Last week was Father’s Day, and all my dad wanted was steak.
“Dad, I can do something on the smoker if you wa—…”
Nope. Steak.
Ask a silly question.
I haven’t really done it up really cooking for other people in a long time, so I may have gone a teensy bit overboard. Splurged on bone-in ribeyes, one for each of us, and the butcher’s cut me four fresh ones almost an inch thick. I kept them in the fridge overnight unwrapped and salted to dry them out a bit. They went for a swim in the sous vide at 131ºF for almost three hours, while I set things on fire, grilled asparagus, and sautéed mushrooms in butter in the cast iron skillet. Steaks got some sear on each side too.
Not to break my arm patting myself on the back, but dammmmmmn they were amazing. There are no pictures because, we eated it.
My dad enjoyed his …sigh…white zinfandel with his dinner. (I know. I know.) But I just could not have that with steak. So I dashed down to the cellar to bring up something special, and I found 2016 Alexana Gran Coeur Lonesome Spring Ranch.
I had a great tasting at Alexana in Oregon in 2017, where I got an enthusiastic demonstration of the myriad types of soil on the property, and a side by side tasting of pinot noirs from different vineyards. (And they really do taste different!) This wine though is made from grapes sourced from the Lonesome Spring Ranch vineyard in Benton City, Washington, outside of Yakima. It’s a blend primarily of cab sauv and merlot, with some petit verdot that gives it depth of color and structure.
The color is deep garnet and purple. There’s a woodsy note along with blackberry on the nose. Plenty more blackberry on the palate and that woodsiness continues. The tannins are not overwhelming at all. This is one of the best steak wines I’ve ever had!
I bought this on sale from Winetext.com a couple years ago, when I absolutely couldn’t resist because of the name and my happy memory of that visit. I couldn’t find this particular vintage online anywhere else, but I’m pretty sure any other would be great too.
Let me know what great pairings you’ve made lately!
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