Something Old, Something New – Flank Steak & Douro Red #WinePW
Fun challenges of a vacation wine shop and condo kitchen
Wine Pairing Weekend Tries Something New
Our Wine Pairing Weekend January theme is “try a new wine”. My challenge this month was that we were away for a long weekend just before our posts were due. My “something new” tools were the Utah State Liquor Store and our condo kitchen, so my post became a fun roll of the dice. If you’d like to see what my other #WinePW buddies came up with, just drop to the bottom of this post!
Ski condo kitchen – all the basics, but the ultimate Bring Your Own
Condo Kitchen Cooking
We love our Marriott timeshare as our home-away-from-home for skiing and snowboarding. The facilities are always up to date and the staff are friendly and helpful. No real surprise, though, the kitchens have a few shortcomings. The knives, oof. Also, from personal experience, the smoke alarms are extremely sensitive. Pro tip: just don’t open the door into the hallway. If you set off the hallway smoke alarm, they will evacuate the building. Don’t be that person!
No all day cooking, too busy having fun!
Since our main goal for the trip was skiing and snowboarding, we kept the meals super simple, no recipes required: flank steak, bag salad, roasted veggies and good bread. Thoughtfully, our Marriott timeshare offers outdoor grills for use. I avoided the whole smoke alarm risk, whew!
The Utah State Liquor store comes to the wine blog rescue on multiple occasions!
Utah State Liquor Store
Park City has one of the nicer Utah State Stores, with a good selection of wines. I guess with the international clientele, it’s worth their while. However, if you’re looking for something far off the beaten path (Uruguay, Georgia, Moldova, anyone?), you’ll be out of luck. After wandering the store for a little bit, I found a small section of Douro wines. I’ve had lots of Port, but Portugal’s still wines have been a mystery. I settled on one of their nicer Douro Reds. Done!
Lots of Port, but this is my first Douro dry red wine.
Picking the Wine
My choice at the wine shop was based on a couple of clues from the label:
- Douro DOC Reserva wine – made according to the DOC rules and aged an extra year (typically)
- Made with organic grapes – they care enough to farm organically, good sign
- 13.5% alcohol – the Douro is a warm place, perhaps they picked early enough to retain some freshness
Quinta Do Romeu
Once back at the condo, I found the Quinta do Romeu estate is a historic family run winery, still managed entirely by the family. All their vineyards are certified organic, as they believe it preserves “fruit aromas, as well as the biodiversity and our health.” At harvest, the grapes are hand picked into small boxes.
In the winery, they carefully sort and destem the fruit. Fermentation is conducted with indigeous yeasts in open tread granite tanks (lagares), with foot threading followed by gentle daily pumping over. This was so interesting, as it follows the methods for initial fermentation of Port wines. Granite Lagares are rare in the rest of the winemaking world. Different from Port, however, the wines are fermented to dryness and not fortified. The finished wines are aged in Austrian oak barrels and barriques (mainly used ones) for 12 months. The wines are not filtered or cold stabilized.
Ripe but not overdone, a very nice rich red wine!
Quinta do Romeu Douro Reserva DOC 2012 ($20 at Utah State Store)
The wine is made from a blend of traditional Douro grape varieties: Touriga Nacional (75%), Touriga Franca (15%) and Sousão (10%).
Eye: Dlear, deep intensity, ruby with a purple edge
Nose: Clean, pronounced intensity (comes out of the glass to meet you) bright ripe red fruit, strawberries. Immediately on opening, quite oaky with bright dill aromas, settled into a nice herbal quality after some air. I double decanted the wine to allow the oaky notes to dissipate.
Mouth: Dry, medium- acidity, medium tannins a touch youthful and green. Bright fruit flavors, not raisiny but very fruity. Medium length finish, with bright strawberry flavors and fresh tannins.
Quinta do Romeu Reserva with Flank Steak
The Quinta do Romeu Reserva was ripe, very fruity and showed quite a bit of oak. I usually prefer a bit more earth, acidity and a bit less oak. Still, this was a nice wine with a bit of tannic punch. We enjoyed it with the steak, and also down at the hot tub (bring your own plastic wine glass)!
Keep it simple at the condo: flank steak, bag salad, roasted brussels sprouts.
Wine Pairing Weekend New Finds
Take a cue from our Wine Pairing Weekend bloggers on a New Year’s resolution that is not so hard to keep–trying new wine in 2017!
- Wine Predator wrote about New Year, New Wine: New Jersey?
- A Day in the Life on the Farm tried a New Wine for a New Year
- Grape Experiences shared Try Something New: Moroccan Wine with Lamb Tagine
- Culinary Adventures with Camilla posted Young Nation, Ancient Vines in Croatia: Pairing Crni Rižoto + Dingac Vinarija’s Peljesac
- A Palatable Pastime served Duck Ragout with Creamy Polenta
- L’occasion shared about The Wines of Red Mountain
- ENOFYLZ Wine Blog served Slow Cooker Enchilada Quinoa and Mencía
- foodwineclick tried Something Old, Something New – Flank Steak & Douro Red
- Rockin Red Blog is Journeying into a Glass of the Unknown
- Pull That Cork posted Loire Valley Red Meets Onion and Bacon Tart: When Old Becomes New
- The Swirling Dervish paired Lacrima di Morro d’Alba and Broccoli Rabe Lasagna
- Tasting Pour served up Lamb Stew and Wine from Lebanon
- Vino Travels shared Journey to Trentino with Teroldego and Spaghetti Carbonara
- Cooking Chat paired Pork Tenderloin with Onions and Canary Island Wine
You can join the conversation about new wine and food pairings to go with it! Our live #WinePW Twitter Chat will take place this Saturday, January 14, at 10 a.m. Central Time.
Makeshift Condo photo studio
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foodwineclick 
Hi Jeff, great site! If you want to try something from Portugal with more acidity, try a Bairrada (and make sure it’s from the baga grape, as you also get cabernet and merlot from Bairrada). It might be difficult to find though, even here in Europe, but you never know. Cheers!
Great selection! Looks like it was a fun-filled weekend.
What fun, Jeff!! I always enjoy your posts.
I usually find the reds of Portugal to have the characteristics you described in this bottle. I have yet to taste a smooth and silky red from there. It’s not my favorite style, but people who enjoy the big chewy Napa cabs heavy on the tannins and wood will probably like them more. Looks like a fun holiday and a nice meal!
Wow, cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, with bad knives and a limited wine selection. You certainly rose above all challenges and created a beautiful pairing — with great photos as usual. Nice!
I really enjoy Douro wines. Looks like a great wine and pairing. We too are Marriott Vacation Club people. However, we typically turn ours in for points to stay in hotels. Glad you had a great skiing weekend.
When I teach Portugal I always have a Port and then a dry red with Port grapes. I don’t think anyone in my classes has ever had the dry version before. It is fun. I know this post is not about brussel sprouts but they are the first things my eyes went to. I think I’m hungry.
Sounds like your Duoro Red and Flank steak pairing was a winner Jeff! I’ve not had much Duoro either. Just rec’d a sample last week though and your post has got me looking forward to it! Cheers!
I’m still laughing over the pro tip LOL. Great post. Glad you had a great vacation.