Joe Canal's Travels to Spain - Part 2

Every Friday on the BottleBlog will feature a food-related article, wine pairing, or travelogue. Today, we're continuing our travels with Wine Manager Mark Ricca and the team to Spain!

The next morning we woke early to start the next day with a van ride east to the La Mancha region and lunch with winewriter and winery owner Victor de la Serna. We met Victor in one of his vineyards with his vineyard manager and we took a close look at the vines. A common theme of this trip was hearing over and over again about frost damage to vines that had just gone through or were about to see fruit set. This is the point where the grapes first appear on the vines. A late bout of very cold nights hurt vines in many regions of the country and producers were just taking inventory of the damage the week we arrived. Ironically, that week daytime temperatures were into the high 70s and low 80s and there was no rain.

In the lower right of this photo can be seen the immature grapes that remained unharmed. This is a tempranillo vine of about thirty years of age. The scattered frosts that hit the country killed portions of the vines that were exposed. The result would be a smaller crop come harvest. Many of the producers we spoke to practice “green cutting,” which is selectively dropping fruit from the plant before it is mature to direct the vine's energy into the remaining grapes. Although the frost would reduce the overall crop, it was a random process as opposed to a controlled one. After an inspection of the vineyards that supply Victor's wines for Bodegas Volver, we headed off to lunch at Restaurant Las Rejas for one of the more visual meals of the trip.

Every meal on this trip began with tapas and frequently beer. The plates we had at this lunch were more traditional. Tuna loin dried like jamon and sliced thinly, a selection of cheeses and almonds all went down easily with the beers after standing in the sun in the vineyards. Victor operates three wineries: Paso a Paso produces a tinto (red wine) made from Tempranillo and a Verdejo which is a crisp white with beautiful floral and citrus notes, Bodegas Volver is a full bodied wine of complex structure made from Tempranillo, and the flagship winery is Finca Sandoval and its second label, Salia.

We sat down to lunch and began to taste through the flight of wines. As I said, this was the most visual meal of the trip. The Chef, Manuel de la Osa prepared exquisite food presented with a serious sense of whimsy. There were about eleven courses in this meal, it wasn't hard to lose count unless I wanted to dedicate more time to taking notes than eating. This dish in particular, Spring Vegetable in a Truffle Fog, exemplifies the Chef's unique perspective.



An assortment of spring vegetables and mushrooms were blanketed by a fog of truffle aroma emanating from a small glass. Victor's wines were completely up to par with the food. I particularly like his wines from the lower end of the price spectrum as this is where I tend to buy from most frequently. Here are my tasting notes on his Paso a Paso Verdejo:

Paso a Paso Verdejo 2008 La Mancha
Color: Yellow/Green, clean and brilliant in the glass right to the rim
Nose: Ripe melon and citrus (lime) mixed with wet slate aromas.
Palate: Ripe, rich, and round melon flavors, big citrusy acidity, lime zest on the finish.

Victor was very entertaining and is well embedded in the wine world, as he posts frequently on the wine bulletin boards on the web such as wineberserkers.com and Mark Squire's amongst his other endeavors.

After a very long lunch we loaded back up into the van to drive east to Almansa to Bodegas Atalaya and Bodegas Tarima. These two properties are part of the small wine empire of the Gil family, best known for El Nido, the Jumilla property made famous in the Wind Advocate.

This is a relatively new project for the Gils. The winery itself is rather Spartan compared to some of the palacial wineries we had seen and would see. We were told that the emphasis was on function there and the wines were the primary concern. In the tasting room we sampled two vintages of the Atalaya and the first vintage of the Tarima. Atalaya is a blend of Monastrell and Garnacha, while the Tarima is just Monastrell. Both wines showed very well and are attractively priced in the market in the $10 - $15 range. From the tasting room we moved on to dinner. I have to say that I have never eaten more on any other wine trip I have ever taken! We drove to Restaurant Ramona and took seats in the bar to enjoy some tapas and beer. Now I was going to get my first taste of the legendary Jamon Iberico. This is the ham or leg of a particular type of pig native to the region, the Black Iberian Pig or Cerdo Negro in the native tongue. The adult pigs feed a diet of primarily acorns which results in very delicious flesh. The ham is cured and dried much like Italian prosciutto, but the combination of the breed and its diet result in something far more sumptuous.

It was quite the sight to see all these jamon hanging there at the bar. Jamon Iberico de Bellota, the highest quality Iberico ham, only recently became available in the U.S. and usually sells for upwards of $100.00 per pound. I was easily looking at several thousand dollars worth of pig. I mentioned previously the stark contrast in the styles of presentation that I observed in the restaurants we ate in. Tonight's dinner was the polar opposite of what we had seen up to now. Large plates of absolutely delicious food passed around the table family style. This was down time and we relaxed as we ate and talked freely. Tomorrow we would drive the short distance south to the Jumilla region and further explore the wines of the Gil family.