Rueda - The Rule Breaker

Whilst we tend to be conditioned that red meat means red wine there are a few exceptions. Certainly DO Rueda is one of these.

Famed for producing some fabulous white wines predominantly from the Verdejo grape, this wonderful region, just north of Madrid also produces some great food wines. Aside from Verdejo having lots of flavour it's also balanced by good acidity and the wines are often lees aged. Lees ageing is when the wine is left in contact with the lees (dead yeast cells) after fermentation. The resulting wine will develop a creamier mouthfeel and also tends to have brioche or biscuity characters. I was tasked with the challenge of firstly, whether DO Rueda does work with red meat and secondly, to see which of these deliciously different wines paired best with an equally delicious milk fed lamb.

The wines in question were

1. Finca Montepedroso 2022

2. Viñedos Centenarios Bodega Cuatro Rayas Longverdejo 2021

3. Marques De Cáceres La Capilla Blanco

The milk fed leg of lamb was from

Basco Fine Foods.

I roasted this with garlic and rosemary along with a mixture of Blue Annelise and Ambo potatoes which added to the colour, some onions and beetroot. All of these vegetables, I’m delighted to add, I’d grown myself in my allotment. Lamb is also great with green vegetables with texture so broccoli and green beans were called for. Sadly, I’d finished all the home-grown beans and the birds managed to attack the broccoli this year so I'd bought these!

Back to the question in hand, and the answer was absolutely, yes, Rueda pairs very well with red meat, especially this lamb. The full fruit character of the wine meant it stood up well to the food and of course the lees ageing gives the wine the body it needed. The best pairing was Finca Montepedroso. This wine had a more distinctive creamy character to the wine which brought out the creamy texture in this milk fed lamb. The winemaking had involved extended skin contact, wild yeast had been used for a long, slow, fermentation, followed by five months on lees and there was no oak used. The extended skin contact clearly gave the wine more texture and the lees ageing contributed to a richer mouthfeel and creaminess.  All in all, it was a perfect match.

La Capillawas interesting since it is 50% Verdejo and 50% Sauvignon Blanc. The increased citrus characters and marked acidity from the Sauvignon Blanc didn’t work so well with the lamb since it was overpowering. However, adding some mint sauce to the lamb worked like magic.  The acidity from the vinegar in the sauce brought the acidity in the wine down and the delicious flavour in the lamb came back.

The Cuatro Rayas was the wine which paired least well with the lamb. It has more fennel and orchard characters together, as expected with high acidity. However, I’d made apple meringue for dessert (the apples of course from the allotment as well) and served this with cream. Naturally the intense orchard flavours and creaminess in the wine paired very well with the brambly apples and I'd not used much sugar so it was perfect. Maybe if I’d roasted some fennel to have with the lamb it would have been a better match with the fennel characters in the wine. It’ll have to be one for next time and in the meantime I might get planting fennel!

So, next time you’re looking to surprise friends with an interesting wine pairing for red meat, or for those who generally prefer white wine, I thoroughly recommend reaching for a rule breaking Rueda.