Wine pairing with lamb, chorizo and garlic

If you like strongly aromatic lamb dishes, and flavoursome, oaky wines (red or white), then read on.

The BBC recipe Rioja-braised lamb shanks with chorizo and garlic, by Lorraine Pascale, is my recipe for today’s thoughts on wine pairing with lamb.

Is it about wine pairing with lamb specifically? No, it is about, as we learn at WSET Level 1, the overall taste of the dish, and in this recipe some of the ingredients give us very strong, specific flavours such as balsamic vinegar, garlic, paprika, fresh rosemary, chorizo, and of course Rioja!

So here the wine pairing with lamb question is, what ‘style of wine’ will work with this dish? It is initially cooked for two hours, so lovely, complex, deeply infused flavours, but importantly the chorizo and fresh rosemary are added to the dish later with another one hour of cooking, so these flavours will be more dominant. So the wine really needs to have complex, strong flavours. We can get this from Rioja of course, but I would recommend a Reserva or Gran Reserva to ensure big flavours for the perfect wine pairing with lamb experience.

So wine pairing with lamb on this occasion, if you want to splash out, search out a 1991 vintage which was a great year for Rioja, or more accessible are the 2004 wines, another very good year.

Here are my selections for wine pairing with lamb: Lopez de Heredia, Vina Bosconia Gran Reserva 1991
Vina Real, Reserva C.V.N.E., 2004 and wine pairing with lamb for white wine drinkers Marques de Murrieta, Capellania Blanco, Reserva 2005 (a white rioja).

Salud!