Lambs grazing on spring grass

“As the lamb had been kept outside and fed on spring grass, the meat had terrific flavour”
​
These words are attributed in the Daily Telegraph magazine today to Andrew Fairlie, a chef who runs the restaurant at the Gleneagles Hotel. 

I’m sure he didn’t really say them; the words will have been put into his mouth by some idiotic PR person, but it was particularly stupid of the sub-editor of the Telegraph to lift them from the text and quote them in large bold type, as if they meant something special. The article was attributed to Christopher Hirst. I wonder if, in his journey up from London to Gleneagles he my have looked out of the window and seen sheep in the fields munching on grass and wondered whether there was something unusual in this. Did he think that most sheep are kept indoors and given a diet of- well what does he imagine a sheep eats if it isn’t grass?

If the lamb at the Gleneagles hotel has a “terrific flavour” it will be down to the bred of the sheep, not the fact that it eats grass out of doors. Looking at the photo accompanying the article, the sheep are a breed known as Blackface, which is the most common breed in Scotland. Nothing special there then. The article says that a room at the Gleneagles can be had for the special price of £470 a night, weekdays only. Included in the price is a view, unique to Gleneagles, of sheep grazing outdoors on spring grass.