opinion
APRIL 2020 bbcgoodfood.com 129Easter lamb goes
with so many wines
Victoria Moore
@how_to_drink @planetvictoriaEasy drinking wines for sharing over Sunday lunch
E
ating together is supposed to be an act of shared
closeness, but in a family situation it can also be about
as relaxing as careering down a rickety helter-skelter
with no mat and a flappy scarf. My own gatherings
are currently dominated by two- and three-year-
olds, which means adult conversation happens
in 12-second bursts, and is interspersed by
management of food fights, food refusals and
requests for attention; some of them delivered via
the prongs of a fork. As chief glass-filler, I have
learnt that, at Easter and Christmas (and any other
occasion when we all get together), wine choices
need to be pragmatic. This is not the time for a
bottle that needs a single word of explanation let
alone a moment’s thought. What people want to
drink are box-office favourites: pale rosé, sauvignon
blanc and easy reds like rioja. Does it even need to
go with the food? Well of course it never needs
to go with the food but it is more satisfying if there’s
a general mood and taste fit. After all, my favourite
sips are those taken in the lull before everyone sits
down when you can smell the food in the oven and
then see it going onto the plates. Lamb is often
eaten at Easter – a meat that has the grace to go very
well with so many wines that it’s easy to kill two birds
with one bottle here.
If it’s warm or sunny enough to be thinking along
Mediterranean lines, then go rosé. W ho doesn’t love the
first glass of rosé of the season? La Vieille Ferme Rosé 2018
France (£7.75-8.79, Co-op, Waitrose) is always a winner,
as is Muga Rioja Rosado 2018 Spain (£9.99, Waitrose),My favourite
sips are
those taken
in the lull
before
everyone
sits downDomaine Mandeville
Viognier Pays d’Oc 2019
(£7.50, M&S)A smooth
white with notes of blossom
and white peach. Perfect
with the salmon on p78.Côtes du Rhône Villages
blue label 2018 France
(£7.99, Waitrose)A classic
southern Rhone red that
tastes of red berries, to pair
with the leg of lamb on p22.This month I’m drinking...
Saicho Sparkling Cold Brewed
Tea Jasmine (£8.99,
saichodrinks.com)
Wine pairings
Victoria Moore is an award-winning wine columnist and author.
Her most recent book is theThe Wine Dine Dictionary (£20, Granta).next
monthThe unsung white wine
heroes you’ll lovewhich tastes like strawberries and cream. Rosé goes with
practically anything, and where lamb is concerned it loves
accents of rosemary, garlic and anchovies; also springlike
incarnations such as pink rack of lamb served with fresh
peas cooked with lettuce, or a raw courgette and lemon
salad, though, as I said, more or less anything will work.
I’m having a love-in with the reassuring qualities of red
Rioja at the moment. Baron de Ley Reserva Rioja 2015 Spain
(£11, Co-op) is a seriously good wine for the money.
It’s assertive, but with mellow edges – all spicy oak and
soft cooked strawberries. Rioja is also beautiful with
lamb. Again, with just about any kind of lamb but if
you have slow-cooked lamb falling offthe bone and
a couscous salad with raisins and pine nuts, then
an aged Rioja is almost essential.
Finally, Sainsbury’s has a fiendishly good own-label
red from Down Under – Taste the Difference Western
Australian Shiraz 2018 Australia (£8.50 but down to
£6.75 from 15 April until 5 May). It is made by David
Hohnen, the quietly determined winemaker who was the
man behind Cloudy Bay and it’s very much a cut above the
wines you normally find in a supermarket at this price.
Shiraz also loves lamb – the more rosemary and garlic you
throw at it the better. And if you’re putting something on
an early barbecue, then this will be great, too.Refreshing, sparkling tea
is one of the best of the
new zero-alcohol drinks
around. Made from
87 per cent cold-brewed
jasmine tea and grape juice
concentrate, which brings
a gentle nectarineflavour
to the tannic tea.