To get a good wine match with food, first identify the dominant flavour of the dish.  Lamb is the featured meat for this issue of Style of Wight.  Lamb is a full flavoured red meat, tending sometimes to have a high fat content, and a slight sweetness.  The flavour intensifies with cooking, so at medium rare or medium doneness, (slightly pink) it is more delicate than when well done.

For each recipe, I am suggesting both an Italian and a New World choice.

In Aneke’s Lamb Shank Shepard’s Pie, the lamb is well cooked, simmered in stock with extra sweet and fruit flavours added.  This calls for a Big and Powerful fully oaked red, such as Bordeaux style blend, barbera, malbec, or shiraz.

Ca’ del Matt Barbera d’Asti Superoire,  Piemonte Italy 2008 £11.00

Only a small quantity of this stunning wine was produced, using fruit from a 70-year-old vineyard. Aged in barrique for 12 months, the wine has wonderful intensity, depth and length of plummy, chocolatey fruit and shows just how good Barbera can be in Asti.

Redfin Cabernet/Merlot, South Australia 2008 £7.00

Lamb is the Aussie national dish, so a good red from down under will suit this pie well.  A 79% Cabernet/19% Merlot blend which has a tight structure and generous blackcurrant fruit.  Outstanding value.

The Crown Roast on the other hand will be more delicate, allowing the sweetness of good lamb to come through, if not too well done.  These two Smooth and Silky more fruity selections should set it off well.

Poggiotondo Chianti Superiore, Tuscany 2008 £12.00

The Chianti Superiore is a selection of the best grapes from lower yielding vines, of which a portion was aged in barrique. It has wonderful power and flesh yet the eminent drinkability of good Chianti.

Ata Rangi Crimson Pinot Noir, Martinborough, NZ 2009 £16.00

The Kiwis love lamb and this delicious wine suits it well. Small berries give the wine a great depth of dark cherry fruit, with spicy raspberry flavours and grainy tannins. Sales of the wine support the work of ‘Project Crimson’, a charitable conservation trust established to protect and plant the local rata and pohutukawa trees, which are becoming endangered due to possums and changing land use.

All wines available from Chale Green Stores.