Enjoy a delicious wine with leg of lamb

Wine with leg of lamb

Leg of lamb is the classic dish for Easter celebrations: it reflects conviviality, but you can add your own personal touch to make it all refined.

However, don't wait for this event to cook and delight your family and your guests with good pieces of leg of lamb. This meat has the distinction of being tender and tasty. You can prepare it in the oven or on the barbecue. To complete your feast, don't forget to bring a bottle of wine to the table. We will have to find the wine that goes perfectly with this meat and that is what we are going to reveal.

wine and leg of lamb

A wine to accompany a roast leg of lamb

For pink meat, choose a red wine with a strong character, more full-bodied or smoother . This meat is very soft and has a more accentuated juicy side and these go perfectly with the firm tannins of full-bodied red wines.

If you choose a red wine from the South-West or a Bordeaux red wine , you will feel in the mouth with the softness of the lamb the fruity tastes and the acid touch of the wine. Even if the meat is not cooked to perfection, you will not feel the unpleasantness that the fat in the meat can bring.

To accompany this lamb, you can open certain wines such as a Haut Médoc, a Pauillac, a Madiran or a young vintage . A flavored and fragrant lamb will go very well with a more powerful wine from the Mediterranean or from the south of the Rhône Valley.

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wine and leg of lamb

Pair the wine with a slow-cooked lamb

The standard cooking time for lamb is 7 hours, but you can go beyond this classic time. For a seven-hour lamb, you will have meat with a candied texture and slightly gamey flavors. To accompany this leg of lamb, it will be necessary to favor younger wines with more supple tannins and giving off a touch of candied fruit . To keep this texture and for successful lamb wine pairings, you can put a bottle of red wine from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Haut Médoc, Pauillac or a bottle of Syrah from the northern Rhône Valley on the table.

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Get out of the classic pairings for a succulent meal

For an explosion of flavor in the mouth, you can take great classics to accompany your leg of lamb. Open a red Bordeaux wine that offers a perfect marriage between the fruity notes of the wine and the slightly caramelized taste of the lamb.

If you table potatoes for your leg of lamb, bring out a bottle of Gigondas which is slightly spicy. For a roast leg of lamb, choose a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. If among your guests you have a great connoisseur of wines, embark on more original pairings for your roast leg of lamb.

You can accompany your leg of lamb with spicy wines from Languedoc such as Crozes-Hermitage which has the particularity of being a little fatty and which brings a touch of aromas of dried fruits.

A bottle of white wine from the Rhône Valley goes nicely with lamb meat. You will have in the mouth a taste which oscillates between the violet and the apricot of the wine and a slightly fatty taste of the lamb.

A few tips for successfully cooking leg of lamb

Even if you've already ordered a prepared lamb from your butcher, don't tell yourself that what's left to do is easy. You will have to be careful with the cooking method to bring out a delicious dish for your family and your guests. For this large piece to be cooked evenly, remember to take it out of the refrigerator at least an hour before it goes into the oven . What is good with meat is that it must be at room temperature.

It is not very advisable to salt the leg of lamb before cooking, because the salt dries out in the oven. It is best to salt it at the end of cooking or during service. For a nicely colored lamb, you can brown it in a casserole over high heat in oil before putting it in the oven. While cooking, avoid poking it with a fork or knife. Sure, you need to turn it over, but don't prick it so the juice doesn't leak out.

For cooking in the oven, you can place it in a casserole dish with a lid with an aromatic garnish. Let it cook slowly at 120°C for 7 hours before taking it out . During cooking, don't forget to baste it regularly with broth and turn the piece over without poking it. If you still have time, let your leg of lamb rest 15 to 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven. To do this, cover it with aluminum foil and a tea towel for storage at a low temperature.

That's it, your leg of lamb is ready, all you have to do is savor it with the bottle of wine you've chosen.

As you have chosen a good wine, you will have to bring more refinement to the table. You can serve oven-roasted vegetables , mashed potatoes or ratatouille with your leg of lamb .

Delight your guests with zucchini pancakes, potato pancakes , garlic and thyme pumpkin puree , cauliflower gratin or celery puree . You can get started in the preparation of stuffed eggplant , carrot clafoutis , vegetable lasagna, vegetable risotto or eggplant with sesame and tomato to accompany this tasty leg of lamb.