Navarra Wine at Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinner makes those dark winter Sundays a bit more bearable. Add in a delicious Navarra Tempranillo, fun people, and a silly dog, and Sunday becomes positively joyful. It’s a tradition I highly recommend starting.

The menu:

Slow roasted pot roast, seared first with garlic and onions, then popped into the slow cooker with a 1/4 cup of red wine, two shots of espresso, black pepper, sea salt on low for six hours

Red wine gravy, made with liquid from the slow cooker and a nice brown roux

Roasted veggies – parsnips, potatoes, and carrots, slow roasted in olive oil, salt, and pepper

Mashed butternut squash

Crusty baguette

Chocolate cake from South End Buttery

Príncipe de Viana Reserva 2011– One of the wines generously sent to me by Navarra Wine, this 100% Tempranillo was one I was waiting to share with some serious wine-loving friends. I knew a roast would pair really well with it, and Sunday dinner in itself is enough of an occasion to bring out the special wine, if you ask me!

Aged in oak barrels, with a deep garnet red color, this lovely wine had notes of cherry and smoky dark chocolate, full of flavor but balanced enough to not overpower our dinner. The menu went perfectly with it, from the umami flavors in the slow cooked roast to the earthiness and bit of spice in the roasted vegetables. The last few sips went to wash down dark chocolate cake, which only brought out the cherry characteristics of the wine. Really lovely.

In this fast-paced world we live in, there’s something so soothing about taking the day to prepare a meal and to share good wine with fun people. Slowing down on a Sunday is definitely one way of dealing with the Sunday scaries if, like me, they tend to dominate the day!

Thank you to Navarra Wines for sharing some of their delicious wines with me to pair with food and share reviews with all of you.