Which Wine with Tuscan Style Lamb? Brunello Di Montalcino

There's a family joke that I didn't drink until I got married. In fact, I hated most red wines that I had tried until then. Then we went to Italy on our honeymoon. I learned what "enoteca" meant, and spent a lot of time in and around them. The great attraction of Italian cuisine is the simple, well prepared ingredients and the matchup with the fabulous local wines. One high point of the trip was visiting the cellar of the castle in Montalcino, home of the famous Brunello wine. That single tasting put me on the road to red wine appreciation.

Some years later I tasted Icelandic lamb for the first time. Lamb and roasted potatoes had been a favorite holiday dish in our family for years, but Icelandic lamb was a revelation. I've only found it in the fall, and the legs are far smaller than typical New Zealand lamb, but incredibly tender and flavorful, without the gamy tang sometimes found in lower quality lamb.

So I offer you a great wine and food pairing: Tuscan style Icelandic lamb and Brunello wine! There are a number of Libras around this house so we often have a birthday feast sometime in October, enjoying the momentary availability of Icelandic lamb and featuring this pairing.

For a first course, a pear, cheese, and walnut salad, inspired by a salad I once enjoyed in Chiusi, is a great opener, paired with a prosecco to prepare the palate for the red wine to follow. Prosecco is a lightly sparkling white wine, refreshing and crisp, and an excellent match for lighter foods.

For the main course, roasted leg of lamb, preferably Icelandic or local, rubbed with a mixture of crushed garlic, lemon juice, rosemary, and black pepper, then simply roasted until medium rare provides the centerpiece. The other foods are designed to complement the lamb: russet-type potatoes quartered, briefly boiled, then slow roasted in olive oil and lamb drippings until crispy, and haricots verts with just a touch of butter, or creamed spinach if you're feeling decadent. For truly flavorful lamb gravy, the water from the boiled potatoes can be reserved to mix with the remainder of the lamb drippings after they've been thickened with flour. This is a homestyle Italian meal, sometimes referred to as "peasant food" but so delicious.

For the wine, a full bodied Brunello would be our pairing for the lamb. Brunello, a rich dry red, comes from Montalcino, in Tuscany, Italy, and labeling is strictly controlled. We're currently drinking 2001 Fattoria Scopone, which we were able to find for $45 a bottle. A rich orange-garnet color, it has a spicy blackberry nose and sour cherry-vanilla flavor, tannic at first but opening up to a smooth and lasting richness. For those on a budget, the generally lighter Rosso di Montalcino is also made with a portion of the Sangiovese harvest in the region, and can often be found for less than $20 a bottle.

When pairing food and wine, a general goal is to match flavor intensity. With a well-matched food and wine, the tannins in the wine will prepare your taste buds for a bite of food, and the flavors in the food will enhance the flavors of the wine. That's why Brunello and lamb make such an ideal match. The garlicky lamb is much more flavorful after a sip of Brunello, and the lamb brings out the subtle flavors in the wine.

For dessert, chocolate birthday cake with fresh raspberries is the usual follower around here. If you're not celebrating a birthday, why not some vin santo, the amber-hued Italian dessert wine, with almond and pine nut biscotti for dipping?

See you in the kitchen!

Brunello di Montalcino, Wikipedia.org

2001 Fattoria Scopone, Wine Library.org