Drinks with Dominique: Up and Down the Bunny Trail
Main-course meat favorites are traditionally ham and lamb. All of these flavors make for some amazing wine pairings. At the front of the store there's a display of selections specific to ham and lamb, and there are also wines (and spirits and canned cocktails) that will go with anything.
For red wine drinkers - or if you want to enjoy a red in addition to a white (and why not?!) - there's Flowers Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast. Mat Kramer of Wine Enthusiast declared of this wine, "If there's an American Pinot more profound, I haven't tasted it."
If lamb is your main course, red wines are your best option. Lamb's slight gaminess calls for an earthy but not overpowering wine, so our line-up includes selections from countries that are known for their love of lamb - France, Spain, Chile and Greece.
The Guillon Bordeaux and the Gigondas from the southern Rhone Valley are both highly rated and deservedly so.
Special wines for a special meal.
Lamb is synonymous with Greek cuisine, and the Saint George made from agiorgitiko grapes has bright fruit notes, balanced tannins, and a long finish. Delicious. There's a Crianza Rioja from Marques de Caceres that's a "can't-go-wrong" red; an earthy but not overwhelming Cab from the Vina Santa Rita in Chile, where they've been making wines for over 135 years; and a sleeper, the Piedrasassi Syrah from Santa Barbara, a wine more in keeping with California's rich fruit offerings, inky and chewy.
Of course we're happy to make other suggestions for your Easter plans, whenever they take you.
Happy Easter from all of us at Exit 9!