Slow roasted lamb on the grill with fresh garden rosemary and garlic. Two wines that I thought would do it well:
2001 Bodegas JC Conde Neo, Ribera del Duero
There’s a heavy smack of oak that simmered down with aeration and came off quite Bordeaux-like, accented by cedar and tobacco with a glimpse of pencil lead. There’s an intense beam of primary fruit that bursts through the wood with red currants, plums and a hint of blackberry. Tasty acidity and very good length. Controlled ripeness and no heat. Accessible tannins. Pending a bit more wood integration, this should be even nicer in another 5 years. Excellent food pairing with the lamb.
2003 Domaine la Barroche Chateauneuf-du-Pape
I’m slowly culling out a lot of Southern Rhone wines. To some extent it’s an unfair “profiling”, but this is a poster-child for what doesn’t excite me about CndP. Ripe, roasted and rough edged. There’s a fair shot of heat. The leathery raisined fruit could’ve been dried in a meat smoker. Chewy with raspy tannins. OK acid. I remember liking this very young. It’s changed, or my tastes have changed, or both. Unflawed, yet after an hour, I still couldn’t finish the glass.
RT