Abadía de San Quirce with Bluefin tuna sushi
Abadía de San Quirce
Winery Bodegas Imperiales
www.bodegasimperiales.com/
D.O.: Ribera de Duero
Grapes: 100% Tinta fina
Ageing: 4 months in the vat, 14 months in French and American oak barrels.
Price: 15€
Pueden ver la versión en español pinchando en Abadía de San Quirce
Excerpt from the book “Pairings of spanish wines with exotic cuisines”.
Click to see the preparation of these dishes, in Asian recipes.
This Denomination of Origin covers a range of 120 km., therefore we can expect significant differences among its hawthorns.
The grapes from Gumiel de Izán, north of Aranda de Duero and 800 m. above sea level, will not be alike those from Quintanilla de Onésimo, next to Valladolid. Anyway, they are small, robust grapes which have suffered harsh winter conditions, so the wines obtained from them are dense, powerful, almost creamy. Ripe fruit mixes with ageing aromas, resulting in that profile of spices, cocoa and balsamic hints.
It is a long wine that hits the tongue winning over our senses but it remains for a while changing sensations, therefore it is not advisable to pair it with dense dishes because the wine deserves tasting.
Red tuna sushi
It is needless to explain what sushi is at this stage, but it is advisable to remark that it is not a raw fish dish; it is a rice dish, although there is usually raw fish in it -especially when it is a nigirizuhi, like this one- and not other ingredients such as Japanese omelette, meat, grilled vegetables, seafood, roe…
Several fish can be placed on top of sushi dishes, but the most appreciated one is red tuna, the tastiest one together with salmon, delicious when paired with a red wine with great aromatic power like this Ribera de Duero.
If there is no red tuna available, “bonito” (white tuna from the Cantabrian Sea) can be used in summer, as long as it is guaranteed to be freshly fished.
Pairing.jpg "Sishi de atún")
The irruption of Japanese cuisine in Western countries has raised controversy on what wines should be paired with sushi. Nearly all French sommeliers restrict themselves to white wines, including champagne. This is sometimes right, as it happens with Le Figaro, which advises a 1996 “S de Salon”, but at a price of 1000€ a bottle it is a bit excessive.
I have long ago found that seafood goes better with “crianza” red wines than with white ones, so I decided to try it with this sushi (just this one, it may not work with a bass sushi), and the result was surprising, not spectacular but friendly, we could say that it fits like a glove. Without stridencies, the wine respected the dish highlighting the iodized hints of the fish, while it was reinforced in that generous, dense, aromatic profile we have commented upon.