Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Savory, Savory, And Savory, With A Side Of Savory

Maybe needed a splash of balsamic, because this meal was SAVORY.

Food: Flap meat, patatas bravas and cumin carrots, with parsley and rosemary

Rosemary flap meat, seared medium-rare. It's very near the top of our favorite beef, because it's oozing with beefy flavor while still being gnarly like hanger and fresh like skirt. Grilled potatoes with patatas bravas sauce. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, paprika, chili flakes, white wine...tastes like a piquillo pepper purée without the piquillos. And tastes like everything Spain is. Oven-roasted white and orange carrots with cumin. Parsley dumped over everything. Steak and potatoes without the boringness of steak and potatoes. Less sweetness came from the carrots than Mrs. Ney thought, so this meal was quite savory. It's our kind of food, but a drizzle of balsamic might have been nice.

Wine: 2009 Verdad Tempranillo Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard Edna Valley ($20 - Binny's) 84% tempranillo, 8% grenache, 8% syrah. A cool-climate tempranillo that tasted like it. Sour, darker cherry, very nice leather, toast and wee hint of cardamom. Medium-to-full body, medium finish. Just enough acid to keep all the soldiers marching to a proper beat. A finished product, well-made, and likes food but doesn't NEED it. It's rare we want red wine by itself. This one has that drink-alone friendliness to it. Enjoyed this one. Liked its strut. And drinking well right now.

Pairing: A very pleasant one, tasting like a well-written pop-thriller novel that breezes along a quick and efficient clip. A roundness emerged in the wine with the (mostly) Spanishy grapes dancing with the Spanishy food, as they do, and as the pairing thought-process intended. It's nice when that works to such a degree. A bit of astringency came from the rosemary, but didn't muck things up.

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