Gerry Dawes & His Amazing Spanish Artisanal Wines, Huffington Post

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by Brad Haskel, Huffington Post

 

 Drinking Godello at Estado Puro in Madrid.
Photo by Harold Heckle, Associated Press, Madrid. 

With his uniquely artistic vision, Gerry Dawes has knitted together a portfolio of family owned Spanish wineries of incredible quality. Recently, he formed a sales and marketing company called The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group-Gerry Dawes Selections, that has already begun appearing in great restaurants around the country. Gerry's path for leading the company is based on his many years of experience selling the wines selected by other historically notable wine merchants; Gerald Asher, Colonel Frederick Wildman, Robert Haas, and Leonardo LoCascio. His fine wine experience, and an adult lifetime love affair with Spain is the perfect recipe for this company. His strengths are an undying passion for finding wines that represent what is true, either by tradition, or by an uncluttered vision for the cutting edge.  

Ask him about his wines and he will tell you very surely why they are in the selection.

 
"It is easy," he says, "I just hate wines that suck."

Gerry is an acquired taste. His wines are not. I am his business partner, and I have been in the wine trade more than 25 years. I can honestly say this is as fine a portfolio of wines I have ever tasted. Gerry's passion fuels a  ferocious point of view for what great wine should be at all levels of the spectrum. 

He looks for wines with purity, cleanliness, typicity, low alcohol levels, little to no use of oak, with the exceptions of regions where the tradition requires it. Even then, he starts to rant, if the levels of barrel aging are out of balance to the wine itself. His belief is in the vineyards and what they produce, with as little interference from winemaking tricks as possible. Purity and terruño, the Spanish version of terroir, is what makes Gerry smile.

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About Gerry Dawes

Dawes is Presidente-Jefe & Chairman of the Board, The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.  

 In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com.