Marqués de Cáceres with T-bone steack

Excerpt from the book “Pairings of spanish wines with exotic cuisines”.

Click to see the preparation of these dishes, in American recipes.

Pueden ver la versión en español pinchando en Marqués de Cáceres.

 

This winery has been one of the pioneers in exporting Spanish wines, so they have tested the tastes of their American customers and always mark that Bordeaux profile in all their wines, mainly in vintage ones -“reserva” and “gran reserva”- which are elaborated with long-term view (we had a tasting session of old wines with spectacular results).

This is a classic Rioja-style wine, with very marked wood, elegant and polished to silkiness. In recent vintages, an effort has been made to keep the primary aromas, achieving a new freshness that could not be found a few decades ago.

Since vintage wine is very popular in the American market (and some others that follow its trend), we must remark that this wine has an outstanding ageing in the bottle for more than ten years without any risk.

T-bone steak 

This is the American cut par excellence; in fact there are thousands of grill restaurants, even large chains, which offer it as a specialty, the famous BBQ.

The peculiar thing about this cut is that it is taken from the higher part of the loin, but the sirloin is not taken off, so the bone that can be seen draws that characteristic T-shape, hence its name.

The breeds of cattle that are farmed for meat in USA are specific and very tasty, so these steaks are rather enjoyable. Nevertheless, the cut itself , expensive as it is, does nothing for the dish: the two sides of the loin have different textures and, to make matters worse, the steaks are not thick cuts, they are supposed to be as thick as the size of a quarter -a bit over 2 cm.-, so it is difficult to get them rare.

Pairing 

This is a classic pairing for a classic wine and a classic dish, of course, but to tell the truth this meat, besides its characteristic sapid features, gets a slight smoky scent from the charcoal grill it is cooked on, which overrides the marked features from the ageing and enhances the fruity ones, so the combination is surprising in the best sense of the word.

This wine will be easily found in many of those restaurants we have talked about, competing with the aggressive Californian and the mythical French wines, but besides its unbeatable price, its profile is much more suitable for these steaks. If you choose a wine made with grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, it will spoil the delicate tastes of the meat, leaving it tasteless.