Toni Carver's Trip to Spain - Part 4

Day 4

We are off to Casa Del Valle in Yepes, Toledo. This estate is breathtaking!! It is surrounded by the vineyards, olive trees, and gardens. Also on the grounds were an enormous home and many smaller buildings that house the staff, a church, and a small retail shop. We started by tasting thru their wines, my favorite was the Casa Del Valle Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep, rich, red fruits, balanced tannins, anise, and tobacco make this a full bodied wine that can pair with steak and BBQ.

We relaxed that evening, enjoying the tranquil break from the busy travel days.

Day 5

We awoke to a traditional bountiful Spanish breakfast and drove to Madrid, only about an hour away. Madrid is a tourist friendly city. Ancient architecture, friendly people, great shopping, great ice cream, and at last, Starbucks!!! For all those that know me, Starbucks is part of my daily routine.

As thankful as I am to travel, I looked forward to returning to my family, sharing my stories about my travels and wine.

Toni Carver's Trip to Spain - Part 3

I was pleased jet lag woke me especially early today. The path in front of our hotel is part of the history-steeped Camino de Santiago (Road of St. James) across northern Spain stretching about 470 miles. We observed the pilgrims on their journey walking, cycling, on horseback and donkey riding through the picturesque countryside and historic townscapes, unchanged in many parts from the days of the earliest pilgrims. The reasons for those making the pilgrimage are various but seeing the visible dedication for their cause was moving and spiritual.

The beautiful weather continues for our tours today of Bodegas Ondarre and Bodegas Olarra. We met with Eugenio Garcia del Moral who guides the growers in all aspects: irrigation, plantings, clippings, height of vines, etc. He actually created his own computer program that is interactive with the weather to help the vineyards that are too distant for him to visit frequently. His passion for each vineyards' importance and success was infectious. You could understand why the wines he is involved with are of such great quality.

Before we continue at the wineries we were treated to a guided tour of the historical city of Viana. Ancient churches, cobble stone streets, a view that goes forever, a fortress wall that dates back centuries, and knobs to hold grates over the windows of local shops during the running of the bulls all make this a picturesque city. After our tour, accompanied by tapas, local beer and carajillo (coffee and brandy), we started the brief drive to the wineries.

Bodegas Olarra, established in 1973, is massive. Their barrel room holds 26,000 barrels!! They are nestled in an “egg crate” like dome that seems to go on forever. I immediately recognized many labels that we carry at the store, some of which I have sampled previously and been very pleased with their balance and palate. My favorite here was the Cerro Anon Reserve with its inky color and dried plum, tobacco, and anise palate. This is a wine that can stand on its own, but also pairs well with a variety of foods.

Bodegas Ondarre, established in 1986, is mostly done in new French and American oak. The Ondarre Reserve was my overall favorite of the trip. This mostly tempranillo blend is aged for 16 months in oak that adds complexity. It has earthy spice, good structure and a long dark fruit finish. Everything I am looking for in a wine and under $12 makes this a must buy!!!

We were then invited to enjoy lunch at Ondarre. They prepared a never ending supply of lamb over an open fire pit fueled by grape vine clippings with a 3 story chimney; succulent, juicy and paired to perfection with the Olarra and Ondarre wines. After our fulfilling lunch we head to the hotel for some R&R. Our group meets up later for a chance to walk around Logrono and to visit the Tapas bar area in the Calle Laurel region. The tapas bars are each unique “mini bars” located one after the other down a few streets in the town. Each bar has its own specialty dish and we ate as many as our stomachs could take.

Toni Carver's Trip to Spain - Part 2

We had a last minute change in our itinerary and were offered the opportunity to meet renowned wine maker Rene Barbier of Cellar Laurona in Montsant, Spain. He was charming, kind, and drove us on a personal tour of his vineyards. (Thank goodness I wasn’t driving!!! Hairpin turns and no more than 6 inches to spare to a sure death over a cliff!!) The terroir was intense with steep climbs and very rocky shale-infused soil. Rene’s passion was evident when we were exploring; the way he explained each vineyard, the different vines, sampling of the fruit, the elevation, finishing with a tour of his offices and private cellar. He took us to lunch at a local restaurant to enjoy the food and celebrate with his wines and conversation.

His Clos Mogador, which received a 96 from Wine Advocate and should age well for up to another 10 years, was an outstanding example of a fine wine from Spain. The blend has an intense flavor profile of anise, dark fruit, truffle, slate, and espresso. The other wines he shared with us are not going to be available in the U.S. but were of the same high quality and great balance.

We parted ways from Rene to continue on our 4 hour journey to Logrono. After a much needed few hours of rest we met with the export manager for Bodegas Olarra for our dinner at Meson Egues. Brandon Bartfalvi, our Senior Wine Manager in the Lawrenceville store, told me in advance about this restaurant from his trip to Spain. It lived up to the expectations and then some! The white asparagus was sweet and all the vegetables were from the owners’ garden picked that day. The beef was cooked over charcoal and melted in your mouth. We enjoyed some Bodegas Ondarre Reserve 2004 with our meal, a wine that I was familiar with from the store but accompanied by the food tasted amazing. After our very filling meal we hit the town to take in some local establishments and I had some Spanish sangria. This is not your average pre-made bottled type, rather a fresh made drink that made you want to stay for more.

Toni Carver's Trip to Spain - Part 1

Pre-Trip
Imagine you’re at work one day and approached by the GM who wants to talk to you in the office. Are your first thoughts…..What project is happening now? What did I forget to do? Well at Joe Canals there is a chance the GM will be telling you “We don’t think you know enough about wine, particularly Spanish wine, so we are sending you to Spain to learn.” My reaction: surprise and excitement. I get to spend a week in Spain, expenses covered, drinking wine, meeting winemakers, learning firsthand about the terrior and styles of viticulture, tasting exquisite food and experiencing a new culture. The downside….hmmm, I may have to get back to you on that one.

Day 1
After several weeks of anticipation the day is finally here. We arrived in Barcelona with no time to explore the city; we get our rental car and proceed to our first appointment at Bodegas Abadal. The hour drive to the vineyard is beautiful, conversation and anticipation is flowing among our group of eight from all over the East Coast. We are greeted by the vineyard president and family patriarch Valentí Roqueta and his son for a personal tour of the original family home, now used for a museum, which dates back to 1199. The scenery is tranquil, secluded, and peaceful and makes you feel as if you stepped back in time, surrounded by mountains, listening to the birds and looking over the beautiful vineyards. We drive through the vineyards to see the differences in the vines; some are gnarly and visibly older while others are new plantings that won’t be ready for several years to produce grapes suitable for wine. We explore the huts scattered throughout the vineyards, some are centuries old, that were used as “sheds” and shelters for the farmers while working the fields in yester years. We return to the tasting room for a delicious lunch of assorted tapas, olives, sausages, and of course wine!! My favorite here is the Abadal Caberrnet Franc /Tempranillo blend with its depth and toffee and dark red fruit profile.

After thanking our gracious hosts we proceeded to our hotel for some much needed rest. Hotel Mon is a modern building looking out onto a lush courtyard with a view of a medieval monastery. The bells tolling on the hour, resting with a good book on my patio, listening to the bees buzzing from flower to flower, is a pleasant way to wind down before dinner.

Great American Beer Fest - Toni's Travelogue

All of our managers and wine staff travel at least once a year. Traveling is one of the many aspects of Joe Canal’s that sets us apart from other wine shops. We know that by tasting beer, meeting winemakers, walking vineyards and tasting new wine from the barrel, we can see first-hand the passion that goes into the products we sell. We can then convey this commitment to quality to our customers. Rather than having you just looking at a label and a score, we believe it is our responsibility to bring you closer to how the wine was made and the people who made it. We'll be sharing their trip reports with you here on the BottleBlog.

In September 2011, Toni Carver, Mick Zack, Tom Broderick and Zack Goldberg traveled to Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. Here is Toni's report of her experience on the trip.

Day 1
I met up with the guys at the Newark airport. They were finishing breakfast and we made our way to the gate. While waiting impatiently Zack and I strolled thru the duty free shop and I immediately realized we were going to have a fun weekend since we were both scotch fans, then quickly found out the whole group was!! We boarded for a slightly bumpy ride to Minnesota and made our way to the bar during our lay over. We toasted our trip with a shot of Grand Marnier and a beer and immediately found another patron in the bar heading to the GABF. The next leg of the trip was barely remembered by the guys, since they were all asleep.

Upon landing in Denver we found the Smokers Lounge and toasted the owners for sending us on our excursion with an infamous Fat Tire, an amber ale with balance hop and light malt.

We made our way to the Lowes Hotel, the Rocky Mountains and surrounding scenery were beautiful on the drive into town. The city was clean and we began to relax and enjoy the trip.

We agreed to go to the Falling Rock Tap House for dinner, a local bar and restaurant that I researched before we left. The food, while simple, was delicious, best fries any of us had ever had. The beer selection and atmosphere, which was geared towards all the GABF visitors, was fantastic. Their selection of over 75 beers on draught made it difficult to decide on what to drink. We tried Bull & Bush Big Ben Brown Ale, Odell 90 Schilling, (recommended highly by Tom) Russian River Pliney the Elder & Damnation, all of which are not distributed in New Jersey so they were a real treat.

Day 2
Friday morning we met up with Brooklyn brewery reps that were sponsoring a trip to a few local breweries. We started at Oskar Blues, a unique craft brewery that dispenses their beer in cans only. The less than traditional brewery tour taught us about the brewing process as well as their beer styles. The tour continued with lunch and beer at their brew pub just around the corner. The bar had a great beer lineup that included other selections then Oskar Blues. Tom and I started with New Belgian Clutch Dark Sour which had a very intense but pleasing taste of burnt coffee, cocoa, dried cherries, fig, and was a full bodied beer. Zack and Mick sampled the Farmhouse Peche Noir Saison by TRiNiTY, a local Colorado brewery. We then ventured to the infamous Ten Fidy imperial stout which is named for the alcohol content of 10.5. The rich malt and chocolate of the Ten Fidy paired perfectly with our burgers and the homemade salsa and chips were complimented by the hoppiness and crisp taste of the Gubna Imperial IPA by Oskar Blues which was our finishing draught.

The tour bus then moved a few minutes down the road to Left Hand Brewery. This location was much smaller then Oskar Blues since the brewery and brew pub were together. This gave it a local bar atmosphere being casual and friendly and slightly crowded. Our brief tour began with my favorite Left Hand beer, Fade to Black Volume 2. This deep, black, full bodied beer is a smoked Baltic porter with intense tastes of malt. We also sampled the new Milk Stout Nitro which had beautiful thick head and a palate of vanilla, chocolate milk, and coffee. This was dessert for a great day thus far and we are hoping it comes to NJ soon.

The tours were complete and we headed back to Denver so we could attend our first round of the Great American Beer Fest. The volunteers processed us quickly and, with glass in hand, we ventured to our first table. The lines moved swiftly but many of the stations were pour and go, pour and go. There was not much of a chance to converse with the brewery reps about the different beers. We tried many beers but these were some of the most memorable from the sessions we attended:

Bell’s: Kalamazoo Stout
Carver Brewing: Belgian IPA, Celebrated Raspberry Wheat
Hoppin Frog: Hoppin to Heaven IPA, Boris the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout
New Holland: Charkoota Rye
Dogfish Head: My favorite brewery and brew pub! Hell Hound, Bitches Brew, World Wide Stout, Tweason Ale – gluten free
Shorts: Keylime was gone but we had Captain Fantasy, Spruce Pilsner, Bourbon Wizard, Joyous Almondo
Thirsty Dog: 12 dogs of Christmas, Bourbon Barrel aged
Fat Head: This was a surprisingly great selection -Lucifer lunacy, Head Hunter IPA, Voodoo Monkey
Ommegang: Three Philosophers, Aphrodite
Blue Point: ESB
Capital City: Prohibition Porter
Fegleys: Devious Imperial Pumpkin, Hop’solutely
Flying Dog: Raging Bitch Belgian IPA, Dogtoberfest
Flying Fish: Exit 4 & 16
Victory: Golden Monkey, headwaters pale ale
Pizza Port: Poor Mans IPA , When the wifes away IPA, Way Heavy
Weyerbacher: We personally all know Natalie, our rep, who was there working the table. It was great hearing from her that they won the Gold Medal for the 16th Anniversary their Dark Braggot Ale
Allagash: Curieux, white, fluxus 2011
Smuttynose: Big A IPA, Robust Porter
Trinity: Decadence Imperial IPA, Redrum Imperial IPA
21st Amendment: Brew Free or Die IPA - Distributed in cans, Old Glory, Hell or high Watermelon Wheat (I didn’t like this one at all)
Bear Republic: Racer 5, Double Aught
The Bruery: Black Tuesday, Oude Tart
Firestone Walker: Abacus, Double Jack, Parabola
Lost Abbey: Angels Share
Russian River: Well known to be my 2nd favorite brewery. (not available in NJ) It started my love of craft beer. Pliney the Elder, Redemption, Supplication
Sierra Nevada: Tumbler Autumn Fest
Lagunitas: Hop Stoopid, A Little Sumpin, Sumpin
Deschutes: Inversion IPA,Abyss, Hop in the Dark
Rogue: Single Mlt Ale, Old Crustacean
Boulder: Hazed & Infused, MoJo IPA
Breckenridge: Barrel Aged Vanilla Porter, Oatmeal Stout, 471 IPA
Bull & Bush: Man Beer, The legend of the Liquid Brain Imperial Stout
Great Divide: Yeti Imperial Stout, Old Ruffian Barley wine, Claymore scotch Ale
Left Hand: 400 Pound Monkey
Odell: 90 Shilling, Bourbon Barrel Stout
Cigar City: White Oak IPA, Humidor IPA, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Duck-Rabbit: Porter, Milk Stout, Rabid Duck Russian Imperial Stout
Sam Adams: Highly allocated Utopia, we were lucky to get the last few pours of this. Zach and Mick never had a chance to try it before so it was great that we got there in time, Long shot 1-5, 13th hour stout


May have been others I forgot.

Day 3
We started our day shopping and browsing the downtown area. We went to a cigar shop Tom had been to the previous year and bought some hopped cigars and various souvenirs and I may have drooled over a bottle of highly allocated 9th release 30 year old Port Ellen scotch. We headed to the beer fest to find the line to get in was literally over a mile long but thankfully moved very quickly. The costumes were out in full force this time, lots of Waldo’s, beer wenches, kilts, and even kegs worn as clothes.

After our Saturday session we went to another local bar Cheeky Monk Belgian Beer Café. A great old world atmosphere that had taps right at some tables. Does it get any better than that? We introduced Zack to some fired pita bread and spinach artichoke dip. The rest of the food we had from there was great and a must visit for anyone going to the GABF.
We decided to take a few hours rest and meet up for dinner. We agreed to go to the Buckhorn Exchange due to its reputation. While waiting for our table we sat at the bar and I introduced the guys to Strannahans Colorado Whiskey. Let’s say that was a hit!! Unfortunately we don’t have a distributor for it in NJ.

At this point, as much as we love our beer, we had some wine with dinner, Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel and an awesome dinner including: Quail, Duck, Steak, Cornish Game Hen, and Rocky Mountain Oysters. It was the perfect way to end our trip!!