French Lamb Cutlets with mushrooms-truffle sauce and Risotto with mushrooms and asparagus
Pairing food and wine is a creative endeavour. There’s no right or wrong answer as long as you try to make a connection between the food and the wine you enjoy! So, you can literally create a dining experience with your favourite dishes and spend many delicious hours finding the right wines for every course and make your dining experiences more vibrant.
If you can’t go to Paris…why not bring Paris to you? From a French-inspired dinner party. This month my wine pairing suggestions are for French Lamb Cutlets with mushrooms-truffle sauce and Risotto with mushrooms and asparagus a tasty dish, a mind exercise to hone your wine pairing skills. What wines would you choose?
Wine pairing alternative 1:
Lamb is a unique protein with an intense flavour. Known for being gamier than beef, lamb often calls for equally wild red wines with spicier and herbal scents.
Just like Cabernet Sauvignon is the perfect partner for beef steak, several wine grapes are more compatible with lamb, particularly Rhône-style wines^1 like Syrah and GSM (Grenache, Syrah^2 and Mourvèdre) blends. [Mourvèdre is also known as Mataro or Monastrell]
Wine pairing alternative 2:
On the other hand, the mushroom and truffle sauce is more compatible with Pinot Noir, especially from the Old World, since scents of mushrooms and truffles are common in these wines.
To pair this dish successfully, one would have to assess if the lamb flavour dominates the sauce or if the sauce dominates the lamb. Then you can go with Syrah or Pinot Noir. Below you’ll find some alternatives.
Risotto is a luscious and silky Italian dish, and although it’s creamy and texturally rich, it gets its flavour from the ingredients added to it, in this case, mushrooms and asparagus.
Pairing risotto with mushrooms calls for a red wine with low tannins and elevated acidity to cut through the creaminess — Pinot Noir is an obvious choice. However, some Italian red wines are compatible, too, especially young Valpolicella or Dolcetto.
Note: Although some wines could be a better match for the risotto, let’s not forget that the Italian rice dish is a complement and not the main component on this dish. Therefore, our efforts should be focused on pairing the lamb successfully.
As you can see, this fantastic meal can easily be paired with a lovely selection of wines and although there are many other ways to approach this fantastic meal, what matters most is the wine you have available, your budget and your guest’s preferences. Add these factors into the equation and you’ve got a recipe for success.
^1. The Rhône Valley is one of the classic French wine regions with a common distinction between the Northern and the Southern Rhône.
Northern Rhône red wines made with Syrah can be elegant or rustic and even meaty with floral overtones.
Southern Rhône red blend wines are based mainly on Grenache. Wines can be of elevated alcohol levels, ripe fruit, earthy-herbal like bay, lavender, rosemary and juniper.
^2 confused about Shiraz and Syrah? Click here – 1 min read to find out what’s the difference.
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