Slow Cooked Beef Stew

The cold weather and the 2010 Duseigneur Antares Lirac had me craving some sort of hearty meat dish so I took out a piece of round steak from the freezer, one of the few cuts we have left from that 1/4 of a cow we bought last year.  Avoiding the dreaded Whole Foods run on a Sunday, I was able to scrounge up enough ingredients to make a beef stew in the crock pot.

Last month's Food & Wine had a photo of a slow cooked beef dish on its cover that has been calling to me every I look at it.  And while I made my own version, wanting something hearty and tasty with very little work involved, Jacques Pepin's Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce was definitely my inspiration!  

Ingredients
2 lbs round steak cut into 1"-2"chunks
2 t. kosher salt

ready to put the lid on and wait...

1/2 t. fresh ground pepper
1/2 C. chopped onion
10 cipollino onions
10 small carrots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 t. dried thyme
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 t. Worchestire Sauce
2 C. red wine
2 C. organic beef broth
1/4 t. pepperoncino
1/3 C. flour mixed with warm water
chopped parsley for garnish

directions

-Add all of the ingredients except for the parsley into the slow cooker and turn on high for 4-1/2 hours. 

-At 4 hours, open the Duseigneur to let it breath and pour yourself a glass while you make some brown rice. Turn the temperature on the slow cooker down to low for another 1/2 hour.

-Open the pot and ladle out most of the liquid into a pot on the stove.  Heat to a low boil and add the flour/water mixture to make the gravy.  Once it comes to a boil again, turn down to a simmer to thicken for about 5 minutes.  Add back into the slow cooker and mix into the meat and veggies.

-Ladle some of the delicious stew over a bit of brown rice.  Butter yourself a nice toasty thick piece of whole grain bread, pour yourself another glass of wine and relax over a nice Sunday evening meal!

Wine of the Moment, the 2010 Duseigneur Antares Lirac

The Duseingeur Lirac is is one of those special finds has a lot going for it in that under $25 price range. We've been carrying the 2009 but just received our first case of the 2010, which gave me the perfect excuse to pop a cork tonight with beef stew I've been slow cooking all day...

First of all let's talk about Lirac.  Most people know the Rhone Valley, even some of the important villages like Gigondas, Vacqueyras, and the appellation of Chateauneuf-du-Pape of course.  But Lirac is the oldest wine producing area of the Rhone and turns out stellar reds, rose' and some whites.  It is actually located directly across the river of its famous counterpart, Chateauneuf-du-Pape and shares a similar terroir.  Those huge galets roulés, the rust and cream colored, smooth, rounded stones ranging in size from a large tomato to a football, are spread throughout the vineyards. The stones retain heat during the day and release it at night which helps ripen the grapes. The stones can also serve as a protective layer to help retain moisture in the soil during the dry summer months.

Typical Southern Rhone red varieties of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault dominate the blends with the style of Lirac often resembling a soft Côtes du Rhône-Villages.  The more ambitious wines are often compared to Châteauneuf-du-Pape but at half the price. Rosé Lirac is usually similar to those full bodied wines from neighboring Tavel.

Domaine Duseigneur is a small family wine producer in Lirac run by the brothers Frederic and Bernard and a famous French sommelier, Philippe Faure-Brac.  The brothers see themselves more as farmers than a winemakers, believing that the most important thing is what happens in the vineyard. Since 1997 the estate has been meeting the requirements of organic farming. Wanting to take this concept even further the Duseigneur brothers fully embraced biodynamic farming in 2004.

The Antarès is an old vine blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre vinified separately after 3 to 4 weeks of maceration in concrete tanks. The nose has a touch of barnyard with dark fruit and a little spice.  The lack of oak allows for pure expression of the fruit on the palate and one of those wines that keeps revealing something new in every sip.  

2010 Domaine Duseigneur Lirac Antares, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 90 pts.
The 2010 Lirac Antares is composed of 60% Grenache and 40% Mourvedre aged in cement tanks and is bottled unfiltered. It is a richer effort displaying more roasted meat notes as well as bluer, darker fruits. This full-bodied, pure impressively endowed Lirac was made from low yields of 30 hectoliters per hectare.  This outstanding Lirac estate is an emerging star in the southern Rhone. From their biodynamic and/or organic vineyards, they produce three separate cuvees of Lirac.