Meeting Up With Rioja Artisan Winemaker Luís Alberto Lecea in Bilbao, An Adventure at a Steakhouse Hidden in The Wooded Hills Above the City. Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain The Pre-Post COVID Road Warrior Adventure.

 

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Rioja Artisan Winemaker Luís Alberto Lecea at Bar Gozo in Deusto (Bilbao). 

 

In Bilbao on June 4, 2021. Tom Perry had a meeting in Bilbao, so I hitched a ride with him and met up with my great Rioja artisan bodeguero friend, Luís Alberto Lecea, owner of Bodegas Lecea in San Asensio, one of the top producers of family artisan wines in la Rioja. And because his wine is made in caves and his Corazón de Lago cosechero vino tinto is made from grapes crushed by feet in an open-top lagar (concrete wine vat), Bodegas Lecea is one of the top wineries for wine tourism in la Rioja.

I met Luís Alberto at a tasca in Deusto, a Bilbao barrio just across the river from the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum and we had a vino and some pintxos, then he drove me up into the hills overlooking Bilbao on one side and the Bilbao Sondika airport on the other.

Luís Alberto took me to a Bilbainos-only (tourists can´t find it) place Asador Txakolí Simón, a restaurant that produces its own Txakolí and serves fire-grilled steaks and typical Basque dishes. 

 

Asador Txakolí Simón, a restaurant that produces its own Txakolí and serves fire-grilled steaks and typical Basque dishes. 

We started with house-cured anchoas, anchovies cured in oil, then had steak grilled rare, but served with a table grill with hot coals to continue grilling the meat to each diner´s liking, along with fried potatoes and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes and onions. We accompanied the anchoas with rustic country bread that came in a bag (an attractive measure adopted in the COVID era) and accompanied it with the house Txakolí Simón and with the steak, we had a Lecea Reserva Tinto.

 

House-cured anchoas, anchovies cured in oil, at Asador Txakolí Simón, a restaurant in the hills above Bilbao.

Rare steak at Asador Txakolí Simón.

 

Steak grilled rare, but served with a table grill with hot coals to continue grilling the meat to each diner´s liking at Asador Txakolí Simón.

 

Steak grilled rare, but served with a table grill with hot coals to continue grilling the meat to each diner´s liking at Asador Txakolí Simón.

 

We accompanied the anchoas with rustic country bread that came in a bag (an attractive measure adopted in the COVID era), at Asador Txakolí Simón.

 

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  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?

 

Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,

in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.

 _______________________________________________________

 

In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019) 

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
 

About Gerry Dawes Bio, Awards, Quotes from Famous Chefs and Culinarians and Custom Gastronomic and Cultural Tours to Spain

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

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@gmail.com