb

Lamb is to Easter as turkey is to Christmas – the automatic go-to for a festive family lunch.

Perversely, it’s largely based on the idea that you’re going to be cooking the first of the season’s spring lamb.

In fact, unless you live in Spain or France, where milk-fed lamb is a delicacy, it’s unlikely that you’ll be dining on spring lamb, which is certainly a very different beast from lamb from more mature animals such as hogget (a sheep between one and two years old).

It’s also quite likely that it won’t be the slightly overcooked Sunday roast of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

Ready for an adventure?

All this means that the go-to wines with lamb – and let’s face it, lamb goes with almost any classic red, from Bordeaux to Rioja – might not work if you become more adventurous with your cooking method and seasoning, the most useful question to ask yourself being, how hearty is the dish?

Heading into spring, as we are, your lamb could be a rosy-pink rack, the perfect foil for a delicate red Burgundy or other Pinot Noir but, should you want to be more adventurous, you could also pair it with rosé Champagne or an English sparkling rosé.

Should you decide to marinate your lamb with olive oil, oregano, garlic and lemon, grill it and serve it Greek style with a scattering of feta, I’d be inclined to go for a citrussy Greek white such as Assyrtiko rather than a red, adding another element of citrus rather than red berry or plummy fruit.

Come autumn, you might decide to slow cook a shoulder of hogget with Middle Eastern spices – a definite candidate for a red, surely, but you could equally well serve an orange or skin-contact wine, or an appassimento red, especially if pomegranate molasses is involved.

And while a hearty winter dish such as a lamb boulangère (cooked on top of sliced potato and onions) definitely calls for a red, it doesn’t have to be French. What about a Chilean Syrah or a South African Rhône blend?

Side effects

It’s also a question of the sauces and vegetables you serve on the side. If you’re a classic mint sauce aficionado, you might want to echo those flavours with a Coonawarra Cabernet, but make it a salsa verde and it’s hard to beat a Chianti.

The kind of spring vegetables you’d find in a navarin of lamb (classic slow-cooked stew) would be better with a Rhôneish white – as indeed would a lamb korma curry, with which a Viognier is usually a reliable pairing.

Summery lamb with peas? It’s as much about the peas as the lamb, but Pinot Noir works with both.

Aubergines? Yes to reds again, especially with a dish such as moussaka, but if chickpeas or hummus are involved, I’d be more inclined to go for orange wine, which also pairs well with a lamb and quince or apricot tagine. (It’s always worth thinking about the fruit you might serve with lamb to give you a clue as to the kind of wine that would work.)

Then, is the lamb hot or cold, or rather tiède – served at room temperature? (Cold lamb never sounds particularly appetising.)

I’ve mentioned sparkling rosé, but high-quality still Provençal rosé such as a Bandol rosé works, especially if accompanied by typical Mediterranean vegetables such as courgettes and peppers.

Purists might baulk, but I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

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