I have five wines this week for the amazing array of lamb recipes including a white and two rosés!
2009 Château Paret, Côtes de Castillon, Bordeaux, France (£9.79, reduced to £6.46 until 8 May, Waitrose). This amazingly dense, dark, posh-tasting claret is a complete surprise. Red Bordeaux loves lamb in any form, from traditional Sunday lunch format to this week’s Spring Lamb Stew recipe. You get an awful lot of flavour for your money with cassis-steeped Paret.
2011 Château La Mascaronne Rosé, Côtes de Provence, France (£9.95, Raffles Wines 01453 833133). I adore top flight rosé with lamb, particularly skewers or burgers and this fairly rich version is a new find for me. If you are planning a party then grab some magnums (150cl, £25) or jeroboams (300cl, £59.00) – they look absolutely show-stopping!
2011 Xanadu, Chardonnay, Margaret River, Western Australia (£16.99, reduced to £13.99, until 7 May, Marks & Spencer). This is a very rich, full-bodied chardonnay from one of the finest wineries in WA and it is sensational. With exotic notes of peach and orange blossom overlaying a core of honey and brioche, this is one of the most impactful and impressive white wines around.
2011 Château Minuty, ‘M’ Rosé, Provence, France (£12.95, reduced to £10.00 if you buy a case, Roberson tel. 0207 371 2121). With its funky bottle which makes you want to jet off to the French Riviera immediately and its beautiful pale hue and delicate wild strawberry nose, this is a delightful and scrumptious, classy rosé with which to usher in the summer.
2010 The Society’s Beaujolais-Villages, Burgundy, France (£6.75, Wine Society tel. 01438 741177). Grab a case of this Beaujolais and drink it at any temperature from chilled to normal with any of this week’s lamb recipes. It is a superb, light-weight, summer pudding-scented, all-rounder red with charm and a fair degree of sophistication, too.
