What We Drank With What We Ate

One of the best presents I got for Christmas is the book What To Drink With What You Eat, which I consult on a daily basis. I don't mean to sound pretentious about pairing wine and food, because I've had plenty of frozen dinners paired with a cheap glass of wine, but when I spend more for a higher quality bottle of wine (which I resolved to do this year), I like to try and have the best possible experience with that bottle. But yeah, there's no way to say that and not sound pretentious.

Another great gift I got for Christmas was a bottle of rioja that Wine Spectator put at #18 in their list of the top 100 wines of 2007. We don't usually drink rioja (or spend $50 on a bottle of wine) so I figured this was a perfect opportunity to put the book's recommendations to the test and plan a meal to go with the bottle.
While the main course was in the oven, we nibbled on some Manchego cheese. It paired perfectly with the wine, which we loved. We were excited to have something so flavorful that was a little more subtle than the Australian reds we've been drinking so much of lately.
For dinner we had rack of lamb with Creole mustard crust, rosemary jus, herbed potato cake, and green beans. Lamb is apparently the most perfect thing to pair with rioja, with herbs and green vegetables also getting a mention in the rioja section of the book. The meal was wonderful (if I do say so myself!) and paired perfectly with the wine.
For dessert we drank Rosa Regale Brachetto d'Acqui paired with dark chocolate. We figured we should have something on the menu that we knew was a sure bet!

It was a fun night of cooking and drinking, the kind we used to have before sushi took over our Saturday night plans for the past million weekends. Thanks to the generosity of the Millfills, I believe we'll have more nights like this to try out new wines and fun recipes.