So today, we want to point out a few things that we have been wanting to talk about but just haven’t found time to put fingers to keys yet!

Vinus TV Records the first EWBC for Posterity

For all of you who can’t make it to Rioja for the Conference, and for all you readers out there who are just curious as to what a bunch of wine bloggers might do if put in one room together, well don’t worry, VinusTV is here to help. During the entire conference, they will be recording and interviewing participants for you to see live. They have promised to try to even have the 3 roundtables on the web by the end of the day on the 30th. So though you won’t be there, you can participate. We’ll also have many people twittering away and I want to put up a live chat room on the website. If you have a favorite embeddable chat client, let us know, and we’ll get it up. We’ve even heard rumors that we might have some people live blogging the whole event. I hope all the participants from the American Wine Bloggers Conference can join in and make this a truly global event.

Harvest 2008 is underway - If your a wine maker tell us about it!

In true Web 2.0 style, we have set up a flickr Wine Harvest 2008 group for wine makers and wine enthusiasts to share their Vintage 2008 photos. There’s even a twitter account, which you can follow it learn about the latest updates. So post your flickr photos to the group, and we’ll twitter the news to the world. We also have a discussion room set up so that you can all tell us how it’s going. Make sure to include links back to you sites/blogs!

Book Recommendation - The Big Oyster

Normally, I wait till I’m done reading to pass judgement on a book, The Big Oyster is n

ot one I need to finish to start recommending. I’m about a 1/3 of the way in, and I’m hooked. Granted, I love oysters, raw, stewed, or otherwise I love these little moist ocean flavored bundles of joy, and I love history. Mark Kurlansky happens to also be one of my favorite authors, a person who has taken on such mono-thematic subjects as Salt, Cod, The Basques, and 1968. I wasn’t around for 1968, nor was I ever really into the history of that time, so that is the only one that didn’t grab me right away, but all of the others are right up my alley. Any of them is at the top of my cocktail party book recommendation conversation arsenal. Now as to the wine I most prefer with oysters? Well, other than a nice Chablis, I would have to say anything from the Vinho Verde region in Portugal, though lately I think a nice brut reserva Cava might also do the trick. The austere nature of the Cava’s bright acidity would definately be nice to see paired against that minerally ocean ladden mollusks ethereal nature.

A Wine Recommendation -Finca Luzón Luzón Petit Verdot

Ever since I sold their Altos de Luzon wine in the USA, I’ve been a fan of this winery from Jumilla. Big bold Monastrell is what they are known for that is why I love them. But the other day when we recieved some samples, I was excited to see a Petit Verdot thrown in for us to try. Petit Verdot as of late is becoming the “vogue” grape to grow in Spain, this outsider from Bordeaux seems to

be slipping into fun blends all over Spain, though more often than not it’s being slapped into it’s own bottle, given a fancy label and overpriced. I have to say, it is a finicky grape and one that needs some extra TLC to coax greatness from, but when you get a good one, you can’t help but fall in love. This sucker which appears to be only available in Spain and the UK, is worth seeking out. Not a bank breaker, you can find it around 10-15euros, and what you get for

that price is nice body, and fine thick tannins. Think violets and black pepper, then let it sit for an hour and notice how the wine is has morphed into something else. The heart of this is dark fruits, and they begin to show as this wine develops. If you can find it, buy it. If you can’t find it, write the winery and tell them they should find an importer in your country. Seriously, tell them we told you to! Oh and while your at it tell them they may want to assess the website . (sorry for linking to it, as it’s really VERY annoying and should be avoided)

So that’s it for today. Just a few things to share. Hopefully we’ll have some other wines to review on Friday, as we weed through our samples pile, thinning it out before the conference takes off.

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz

Tidbits:

• This Thursday the 21st of August, we’ll be partially participating in the second Bin End Wines Twitter tasting. This time with the wines of Hugel. Hugel by the way has a great blog that you SHOULD read. Learn more about the Twitter tasting here.
• I have to say this is one of my favorite pic’s in a long time. Just needed to share with all of you. Seriously, I rarely love a pic as much as this. Here it is on a black background.

• TN - Casa de la Ermita Crianza and Petite Verdot
• Why Should Readers Care about the European Wine Blogger Conference?
• Hey Wine Bloggers, Wanna Publish Something in Print?
• What do Blog Readers want to Learn?
• Eric Solomon, Catavino, Twitter and You

Jason Kallsen, the man behind the World Class Wines Blog, invited me to talk about blogging and Iberian wine on the second night I was in town! Thankfully, it was a great success. Held at the cafe across the street (space purposes) from SoloVino in St.Paul, we talked about wine, blogging and the intersection of the two. Take away thoughts? Well, I was shocked by how few of the “wine geeks” in attendance actually read blogs. While about half had read a blog, very few actually frequented them. If anyone who attended has anything to say about this, please chime in!

I tasted wines twice with old buddies/wine geeks. First night, I tried two Pinot Noirs, one of which was a Bergstrom 2002 PN that was beautiful, seductive, and well worth it. The other, as a result of my desire to carry over wines that were unique and different, was a Kosta Brown RRV 2005 that was undrinkable, or at the least, not a wine that I would ever purposefully go out and buy. Hot, thick, clunky, this was a wine that was better distilled than consumed. Oh, and at 14.7% alcohol?! Give me a break. Dinner was fabulous however, with lamb ribs roasted for 6 hours like pork ribs and served with mint, black current sauce and one other fun one that I can’t remember! We finished with was a Seebrich 2001 Niersteiner Hipping Auslese that had a nose of petrol, amazing acidity and had more sex appeal than I could have hoped for. Incredible! This came from my cellar back in MN and is a wine that I’m happy to say, I have one more of.

The following night, I stopped by another friend’s house where we had a stunning Chinon, a couple of Bordeaux’s and a 1997 Ferrari Carano Tesor. I thought this wine would have been hitting its peak and moving on, and I was happy to find that out I was wrong. Full, fresh, with amazing structure and acidity, this treat still has a few years ahead of it. Great wine! As to the others, I know my friend can tell us in the comments what Bordeaux’s we tried, though I can tell you that they paired very well with the lamb chops we savored straight from the grill!

Ok so on to the last big tasting night. This one was the most carefree with more wine consumed than I can probably remember. The goal: grill steaks, make a salad, eat some cheeses, and taste a ton of wine. Mission accomplished in the following order:

• Next we tried some random wines including this gem: Concha y Toro Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 - Intense dark, inky flavor, insanely dark. At first a big hit of green pepper that starts to blow off, though tons of cassis, and black pepper. Tight in the mouth with an intensity that is very rich. Tannins are starting to fade though the acidity is very rich and still a bit sharp. Rich and full, though a bit out of balance, The acidity needs to chill out to come to fruition.
• A Bordeaux that was fading and a 1989 Tondonia white just to show people something different, all led to the 2001 Chaves Hermitage, a wine that was far from ready but for me showed why I’m in this world of wine! Beautiful, succulent, with raspberry notes and bacon fat. Dense and ready to drink in another 20 years. Sadly, we had to keep going and an overripe Australian failed us afterwords with its awkward and sickly sweet fruit, clinging to a 15%+ body. UGH.
• I’m sure there were a few others, though I will say a highlight was throwing the ones we didn’t like over the deck to the hostas down below. It was the finish that really was fun: a 2003 LBV from our new client, Quevedo, and a 2000 Forrest Estate Chenin Blanc Botrytised from New Zealand that seriously was AMAZING. Who knew how incrediblet his would be, and I wish I still had a case sitting in my cellar right now. If you can find it, buy it!

Needless to say, the meal was fun and a great success. I even had a chance to end it with a cigar with my dad, not bad at all.

From there on out, it was the wedding, which while a great time, was not a wine lover’s paradise. Busch light was the beer of choice, a drink that I find offensive to claim is fit for human consumption; however, with a few bottles of strategically placed Hop Devil to add to the bastardly brew, it became considerably more palatable in the end.

So now, I’m back, dealing with the evil phone company of Vodafone (more to come very shortly), preparing for the EWBC, and answering more emails than I thought possible. We have a lot of wines on deck to taste right now and then a harvest to figure out. So far things look good, though some areas are suffering from small yields. We’ll keep you covered though.

Till Soon,

Ryan Opaz

• TN - Laurona and Clos Figuera’s Wines
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• Spain to showcase wine portfolio in India
• All the Fun of a Virtual Wine Tasting without the Notes!
• Wine News Around the Web

Gabriella and Ryan would like to welcome all of you who read the recently published article in the Star Tribune, our hometown paper from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bill Ward, the Star Tribune’s wine and food writer, was kind enough to meet with Ryan, while sending some additional questions to Gabriella, in order to profile our entertaining and unexpected journey.

Having just read the article, we feel that Bill did a great job overall, and despite some left out content and a few errors (such as the word el enchufe being misspelled as el enfouche), we’re ecstatic to have all of you join us from the Twin Cities. That said, we’d like to personally introduce ourselves and direct you to some of our favorite links, sites, and stories! Oh, and for those of you who only caught the article in the paper, continue on to Bill Ward’s blog to read some quotes from our lunch!

So welcome, one and all, and we hope that a few of you stick around and continue to follow us. If you know what RSS is, you can subscribe to Catavino here, and if you want to just sign up for our monthly newsletter (completely independent content) you can do so in the side bar to the right of this post.

About Catavino - General links to info about who we are

• People - Who we are, and the various guest contributors we have pitch in from time to time.
• The Story of Catavino (more or less) - A short recap of why and how we started blogging.
• Ratings Policy - As Bill mentioned, we don’t like rating wines. Hence, here is a description of our ratings policy as it stands right now

Favorite Stories - A few of our favorites!

• Ryan’s story of a very memorable dinner in La Rioja
• Gabriella’s retelling of Spanish Bureaucracy
• Wine Gadget Meme - We’ll go first
• The Fear of Sherry

Friends of Catavino, and Sites/Things you Might Want to See

• Winecast - Time Elliot, a fellow Minnesotan and wine blogger
• Tinto y Blanco - Dave Worthington is based in Australia, but only reviews Iberian wines.
• OWC - If your a wine geek, this is the place to learn about and talk about the Wine Biz!
• Adegga - Need a place to store your notes? Check out this start-up from Portugal.
• Snooth - Hands down one of the best ways to find out what wines are available in your area!
• Ablegrape - Wine only search engine! It’s all about wine, wine, wine, wine….
• Domaine547 - Buy our wine pack at Domaine547, a wine retailer who does things different.
• For the Love of Port - Roy Hersh is not only a friend, but also a Port wine addict! If you love this noble beverage, make sure to stop by his site!
• World Class Wines - Minnesota based importer, distributor and now blogger! Great job guys, and let’s hope we inspire more people to jump on the blogging bandwagon!

Videos - Some very Amateur, and Some Rather Professional, Videos. Take a Peek at Our Appalling Acting!

• Danny the Catalan Chef
• An Interview with Bruno Prats
• Oz Clarke on Iberian Wine
• Do you Think Wineries Should Focus on Adaptation, Rather than Prevention? Interview with Richard Smart and Miguel Torres
• YouTube - Assorted attempts at videos, all done by us, some better than others. Many a happy dance can be found here!

Wine Education

Wine education is near and dear to our hearts, especially when they involve Spanish and Portuguese wines. Therefore, we’ve compiled a small list of foundational articles, which have become integral in explaining the basics of Iberian wine.

• Interpreting the Spanish Wine Label
• Interpreting the Portuguese Wine Label
• Top Five Mistakes in Serving Sherry
• Wanted: Tawny Port
• Wanted: Ruby Port Wine
• The Odd Couple - Late Bottle Vintage and Colheita Port Wines
• Tempranillo: A Noble Wine Grape
• Sherry 101 - Basics of this Noble Wine!
• What Should I Know about Cava Wine?
• Portuguese Sparkling Wines

Catavino’s Many Side Projects

• European Wine Blogger Conference: Together with Robert McIntosh from the Wine Conversation, we will be hosting the first international wine blog conference in La Rioja Spain on August 29th. The conference is devoted to not only help wine bloggers enhance what we already do, but also as a means to expand our network across languages and cultures.
• WineBlogger.Info: Created as means to unite wine bloggers around the world by creating a comprehensive list of every wine blog ever created, Wineblogger.info has now turned into a resource for wine bloggers looking for information on strategy, technology, content creation and overall blogging techniques.
• Wine Blog Writing Workshop: One of the main critiques of wine blogs is that they lack scholastic training in journalism. Albeit a highly controversial claim, we decided to face the issue head-on by creating a online workshop dedicated to one objective: to improve wine writing through peer reviews.
• Regional Reports: Occasionally, we are able to schedule enough time, and drum up enough financial support, to study a topic in depth. So far, our grand adventures have led us to dedicate a month to Portuguese Table Wines, another month to Port wines and Cava (Spain’s sparkling wine), and finally two months to the wines of La Rioja.
• Lingus TV: Lingus TV is a Spanish based website designed to teach people Spanish through videos. Gabriella is copywriter for the Lingus TV blog, sharing stories of both our struggles with the language, as well as our everyday experience as expatriates in Spain.

Social Media Links - For those who know

• Facebook: Gabriella / Ryan
• Twitter: Gabriella / Ryan
• Open Wine Consortium: Gabriella / Ryan
• Flickr - Check out Ryan’s ever expanding attempt at photographing the Iberian Peninsula and beyond

Our Bread and Butter

Catavino Internet Marketing: We help wineries to use social media to better connect with their customers. This is what allows us to live in Iberia, and we are proud to be working with several great wineries in order to do it!

Contact

Finally, we would love to hear from all of you. Old friends, ex-work mates, job offers, solicitations (well not for viagra. We get enough of those in our spam folders), here’s what you do.

• Email us: Gabriella or Ryan
• Skype: catavino or gabriellaopaz
• Click here for a nice form where you can send us a note

So to wrap it all up, we hope you enjoyed a look around our site and that you might have even learned something! We’ll keep writing, and we hope that some of you come back again and say hi from time to time!

Cheers,

Ryan and Gabriella Opaz

• What do Blog Readers want to Learn?
• 2 + 1 Iberian Wine Survey
• European Wine Blogger Conference 2008
• Wine Bloggers Dinner during Alimentaria in BCN, Hosted by Bodegas Tintoralba
• Why Should Readers Care about the European Wine Blogger Conference?

For Gabriella and I, this is a bit hard for us to do. I remember my ‘aha’ wine being a St.Francis Zinfandel that I splurged on with my friend Elly. We read in a paper that it scored “huge points”, and not knowing what points were, we took it at face value to mean that the wine was the creme de la creme. And as the bottle was only a small stretch in our combined budgets, we purchased it, realizing then and there that wine was worth splurging on from time to time.

That said the wine that was my go to wine during college, the one I brought to parties to seem more sophisticated than the people who had their own 24pack of light beer, was Vendage Merlot. A 1.5L was around $8 at the time, thinking it was so fine and refined! Revisiting this wine approximately four years ago, I found that the only good use for it was as an addition to my vinegar bottle, a place that improved it tenfold.

Sadly though, we don’t have the opportunity to visit these gems anymore, as a result of our location. Therefore, we felt it would make more sense to revisit a wine that introduced both of us to Spain as a wine region. Sangre de Toro, or Bulls Blood, is a wine renown to most Americans, as their first Spanish wine. A blend of Garnacha and Cariñena from Catalunya - a small irony that a Catalan wine represents Spanish wine to so many, this wine was cheap and tasty. At around $6 on sale at my store, I could easily afford purchasing more than one. Plus, there was an additional attraction beyond price, the little plastic bull that hung around the bottleneck. This bull is a true social object, as defined by Hugh Macleod. I remember selling this as a pizza wine for Friday night gatherings, and as a perfect match for my customers first attempt at paella. I’m not sure about the paella recommendation anymore, but this is definately still a great pizza wine. Simple, pure fruit, light, yet with a nice round body, for the money, you can’t do better.The low end needs more great values like this!

For Gabriella, Sangre de Toro holds a very special place in her heart as not only as her first Spanish wine, but also the first wine she attached to a group of close friends.

As she tells it: At age 23, my friend Becky had gained the title of “wine snob”. She would analyze each and every page of Decanter, hunting for wines of both great esteem and great values. Occasionally, when she found a particular wine that intrigued her, or that she found especially “cool” and “interesting”, she would throw an all out hipster party, typically requiring everyone to don their most “urban” outfit.

Her Sangre de Toro Friday night bash was a hit! So popular was this wine for its price, its bold flavor and its trinket that it became the required backup wine for each and every future gathering. Plastic bulls lined up across her Ikea kitchen table, ready for battle. Under a precariously dangling light bulb from her sea blue colored ceiling, we would spend hours devising new games with our impressive collection of “speed bulls”. Horns turned backwards, the bulls would be required to do everything from land into a wine glass ten feet from the kitchen with a flick of a finger to being part of an elaborate pyramid of bulls stacked 15 high. As you can imagine, the wine was rarely spoken of, but instead became a seamless and enjoyable part of the background among fits of laughter and erratic beats streaming from her favorite grunge band over the stereo.

I loved her parties. I loved how no one talked about the wine, yet it was the cornerstone of every get together. And beyond all else, I love the fact that this wine reminds me of a person I both miss and hope to see again one day.

Thanks Lenn for bringing up a lovely memory and a smile to my face.

Cheers!

Ryan and Gabriella

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Not a great deal has been written on what is admittedly the relatively new area of pairing international wines with Chinese cuisine. Or should that be Chinese cuisines? This vast country, now in the grips of the Olympics at last, boasts an incredible array of provincial and regional dishes, embracing just about every cooking technique under the sun – many of which, of course, were either ‘invented’ or developed in China itself.

So, if you want to explore Chinese cooking and try your hand at matching your favorite wines with different dishes, how can you get started? And what dishes might partner well with Iberian wines, an equally diverse world of flavors and textures?

China’s rich culinary heritage is hugely complex. But, put simply, four overall groups dominate: Lu (Shandong), Yue (Cantonese), Chuan (Sichuan) and Huaiyang (Jiangsu). What wines match with these groups? Given the innate diversity of these cuisines, Chinese gourmets will find this question bizarre: a bit like saying, ‘What wines can pair with French, Spanish, Norwegian or Austrian food’? The answers can seem endless, but we have to start somewhere.

Below are some specific examples from each school of cooking matched with one or more Spanish or Portuguese wines. There are certainly enough wine-styles and types of wine-making in the Iberian Peninsula to offer some great matches with Chinese dishes from different traditions.

And, if some of these cuisines are not all that available outside China, the great Cantonese Diaspora has at least meant that what passes for Chinese food in other countries is essentially Cantonese in origin or influence. Fortunately, Cantonese cooking is also among the most wine-friendly of China’s great cuisines.

Lu (Shandong)

Shandong food is well-known for its purity of flavor and considerable use of fish – the coastal cities of Yantai and Qingdao boasting superb sources of seafood and river fish alike. This relatively rich cuisine combines various techniques, but stir-frying, deep-frying and braising are common. One Shandong classic is ‘sweet and sour’ Mandarin fish which pairs well with oaked rich whites such as high-quality white Rioja at Crianza or Reserva levels. White Rioja, when well-made, yields oxidized citrus fruit, but is not too fruit-driven (which would interfere with the ‘fruity’ quality of the sauce here) whilst the oak lends a savory contrast. White Rioja is also not particularly acidic and is relatively full-bodied. A light-bodied, high acid wine would ruin the balance between acidity and sweetness in this dish.

With lighter seafood dishes, you can try some of the more aromatic Spanish grapes, as paired below with other regional dishes (see Albariño and Godello, especially) or even something as light as Vinho Verde. Shandong is also famous for its soups made from all manner of ingredients. This opens the door for experimentation with Sherry, particularly Palo Cortado, Amontillado and dry Oloroso wines from top soleras.

Yue (Guangzhou/Cantonese)

The Cantonese are well-known for consuming almost anything that moves, apart from, bizarrely, lamb, which, along with mutton, is eaten more in north and north-Western China. Yue cuisine is similar to Shandong fare combining fresh flavors, seafood and similar cooking techniques, although cooking ‘in salt’ and considerable use of rice wine feature too. Expect the holy trinity of garlic, ginger and green onion (scallion).

Xia jiao (steamed prawn dumplings) are part of the classic yum cha or dim-sum line-up. As there is no dipping sauce for this dish, wine provides an acidic foil. Good quality Cava, whether from traditional Spanish grapes or with some Chardonnay in the mix, should make a good match, providing refreshing high acidity. Aged red Rioja or older Ribera del Duero wines would also work beautifully with Cantonese pigeon (often braised in rice wine, soy sauce and star anise and then roasted) or other Cantonese roast meats – also try Tawny Ports if you want a richer combination!

Generally speaking, it’s worth avoiding very intensely perfumed varieties such as Moscatel because these have perfumed ‘sweet’ noses that can overwhelm some Cantonese dishes; although some Spanish aromatic whites can work. Owing to its ‘clean flavors’, Cantonese cooking is especially wine-friendly and is often the de-fault mode for pairing wines with Chinese food.

Chuan (Sichuan)

Sichuan cooking usually utilizes chili heat and the numbing hua jiao (prickly ash Sichuan ‘peppercorns’) now used and abused by chefs all over Europe. These strong flavors are commonly balanced with sugar or the use of stir-fried vegetables that taste ‘sweet’. Garlic and chili’s naturally high acidity, along with the numbing, juniper-like Sichuan ‘peppercorns’, present challenges to most wines.

A classic dish like Hui guo rou (twice cooked pork) comprises crisp pork belly, garlic, green chili and hua jiao. This dish cries out for aromatic whites such as Albariño from Rias Baixas DO or the similarly aromatic grape Godello, also from Galicia (Valdeorras DO). Ideally, whites with residual sugar work best, but these grapes have enough character and ‘sweet’ aromas to hold up.

Some robust reds can also pair well too. Try top Priorato, heavier grade Ribera del Duero reds, or dry Douro blends based on Touriga Naçional, again because of their nominally ‘sweet’ fruit and full bodies. But beware of excessive alcohol and high tannins as these can accentuate spice. Chuan cooking may be tough on wine, but there are some surprising combinations that can work.

Huaiyang (Jiangsu)

Jiangsu cuisine is complex and immensely varied, but expect light, crisp dishes with striking shapes – Huai food is famous for its cutting and presentational techniques – as well as refreshing flavors. Shi zi tou or ‘lion’s head casserole’ is aesthetically striking: its floating pork mince resembling the heads of Chinese mythological lions (often seen at temples or even outside restaurants!). The pork is simmered in a delicate stock with green vegetables and ginger. Sparkling wines, such as top-quality Cava, would work well here, but so would Rueda Sauvignon Blanc or the classic Verdejo from the same region. The high acidity of all these wines cuts the pork mince and the bubbles in the Cava are a good foil for the salty stock here. Fino or Manzanilla Sherries would also possibly pair well with this dish. Although Sherry is not naturally all that acidic, the ‘acetic’ and flor-affected flavors combine beautifully with this classic Huaiyang speciality.

Above all, experiment! Some people complain that the vast range of dishes that come to a Chinese dinner table make food-and-wine matching essentially impossible. But people tend to dine in big groups in Chinese restaurants and this means that multiple wines can be served to match with multiple dishes: watch a bottle of Rioja disappear among ten people. Also, Iberian wines are themselves well-placed to match myriad flavors: look at tapas. Tapas is in some ways the equivalent of the ‘starters’, usually cold dishes, that always begin a Chinese banquet: everything from preserved sausage to jellyfish to pickled cucumbers. If the wines of Spain and Portugal can’t cope with that, we’d be very surprised!

Cheers,

Edward Ragg

Edward Ragg & Fongyee Walker write for us from Beijing, and you can get more information on their website, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting

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Sherry vinegar (Vinagre de Jerez) must be one of the most neglected condiments. It should really be a staple item in the kitchen cupboard. Chefs have been onto sherry vinegar for decades, but for some reason it has passed the general public by, pushed aside in the rush for “easy-drinking” balsamico style vinegars. Sherry vinegar is not “easy-drinking”. It is complex and intense, but works magic on many dishes and anyway, proper Gazpacho just doesn’t taste right without it.

For as long as wine has been made in Jerez, vinegar has been a by-product. In a sherry Bodega vinegar was seen as a failure, especially if too many of the butts turned. However from about the 1950s things started to change and most people I speak to around here agree that Pilar Aranda, owner of the Almacenista Fermin Aranda, was the first person to recognise sherry vinegar as a product in its own right and she started “looking after” her vinegars, ageing them in a solera system, just like her wines. Sherry vinegar is now even protected and is one of only three vinegars in the word with Denomination of Origin. More recently the Fermin Aranda business, with its fantastic vinegar soleras, was bought by the bullfighter Alvaro Domecq, along with his family. The Consejo Regulador, who regulate production, currently use the Alvaro Domecq Reserva vinegar as their house vinegar, so it is obviously still very good!

With advances in science sherry vinegar is no longer a mysterious and spontaneous occurrence and now the best vinegars are deliberately made, often by topping up butts already containing vinegar with sherry. The alcohol quietly converts into acid, which can take months, even years, in the cool bodegas.

Some cheaper sherry vinegars are manufactured in large volumes, however even these vinegars require a minimum of six months in wood.

The effect of long aging on sherry vinegars is very apparent, they become very dark through oxidisation, developing intense and complex flavours. Surprising flavours develop over time, from fruity, banana skin right through to burnt, toasted and coffee, always with a woody and nutty backdrop. The Consejo Regulador has an age grading system: Vinegars with between 6 months and two years in wood are “Vinagre de Jerez”, those with more than two years but fewer than 10 are “Reservas” and anything with more than ten years in wood is a “Gran Reserva”. I personally think it’s pity they don’t put the approximate age of the vinegar on the label, the price of an 11 year old vinegar will be very different from a 50 year old vinegar even though they are both “Gran Reservas”, and there is at least one vinegar bodega I know of, Vinagres de Yema, who sell the 50-year-old stuff - in beautiful glass bottles. It’s not cheap, but if you taste a drop the flavour evolves in your mouth for hours afterwards. Sherry vinegars are run through a solera system, the same way as the wines and the brandies and this irons out annual variations, but is also used to increase quality.

Alongside the range of ages a sherry vinegar can have, there are also different styles. The sherry used to make the vinegar, ie. fino, amontillado or oloroso will influence the flavour - especially when younger - of the resulting vinegar. There is a sweetish style of vinegar made from the sweet Pedro Ximenez sherries. This can be made entirely from Pedro Ximenez, or a blend or could be a sherry vinegar sweetened with a small amount of PX wine. Sometimes “arrope”, a traditional grape must reduction is mixed in withresulting in a dark, syrupy and sweet vinegar. Moscatel sherries can also be used to make sherry vinegar, but these sherries and therefore vinegars are
quite rare.

Sherry vinegars are intense in flavour, but not only that, they are much stronger in acid than most other condiment vinegars. The degree of acidity (% acetic acid per volume) starts at 6 degrees (legal minimum) and I have tasted vinegars with 10 degrees. Normally a 10 degree vinegar is quite hard work straight-up in a sherry copita (which is how I think they should be evaluated), but I have had very old sherry vinegars which are so well integrated that their 10 degrees seems almost mellow. Always check the label for degrees of acidity before using a sherry vinegar. Six is low and 10 is high. You might need only a few drops of the stronger, older ones to perfume a dish of grilled fish, for example, just before serving.

As I mentioned right at the beginning. Gazpacho made with vinegar other than sherry vinegar just doesn’t taste right. There is an excellent book (in Spanish only and currently out of print, sorry!) by Manuel Valencia, a famous Jerezano chef, and an expert in cooking with sherry vinegar. It’s called “La Cocina Gitana de Jerez” ISBN 84-935002-1-6. In Spain there are are as many recipes for Gazpacho as there are cooks, but I think Manuel Valencia’s is probably as close as you can get to something authentic. His recipe goes like this:

1kg ripe, red tomatos; 1 small piece onion (peeled); 3 de-seeded green peppers (the mild, long, thin pointy ones); 2 cloves garlic; 75ml mild olive oil (not spicy, peppery); 30ml sherry vinegar; 2 slices of bread (crust removed); 750ml cold water; salt. Once this was bashed up into a “soup” by hand with pestle and mortar, but a blender is more sensible. Purists peel and deseed the tomatos, but I just blitz them first and then seeve before putting the tomato juice back into the blender with the rest of the ingredients apart from the salt. After blending for a long time until very smooth adjust vinegar, oil and salt to taste. Chill before serving.

For me (many French chefs agree), there is nothing better than a vinaigrette made with sherry vinegar: 1 third sherry vinegar, 2 thirds oil (more old if the vinegar is a strong one), sugar or honey, salt, pepper, and a bit of dijon mustard. Shake up until emulsified. A tiny bit of crushed garlic is always an option.

Another southern Spanish favourite, which just doesn’t work without sherry vinegar, is “Patatas Aliñadas”.

Dressed potatos. Cook 1kg new potatos until done. While still warm quarter the large ones and halve the small ones into a bowl. Add one finely chopped onion. Drown in good quality, mild olive oil and then add sherry vinegar to taste (the sweet PX styles don’t work so well, so use a dry vinagre). Salt to taste. Chill before serving. For a common variation tinned tuna and/or piquillo peppers (chopped) can be added.

Cheers,

Justin Roberts

Justin is our Sherry wine expert, currently living in Andalusia with his wife, Lucy, while spreading the good word about Sherry vinegar from his online store.

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Was I a bit depressed? You bet I was! I stormed home, sat at my computer with the intention of pouring my pathetic woes out to Ryan by email when the phone rang from a Portuguese winery interested in knowing more about the European Wine Blogger Conference. Then another phone call, followed by email after email after phone call, all related to the event. Let’s not forget the ongoing requests from our clients, the creation of a  wine blog writing workshop on the OWC, or the maintenance of Catavino, which conveniently crashed during my watch. Suddenly, I was an airtraffic controller, and my plans to careen through the Pyrenees for two weeks seemed like a pleasant but distant memory.

However, there’s been something euphoric about the EWBC’s creation, knowing that we are literally trying to shove a square peg in a circular opening. The hours upon hours it’s taken for us to explain what we’re trying to accomplish to producers, retailers, bloggers, wine magazines, government agencies and potential sponsors has been challenging enough, but add to this fact that its vacation time in Spain and that no one wants to work, not to mention listening to my shpeel. Yet, miraculously, things are pulling together beautifully. The wines for the Grand Keynote Tasting span across Iberia, ranging in everything from Cava to Port and from Sherry to 100% Xarel.lo. Our 35 participants are now including countries such as Australia, Canada and the USA, in addition to Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and England. And let’s not forget an evening of tapas along Logroño’s famous Calle Laurel, or our winery tours at Miguel Merino or Marques de Riscal.

The entire reason why we came to Spain was to not only explore new cultures, but also, to push ourselves to new heights. A bunch of international folks hanging out at winery for 3 days chatting about wine blogging may not seem like much, but to have read each of their biographies and heard their stories puts a huge grin on my face.

After all, the Pyrenees aren’t going anywhere, but it sure feels like we are!

Cheers,

Gabriella Opaz

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Editor’s note: When Ryan and I visited Obidos in 2003, we had found a quaint little bed and breakfast run by a woman named Melana. Weary and hungry from traveling with our large backpacks filled with wine, we sat down in her living room decorated more like a cozy ski lodge than a traditional Portuguese home, and were each served a glass of Ginja. Brilliant red in color with a rich and pungent cherry aromas, we fell in love with this drink. Beyond its sweet and delicious flavor, we learned that it is customary to serve it to guests upon entry into your home. We bought a bottle that day, and savored it for over a year with friends as they visited our little Minneapolis flat. Although this beverage is not easy to find, if you are in Portugual, I highly suggest you pick up a bottle, or if you have already tried it, please let us know if there was label that you particularly enjoyed!

Most people are familiar with Ruby Port, the fortified wine which inherited its name from its lovely red color, renowned for its ripe fruit flavors and sweetness that pairs perfectly with the dark, bitter flavors of chocolate. So what if I told you that there existed another delicious and unctuous wine that still marries beautifully with chocolate but is indigenous to a small little Portuguese town in the core of Estremadura? Interested? Well, then look no further than the medieval town of Obidos, home to the sweet cherry liquor, Ginja.

Just a 45 minute drive outside of Lisbon, Obidos sits at the crest of a hill, surrounded by its very historical and picturesque castle, dating back to the 13th century when it was given as a gift to Queen Isabel de Aragon. It is also the only area where the prized Morello cherry trees can grow to make the best tasting Ginja liquor. Ginja or Ginjinha (like John or Johnny) is made from these pressed and macerated cherries picked during the spring and summer, mixed with sugar, fortified and stored in both wood and stainless steel tanks for several months. It is fortified either with aguardente or the local neutral spirit,’ Liqueur de Ginja’, to a moderately low alcohol level of 18%. This makes it a bit easier on your head than Port and it is actually slightly less sweet than it as well. The tradition in Obidos is to drink the bright red Ginja in little dark chocolate cups that you later eat, savoring the bitter sweetness off your chocolate stained fingers! For an even bigger chocolate kick, try the chocolate Ginja, mixed with at least 15% chocolate powder and drink chilled. Dark chocolate is the only chocolate used, as I was told that milk chocolate with Ginja would be too overpoweringly sweet. The regular Ginja is sold with or without macerated cherries in the bottle, but I prefer to have them with as a little surprise at the end of my bottle.

The two times I have visited Obidos, I have gone to taste Ginja at the same café/store and was happy to find out this time that they happen to be one of the 4 major producers of the best Ginja here! I talked to João, one of the managers from Licors de Sanguinhal, who explained that their Ginja is actually a certified artesanal Ginja, which means it’s made from 100% Morello cherries and can only use the ‘Liqueur de Ginja’ for fortification, whereby providing a much silkier flavor. To improve quality, they import pure, Belgian dark chocolate to use both in their Chocolate Ginja and the chocolate Ginja filled cups. And as if you didn’t think we had enough chocolate already, we enjoyed both our chocolate cups of Ginja and Chocolate Ginja with a nice, big slice of Belgian chocolate cake. The people of Obidos enjoy Ginja with chocolate to such an extent that they’ve founded the annual International Chocolate Festival - an event I have already marked on my calander for this year!

“Are there any other foods that would be good to pair Ginja with besides chocolate?”, I asked, daydreaming of other sweet possibilities. He replied that Ginja is great to use in mixed drinks and even added to Port! He also mentioned that it is a great compliment on top of fruit salads, and of course, drizzled over vanilla ice cream. Ahhhh, so much rich and memorable sweetness! And on a cloud of bliss, João ended our visit by highlighting that, “Studies have been ‘proven’ that the Morello cherries made into Ginja are quite healthy and can even lower cholesterol!” Now that’s a liquor worth your love and adoration, not to mention a trip to Portugal!

Mmmm sweetness,

Andrea Smith

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Last week, while visiting a few wineries in the Douro, we were presented with a meal that both surprised and fascinated us. We found our way to a small restaurant in the town of Pinhao, on top of a fire station of all things. Familiar in the sense that everyone seemed to know everyone else, this was the type of place that you might find vineyard workers in, downing jars of young wine while talking of the days events.

As is our typical custom, when the group suggests a traditional dish from the menu, such as the Cozido à Portuguesa, we eagerly accept. In this case. Sipping on our wines, which conversely acted on our empty bellies, leaving us in a bit of a euphoric in mood. To counter the deep, echoing growl, we nibbled on some traditional ham and spreads that come before any Portuguese meal, hoping to ease discomfort.

With a slight rustle behind me signaling an approaching waitress, I realized the food was here. Busily moving the dishes on the table to make room for the large platter that hovered over my head, I smelled aromas that had me salivating in anticipation. But alas, as the dish made contact with the table, my eyes rolled a bit, and my mind cried out in anger as I realized I was to be disappointed with our decision, or so I thought. Before me sat wilted cabbage, plain white peeled potatoes, soggy looking carrots and pallid meats, that although gave off enticing aromas, appeared to be one of the blandest and most uninteresting things I had seen in awhile.

Attempting to keep a look of appreciation on my face, I said the mandatory, “Oh, it looks so good”, while Gabriella and I discretely passed looks of displeasure between us. Pointing out the many different ingredients, our hosts emphasized that this was VERY typical Portuguese dish. Great. A country I had fallen in love with was about to give me my first disappointment. Passing the platter to me, I took a bit of carrot, potato, and various random meats, including some pig’s ear and blood sausage. I figured I had to get a story out of this one way or another and a follow-up to our previous pig’s ear experience would be one angle to take.

While waiting for the others to fill their plates, I had images of how to make this more enjoyable, while scanning the table for a salt shaker. None to be found, though I did spot some of the good regional olive oil, which if need be, would make the potato go down easier. The time had come and with a quick toast with the table wine to seal our new friendships, we dug in.

I can’t really tell you what happened as I took the first bite. It’s like whine you were a kid and tasted some candy that had been dyed one color, while flavored something else. Green suckers that might taste like cherries instead of lime or watermelon, your mind can’t seem to register the information. I think it was the potato I tried first, and as I bit into it, I knew that prejudice is truly an evil thing. Everything I had imagined was wrong. This potato literally melted in my mouth, succulent, juicy and full of flavors that made my mind race. HOW THE *&$#! could it? This was fabulous, with food still in my mouth, I quickly scooped up a piece of carrot then pork then CABBAGE! Each one an explosion of flavors that made me not want to swallow, but rather continue reaching for more. Looking to Gabriella, we both sat wide eyed, speechless, and in a small corner of culinary heaven.

It was at this point, I think our hosts began to smile wider as they realized we might be enjoying ourselves. I have to stop now and apologize to all of them, as I know that they probably heard the words, “I can’t believe how good this is, please pass me more” a few hundred times as we attempted to clean our plates, a task that I think is rarely accomplished. We had found gold. Simple food, plain food, with flavors that exploded out of empty space.

The secret is simple. Cook everything together, all at once, and only make it when you have a small army to feed. The reason this dish works is that all the food is boiled in the same pot, in different stages with the same water. First the meat at high temperature, then the potato, carrot and so on and so forth. With this method, you slowly build up layers of flavors that coat each ingredient making them all richer and better for it.

The cabbage is so full of flavor it makes sauerkraut look bland, and the potatoes, well in truth, I have no clue how they get the way they do, but they melted in my mouth like the butter that would normally adorn them. But the real surprise is that this flavor extends to all parts, including the pig’s ear, which although falls low on my list of favorites, was by no means foul or unpleasant. Granted the crunchy cartilage was a bit too much, but it was generally pretty “good”. Finally, the sausages. In Spain, we have the best Jamon, no contest. Seriously, none. If you don’t believe me, you need to come here and try a 150euro/kilo Jamon de Bellota, and I dare you to say it’s not incredible. But beyond the incredible Jamon, the Portuguese Morcilla, or blood sausage, is now rated above the Spanish version.

Sweet, rich and not overly intense like its Spanish counterpart, most likely as a result of the boiling process, but I found myself reaching for more despite the “capacity reached” alert from my stomach. Put this with the chorizo and the thick slices of lomo, and I was in pure heaven. The wine, well it was a nice table wine, simple, and by itself, something not to mention, but combined with this food, it was a revelation. Before the meal Gabriella and I would have probably not thought twice about it, but its high acidity, and somewhat rough tannins, combined to create lushes textures and flavors with the Cozido.

For the rest of the trip, whenever we mentioned our experience to other Portuguese, you’d see a smile creep across their faces. They knew. This is something special, a piece of Portugal that the average person does not see. You won’t find this as the star on a menu, nor the centerpiece of a restaurant in a tourist section of town. No, those places showcase grilled squid, roasted octopus, and other mainstream fare. If you want to fall in love with the very stuff that Portugal is built on, you need to seek out the Cozido à Portuguesa. Remember, you may think we’re crazy when you first see the plate, but don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed. I know I can’t wait to get back and have some more.

Ate Ja,

Ryan Opaz

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But I never thought I’d see people get so excited over something my culture won’t even get near. When I walk into a local bar or cafe here, between the hours of 5 and 7pm, the whole place is packed with everyone chowing down on heaping plates of Caracois. It may look like an enormous amount but these Portuguese snails are much smaller than their known French cousins. So there’s a lot of lip-smacking and finger-licking, as the Caracois are cooked in a very flavorful broth and its custom to just suck those little guys right out of their shells! They do give you toothpicks if you’re not courageous enough, so you can pull them out instead (like I did).

The tradition of eating Caracois in the summer originated in the southerly Portuguese region of Alentejo, with influence from the Andalucia region in southern Spain. Both of these regions get extremely hot in the summer but also have the humidity that promotes snail growth, and these snails are harvested throughout the season until their supplies dry out. The cooking broth is also very traditional with the predominant flavoring ingredient being oregano, which is a must (your hands stink of it after eating them!). The other ingredients include laurel, thyme, garlic, onion, olive oil, salt and pepper and a little spice called piri-piri, which is the Portuguese equivalent to chili pepper. Only minor additions are made to this recipe, such as student of mine’s mother adds diced tomato and presunto which sounds yummy! I found the leftover broth to be excellent for mopping up with a piece of crusty bread that’s served with them. When you cook the Caracois, they have to be alive of course, just like shellfish, and rinsed several times to make sure you’ve got all of their “glue” out.

The typical drink then with Caracois? Well, the top choice here is a cold glass of Portuguese beer, (Sagres or Superbock) but after trying both, I prefer the white wine I had with them, which I found to compliment the flavors of the broth much better than the beer. Try any basic white from Alentejo that happens to pair well with its traditional food counterpart. I had the restaurant’s house white, Convento Da Vila, from Cooperativa da Borba, made from the amusingly named grapes Roupeiro and Rabo de Ovelha, (literally translated to “Wardrobe” and “Sheep’s Tail”) which have refreshingly ripe, tropical fruit flavors and are also available in red varieties.

So how did my “Puritan” American background fare to eating Caracois? Let’s just say, if you can get over the squeamishness of knowing what you’re eating then they are quite delicious. The texture is exactly like cooked mushrooms, which I love, so I stuck with that image during my meal. And you know what, I ended up having another plate of Caracois with friends a week later without cringing; now that’s blending in with the locals!

If you are interested in cooking up some caracois for yourself, here is a recipe provided for us by the Algarve Buzz!

To being adventurous,

Andrea Smith

* For The Truly Adventurous: We ended up trying the big brother of Caracois, called Caracoletas, which are A LOT larger and come roasted in the shell with lemon, garlic-butter dipping sauce or mustard, which is a traditional pairing. I don’t care for these and most Portuguese don’t even like them since they can be a very chewy mouthful. However, if prepared right, there are some die-hard fans out here, (including my crazy boyfriend, but at least they didn’t go to waste!). We should all try everything at least once, so if you’re bold and end up liking them, let me know!*

Flickr Photo attributed to zona41

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