Parcel Force dropped my latest Naked Wines order by the door of number 27, my ‘across the hall’ neighbours. One box was successfully lifted into No.29 but the retrieveal of the second was interrupted as a gust of wind slammed the door shut behind me. Bugger. Keys locked inside! Re-entering my apartment without a key is tricky, the outer windows while decorative are impossible to climb through. There is a skylight, two and a bit stories high, but as the escapade to reenter via that route has nothing to do with wine you will be spared the ‘hilarious’ antics. Needless to say it took a while to get in.The delivery contained a mixed selection, although I seemed to have ordered mainly Portuguese reds… which wasn’t intentional. Still, a wine was required for that evenings lamb dish. Nothing too heavy. Nothing overly tannic or, at the other end of the scale, it shouldn’t be too light and airy either, thank you very much.

A bottle of Oscar’s Red seemed ideal. It’s a wine marketed solely through social media channels; so Naked Wines is the ideal UK retailer I guess. Having briefly met said Oscar at last years European Wine Bloggers conference and slurped through his range of ports I was interested…

Oscar heads up Quevedo, a family owned business in the Douro bit of Portugal (est. 1991). Port is the focus, naturally. They have 100 hectares of vines from the traditional array of Port grapes (Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão and Tinta Barroca). This, non-port, Douro red, is a mix of Touriga Nacional (60%), Tinta Roriz (40%). On the Quevedo website the wine is described as “a wine to uncork on a Wednesday evening when you’re looking for something simple and delicious”. And for that it works perfectly.

Certainly slipped down very nicely while cooking.

With this lamb dish however it is not quite right. It’s the lemons you see. The acidity of these is high and doesn’t match the wine. Mind you who likes eating lemon rind, cooked or otherwise? While the subtle taste remained in the delicious sauce most were slid off the pate and remained uneaten.

I’m now left wondering if a white wine – a Sauvignon Blanc perhaps, or something equally high in acidity – would have worked better? A white wine with lamb? Radical…
Oscar’s Red, 2008, Douro, Portugal [Adegga / Snooth] is available from Naked Wines for £9.49. Balanced, red fruit characters, hint of smoke, easy drinking. Alcohol 14%.

The recipe, Lamb with Sages and Lemon, is detailed on SpittoonExtra and comes from Grillhouse: Gastropub at Home by Ross Dobson.