Having a Drink with Gerry Dawes by Jordi Melendo, Verema.com

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Tomando una copa con… Gerry Dawes
(Click here to read the interview in Spanish)

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

Gerry Dawes vive en Nueva York y es escritor, fotógrafo y conferenciante especialista en la gastronomía, los vinos y la cultura de España. Vivió en Andalucía durante ocho años, lleva casi 40 viajando por el país y tiene un promedio de siete viajes gastronómicos anuales a España. Fue galardonado con el Premio Nacional de Gastronomía “Marqués de Busianos” 2003 por la Academia Española de Gastronomía y La Cofradía de la Buena Mesa y es el único extranjero honrado con el Premio Cena de los Once Vinos. Es Contributing Editor de Food Arts, Wine News, Santé y varias revistas del ICEX y ha publicado centenares de artículos sobre los vinos, la gastronomía y viajes de España. 

Ha presentado ponencias y presentaciones en Culinary Institute of America - Napa Valley, Christie's New York, Encuentro Verema (Valencia), Philadelphia Museum of Art (seis cenas durante la exposición de Dalí), International Association of Culinary Professionals (Congreso Anual), IberWine, Madrid Fusión, Fenavin, Vino a Toda Vela y presentador de los Spain's Ten (10 mejores chefs españoles en New York). Fue Chairman de la Cena-Subasta James Beard Fundation en 2004 que fue dedicado a España, honró a Ferran Adrià y Juan Mari Arzak y batió todos los records de la fundación. Fue seleccionado para dar una charla, sobre la gastronomía, vinos y cultura de Valencia en una cena de en honor de Francisco Camps, presidente de la Generalitat Valenciana en New York (Abril, 2005).

Having a drink with … Gerry Dawes

One of your virtues:

I am loyal to my friends, especially my real friends, most of whom are in Spain.

One of your faults:

I am addicted to Spain and I am always trying to do more than is humanly possible, which causes me problems.

A virtue you value in others:

Loyalty, honesty and patience, qualities which many of my Spanish friends have.

A fault you detest in others:

Dishonesty. And the love of new oak taste of over the taste of wine. I truly detest Parkerista-style wines.

Recommend a white wine:

Palacio de Fefiñanes Albariño (unoaked, with a few years in bottle.)

A Coroa Godello

Casal Novo Godello (my house white wine)

Pena Das Donas Godello

D. Ventura Mencia red wines from Ribeira Sacra

A rosé wine:

Señorío de Sarría Garnacha Rosado Viñedo #5 (one of the greatest rosé wines in the world.)

A red wine:

A great older vintage of CUNE Viña Real Oro such a 1954, 1962, 1981; Viña Bosconia 1947; Marqués de Riscal 1945 and Riscal wines from the 1920s; young, fresh, terroir-driven Mencia from Ribeira Sacra.

A Cava:

Raventos i Blanc , also Gramona or Agusti Torelló; also love good dry Pinot Noir Rosado cavas

And a Champagne:

Pol Roger, which I have had every Christmas and New Year’s Eve since 1976; I also love Bollinger, André Clouet and Champagnes that use Pinot Noir; and especially the great Rosé Champagnes.

If you had to choose just one wine which would it be:

A great dry Garnacha Rosado with good acidity, which goes with all kinds of food. They are fresh, festive, fun, satisfying and normally have no oak. And sometimes, a fine manzanilla fina de Sanlúcar

And who would you drink it with:

The most important thing about any bottle of wine is the people surrounding the bottle:

My girlfriend, Kay. And over lunch with any (or all) of these great friends, Mariano García, Basilio Izquierdo, Javier Hidalgo, Emiliano García, Juan Gil (Galicia), Emilo Cores, Manolo & Mari Carmen Esquivias, Ambrosia Molinos & family in Roa, Isaacín Muga, Juan Suarez, Esmeralda Capel, Gabriela Llamas, Lucio, Mari & Javier Blásquez, Quím Marqués, Fuensanta Bartolomeu, José Manuel Rodríguez (Ribeira Sacra), María José San Román (y Pitu, Jorge y Geni), Adolfo Muñoz & family in Toledo, Juli Soler, George Semler, el banda de gente in Sanfermínes, Raúl Aleixandre, Juan Peña, Paco Dovalo, Javier Luca de Tena, José Andrés, Carlos Falcó, Ricardo Pérez, Raúl Pérez, Pepe Limeño, the Pérez Pascuas family, Alejandro Fernández, Los Tios de Verema (José, Juan, Paco) y Las Gamberras de Chipiona. . . I have mentioned just a few and I have left out many—with profound apologies--but I am sure you only have so much space.

Your favourite meal:

I have several:  Rodaballo at either Kaia or Elkano in Getaria; Mariscos in Galicia, especially with Gerardo Mendez of Do Ferreiro; any meal at Bigote in Sanlúcar de Barrameda; chuletillas al sarmiento at Bodegas Pérez Pascuas; breakfast at Quím de la Boquería or Pinotxo in La Boquería; pochas con codornices in Navarra; alcachofas con jamón in La Balconada in Chinchón; arrós negre in Can Majo in Barcelona; any meal in Ca Sento in Valencia; Sunday nights at Casa Lucio in Madrid; salmorejo con berenjenas fritas at Juan Peña in Córdoba; arrós con caracoles y conejo at Casa Elias in Xinorlet; any lunch at Bodegas Muga, el menu de Gerry Dawes in La Taberna del Gourmet in Alicante; and a box of chocolates from Paco Torreblanca. There are many, many more.

Your favourite restaurant:

As you can see, I have many favourites. And I have been known to make pilgrimages to many restaurants scattered all over Spain. I love Bigote looking out on Bajo Guía in Sanlúcar, Kaia looking out on the fishing port and Basque Coast in Getaria; I love to take the ferry to Casa Cámara in Pasai Donibane (Pasajes de San Juan); and I love to eat La Balconada or Café Iberia in Chinchón overlooking La Plaza Mayor. Tengo muchos.

Your favourite city:

Madrid, many days; Barcelona, many days; Sanlúcar always and forever; mi Sevilla; San Sebastián; Valencia; Haro; Cambados; Chinchón; Getaria; too many to pick, but you get the idea.

Your favourite country:

Spain is the greatest country in the world. Nothing else comes close. The reason: See “And who would you drink it with.”

Which do you prefer, the seaside or the mountains:

So many choices, so little time. I love to be in Sanlúcar anytime and I love the Rías of Galicia, but I also love the mountains of Galicia, Andalucía, Navarra, La Rioja and the Picos de Europa.

Which mode of transport do you prefer:

Automobile outside of cities. It’s a freedom thing. Walking, metro or water ferry in some places.

Recommend a book:

Don Quixote; Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert; The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; Iberia by James Michener; and my Homage to Iberia (if I ever find a publisher with cojones).

A song:

“As Time Goes By” from Casablanca;  and “Yo Soy del Sur”

A film: Casablanca

What is your favourite sport:

Baseball (I am addicted to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who haven’t been winners for 17 years--sort of like being “Zoy del Beti”--and American football (New York Giants). I also follow Spanish football when I am in Spain. I was in the riot on the Ramblas when Barça confirmed a few years ago and the last game I saw was on the tele. I saw Atletico de Madrid beat Barça in La Bodegueta in San Celoni with Santi Santamaría and George Semler, which left both of them de luto (in mourning).

What is your favourite colour:

Wine red (unoaked tint) and the brilliant wedding ring gold color of great Godello.

Which is your favourite man’s name:

Cayetano

Which is your favourite woman’s name:

Victoria

Which historical personality would you have liked to have met in person:

Ernest Hemingway (maybe),

Miguel de Cervantes (when he wasn’t in jail),

Salvador Dalí (I know, I know),

King Juan Carlos I (I only briefly shook his hand);

Elroy Face (A Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher from the 1950s & 1960s)

and Antonio Ordoñez, whom I did meet and became friends with before he died).

Which three things would you take with you to a desert island:

My girlfriend, Kay; enough Patrón tequila, Torres Licor de Naranja, grapefruit juice (the island had better have limes & lemons) to make margaritas; Hendrick’s gin & Fever Tree tonica for variety; and vinos de Godello, Garnacha Rosado and Viña Real Oro to keep me going until I get off the island (I am not enamored of islands, too constricting ultimately); and my laptop with a power supply.

About Gerry Dawes

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.

Trailer filmed in Valencia & Alicante for a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Food Arts Silver Spoon Award December 2009

Gallery of Chefs & Food Personalities: Portraits by Gerry Dawes

Web Pages:

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

Adventures in Spanish Taste: Insider's Food, Wine, Cultural and Photographic Travel in Spain

The Traveling Gastronomer: A Celebration of Food, Wine, Life, Photography & Quixotic Musings

The Spanish Artisan Wine Group

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Upgraded to Five Dalí Watches: El Crucero in Corella (Navarra), Lunch with the Wines of Aliaga at One of the Great Restaurants of Navarra's Ribera Baja Wine-growing Region, Also Home to One of Spain's Finest Vegetable Growing Regions and Some of Navarra's Little-known, But Best Country Restaurants.

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 Gerry Dawes's Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí)  Melting Watch Awards.
Five Watches to Nabor Jiménez's El Crucero Restaurant in Corella (Navarra)

Updated to FIVE WATCHES after highly enthusiastic reports from Chef Michael Chiarello, Chef Susan Spicer and Debragga Meats CEO George Faison and his wife, publicist Stephane Crane Faison and my own extensive experiences in almost a dozen visits over several years.  

Also see: Another Exceptional Lunch at El Crucero in Corella (Navarra) with the Wines of Carlos Aliaga, Jan. 28, 2013

Cardos con semillas de granada (fresh cardoon salad with pomegranate seeds and the restaurant's own extra virgin olive oil), El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

Long legendary for their quality, the vegetables of La Ribera de Navarra region-fat white esparragos, green asparagus, pimientos de piquillo, artichokes, beans (pochas [fat white, cranberry bean-like and delectable), vainas [green beans], alubias [smaller white beans] and habitas, [tender young fabas]), cardos (cardoons), ajetes (green garlic shoots), etc.  

Esparragos Blancos de Navarra, Denominación de Origen protected, just like wines.

Some of the top vegetable canneries--such as Camporel in Cintruenigo (see slide show above)--in Spain are located in this region.  

The classic vegetable dish from this area is menestra, a melange of vegetables (vainas, peas, asparagus, carrots, cardoons, etc. cooked together, sometimes with ham)–are some of the best in Spain.  Menestra, when the vegetables, especially young spring vegetables, are cooked al diente is one of the great vegetable dishes of Spain.  However, in the past, menestra and other vegetables were overcooked, which ruined the dishes.  

 

Menestra, San Ignacio Restaurante, Pamplona.

Now, with advent of the well-trained chefs of the Ferran Adriá era, the overcooking vegetables--while still not a thing of the past–is much less frequently encountered.  Chefs like Enrique Martínez of Maher in Cintruenigo, Atxen Jiménez of Tubal (Tafalla), Casa García (one of the underground legends of great vegetable cooking in Navarra;  frequented by Juan Mari Arzak, Juan Suárez and other food luminaries, in Cascante, and Nabor Jiménez are doing justice to the mother lode of vegetables available in southern Navarra (and neighboring southeastern Rioja, the Rioja Baja wine growing region, also known as Rioja Oriental).

Slide show of top restaurants in La Ribera Baja region of Navarra.

If you happen to visit Corella, in the Navarra Ribera Baja wine growing region, don’t miss having lunch at El Crucero in the center of town, where Nabor Jiménez is doing some great food based on the products of this famous vegetable growing region of the Ebro Valley, the Ribera de Navarra, where Corella is located.  

Nabor Jiménez, Chef-owner of El Crucero, Corella.

I have had the good luck to have had lunch at El Crucero, twice this year, once with Carlos Fernández Aliaga, English wine merchant Anthony Sargeant and Basilio Izquierdo.  Izquierdo was the winemaker at CVNE for thirty years (until 2006) and now the winemaker owner of the tiny Rioja Alavesa bodega, Aguila Real, where he makes B. de Basilio wines (a garnacha blanca-based white that is one of the best Rioja whites I have ever tasted and a spectacular red that is reminiscent of the great CVNE Viña Real Oro wines of years past.  

Gerry Dawes, Basilio Izquierdo, Carlos Fernández Aliaga and 
English wine merchant-importer Anthony Sargeant, lunch at El Crucero.

In January, Sargeant, Izquierdo and I drove down to Corella to see Carlos and taste his wines, since Sargeant was looking for new properties for his English wine importing business.  Carlos put us in Nabor Jiménez’s capable hands and asked him to do a tasting menu for us to accompany a lineup of his wines.  First off, this being January, you may be wondering what vegetables are available in the middle of winter.  The Navarrese are masters at cooking winter vegetables such as cardoons, borrage and cabbage; making dishes with the region’s bounty of tinned and glass jarred vegetables; and turning dried beans into something magical.  

Slide show of Navarran vegetable dishes.

Our luncheon began with Viña Aliaga’s superb, cherry-red Garnacha Rosado de Lágrima 2009 (see Spanish Rosados: Among Spain's Most Delightful Wines), a brilliant, delicious rosé with good acidity, rich fruit and full-bodied (13.9%; weighty, but not over-the-top), then we sampled a 2009 Verdejo, a nice white wine with the oak, fruit and acid in harmony (and perhaps a touch of Viognier in the blend to spice it up). 

Aliaga Rosado de Lágrima de Garnacha at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

With these wines, Nabor Jiménez served us a salad of cardos con semillas de granada, a superb, refreshing dish of cardoons with pomegranate seeds and a lovely extra virgin arbequina olive oil produced by the chef's brother-in-law.  

Cardos con semillas de granada (cardoons with pomegranate seeds) at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

The next dish was bright green steamed borrajas (borrage)--a stalk vegetable that is believed to have originally come from north Africa, where in Arabic its name is abu rash-- dressed with Jiménez’s own Condado de Martinega aceite de oliva virgen, olive oil.  

Borrajas, borage, at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

Nabor Jiménez with his own Condado de Martinega aceite de oliva arbequina virgen.

He followed that with slightly picante pimientos de cristal (red peppers not to be confused with the famous local piquillo peppers), which were served with a minced black olive-infused oil.  

 Pimientos de cristal at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

Next up, with a Viña Aliaga Tinto 2007 (supposedly Tempranillo, but probably with 25% Syrah in the blend) came one of my favorite of all Navarran dishes, pochas, this with verduras (veggies: pimientos rojos y verdes, zanahorias, tomate and cebolletas, scallions) for which I put five *****, my stars.  These beans were buttery, heavenly and the soft, smooth Aliaga 2007 that came next was the right wine with which to finish this stellar dish. 

Pochas at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

The region’s wonderful alcachofas, artichokes, tender young hearts of artichoke at El Crucero, came with foie gras and just the right squirt of the normally dreaded balsamic vinegar. 

For me, it was a four-star dish, but the combination of artichoke and balsamic vinegar royally screwed up the flavor of the Garnacha Vieja 2007, one of Aliaga's best wines.   I would later come to learn that the best wine for this dish marries with both the foie-gras and the artichoke is Aliaga's Vendimia Tardia Late Harvest Moscatel, which has 11% alcohol and a lovely, light, haunting sweetness.  Improbably, this is one of the great wine and food matches in Spain, at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

Then Nabor sent out a exceptionally flavorful dish of caracoles (snails) cooked with Ibérico ham, codorniz (quail), ajos morados asados (roasted purple garlic cloves) and pimientos de cristal.  

El Crucero's Snail dish at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

The purple garlic cloves reminded me of Las Pedroneras (Castilla-La Mancha) in the province of Cuenca, which is the ajo morado capital of Spain (read Gilroy, California, the U. S. garlic capital) and has a festival to celebrate the bulb every year.  The town is also home to arguably the best restaurant in that region, Las Rejas, where the great chef of La Mancha, my friend Manuel de la Osa cooks.  Nabor Jiménez brought out a plate of the big purplish cloves to show us.  “Ajo morado is much finer garlic than the kind we have here in Corella,” Jiménez said.  

Ajos morados (purple garlic) at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

To accompany this dish, we had an Aliaga Cuveé Tempranillo-Cabernet Sauvignon that was well-balanced, smooth and elegant despite its 14% alcohol and with the patorillo, practically embryonic baby, baby lamb parts (the feet, tripe and and bones; all tender, but  this was not the all-time favorite lamb dish on my lamb pleasure meter).

 Patorillo at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra)..

With the patorillo, we also had the dark, silky Aliaga Reserva de la Familia, a blend of 85% tempranillo, 10% cabernet sauvignon and a 5% hit of “other,” which I guessed may be the dastardly outlawed (not permitted in Navarra) grape, Syrah.  The wine was rich at just under 14% and had sweet cherry and black raspberry flavors with a hint of clove and a bit of oak bite in the finish.  

Aliaga Cuveé at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

With a fine cabrito asado, roast kid with a wonderful crackling skin, we drank the Aliaga Colección Privada 2007, another well-made, silky wine with moderate alcohol (for southern Navarra) at 13.7% and more sweet cherry and blackberry flavors.  

 Cabrito asado at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

The Colección Privada 2007 was made from 80% tempranillo, 15% cabernet sauvignon and 5% of the ubiquitous “other.”  It was aged for 13 meses in 60%  French Allier oak and 40% American oak, mercifully none of which was new oak (the barrels are 3-4 years old); instead the wine was well-rounded without the raspy new oak curtain that one finds marring the finish of many so-called “modern” wines.

We finished up this superb luncheon with helado de turrón de Jijona, a rich, nutty, delicious almond turrón ice cream, which was accompanied by the exceptional Viña Aliaga Moscatel Vendimia Tardía (Late Harvest) 2008, a deep green-gold, beautifully fresh, perfumed wine with only 11% alcohol and great acid levels to carry the lovely sweet, but never cloying, honeysuckle flavors that made it taste like a fresh moscatel grape trapped in a bottle. 

Helado de turrón de Jijona, almond nougat ice cream, at El Crucero, Corella (Navarra).

(Also see Food in Navarra, Navarra's Country Cuisine [Stay tuned for an updated version.])

Recommended Restaurants in La Ribera Baja region of Southern Navarra:  

El Crucero, calle Mayor 1, 31591 Corella (Navarra).  Tel: 948 78 16 83

(Exit 16 off AP-68, Corella-Cintruenigo exit, drive 3 kms.  to center of Corella, straight ahead beyond the stoplight. Parking in streets around and behind the restaurant.)  Moderate.

Maher Restaurante-Hotel, Ribera 19, 31592 Cintruénigo (Navarra)
Tel. 948 81 11 50 . Fax 948 81 27 76 gestion@hotelmaher.com

The one-star Michelin restaurant of maestro Enrique Martínez and his brothers, Martínez Hermanos, thus Maher.  Offers a fine combination of modern Spanish dishes and beautifully prepared Navarrese classics, including vegetable dishes from La Ribera de Navarra. Reasonably priced for the quality of the dishes served.  (Located in the same town as Bodegas Julián Chivite.)

Casa García, Mayor 93, 31521 Murchante (Navarra). 948 838 052

An underground legend of great vegetable cooking in Navarra, frequented by Juan Mari Arzak, Juan Suárez and other food luminaries, in Cascante (Navarra).  Not expensive.

Tubal, Plaza de Navarra 2, Tafalla.  948 79 08 52  70 12 96.  tubal@restaurantetubal.com
Owned and run by Atxen Jiménez, a woman with the highest standards for cuisine and service, and her son, Chef Nicolas, Michelin one-star Tubal is one of the top-ranked and most elegant restaurants in Navarra. It offers first-rate, sophisticated nueva cocina and artfully prepared renditions of Navarrese classics, always based on the best, freshest ingredients. Tubal has an excellent wine list.  Expensive.

Restaurante Hotel Casa Zanito, Rua Mayor 16, Olite.  948 74.00.02

This restaurant serves nueva cocina dishes such as hake-filled crêpes with clam sauce and classics such as brick oven-roasted shoulder of goat.  Moderately expensive.  Has two lovely hotels in Olite. 

Mesón El Chapitel, Mirapies 8, 31390 Olite (Navarra); Tel.:  948 71 22 50

This is a fun restaurante on an interior street in the old village of Olite.  For those who want a break for all those veggies in southern Navarra (all the restaurants have fish and meat dishes on their menus), you can really get off the wagon here.  El Chapitel serves excellent steaks of a wood-fired grill (my friend Michael Whiteman, the ex-jefe of Windows on the World and President of the Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Company, says Chapitel's steak was "one of the best I have ever eaten."  Chapitel also serves grilled rabbit, lamb and veggies, including good salads, for which you would be wise to tell them to hold the balsamic vinegar, and you can even get a good pizza here.

Bodega Chateau-Hotel Pago de Cirsus de Iñaki Nuñez, Ablitas, (Navarra) (5 kms. from Tudela).

The title alone gives you the idea.  This hotel-restaurante-winery is crowned by a glaring white faux castle keep of very recent construction.  It is the property of film magnate Iñaki Nuñez’s and looks like what a film maker magnate might imagine a castle-winery to be.  The hotel is comfortable and the restaurant is good.  I did not like the wines.

Recommended lodging in La Ribera Baja region of Southern Navarra (and nearby La Rioja Baja): 

AC Ciudad De Tudela, Misericordia S/N, 31500 Tudela (Navarra). Tel: 948 40 24 40; Fax: 948 40 24 41; ctudela@ac-hotels.com

Best Western Hotel Hospederia Nuestra Señora del Villar, NA-161 km 2.5, 31591 Corella (Navarra). Tel: 34 948 78 21 97;Fax: 34 948 40 40 32

Hotel-Restaurante Palacios, Ctra Zaragoza s/n 26540 Alfaro (La Rioja). 866-538-0187 (reservations).A good restaurante and wine museum in a hotel owned by the family of internationally renowned winemaker, Alvaro Palacios of Priorat L'Ermita, Clos Dofi, Les Terrasses fame. The family winery, located in Alfaro is Bodegas Palacios Remondo.

 
Parador de Turismo Principe de Viana, Plaza Teobaldos 2, 31390 Olite (Navarra). Tel: 34 948 74 00 00; Fax: 00 34 948 74 02 01; olite@parador.es

A storybook parador alongside a XVth century castle in the magical village of Olite.

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About Gerry Dawes  

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 the subject of 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. 

 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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. 

Ribeira Sacra: The Perfect Lunch at O Grelo Restaurant

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Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dalí) Rating.

Ribeira Sacra vineyards in Amandi overlooking the Sil River with the Catamaran that carries tourists. 
 Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

In recent years, La Ribeira Sacra, a stunningly beautiful, isolated wine region located some 350 miles northwest of Madrid in northwestern Spain's mountainous Galicia, has begun showing some of the most exciting potential I have encountered in more than 40 years of traveling the wine roads of Spain. Here God and Men--using primarily godello for white wines and mencía for reds--are creating exceptionally delicious, often profound wines from native grapes grown in impossibly steep, rocky vineyards, whose terroir is the equal of any in France. The region's is so awesomely compelling and the wines so enticingly beckon the drinker back for another sip--with bright fruit, good acid balance, lower alcohol levels and, mercifully, little or no flavor destroying new oak flavors--that the Ribeira Sacra is rapidly becoming one of the most compelling "new" wine regions on earth.

Lunch at O Grelo, Monforte de Lemos, Ribeira Sacra
 
(An interview with Gerry Dawes at O Grelo restaurant by Luíz Díaz in La Voz de Galicia [English translation])

As I write this (literally, I have a note pad with me at the table) I am having lunch alone on the terrace of O Grelo, a very good traditional Galician restaurant situated just down the hill from the parador and castle of Monforte de Lemos, the main regional agricultural and business center of La Ribeira Sacra. For the third time this week I do something I almost never do--at least in the same short span of days--I am repeating one of those nearly perfect meals that I have sometimes been lucky enough to encounter.

Almalarga Godello and the Galician Cows' Milk Cheeses

Tetilla

First, I am served wedges of three kinds of Galician cows' milk cheeses--the suggestive tetilla (shaped like a woman’s breast), the pleasantly ahumado (smoked) San Simón and a creamy Ulloa-Arzúa–with which I am drinking Pena das Donas Almalarga Godello (2008), a Ribeira Sacra white wine that is one of my favorites.

This wine has a depth of white peach fruit and haunting minerality that is hard to match in all of Spain, a wine that one day could become known as Spain's equivalent of Montrachet. It is lovely, beautifully drinkable and calls you back to the glass again and again, something that seems to be a defining characteristic of many Ribeira Sacra wines, both white and red. The Almalarga Godello is a perfect foil for the milky richness of the cheeses.
 
Tomatoes, Onion and Pan Galego

Next comes a plate of fresh tomatoes and onions; at least three, maybe four tomatoes come cut in wedges. It is a huge plateful, topped with very thinly sliced onions. The first day at lunch, I asked the waiter to take at least half the tomatoes away, since I don't want to waste them. That was a mistake. This time I keep all the tomatoes. 

For dressing this simple, but sublime dish, I am brought a stainless steel rack with Spanish extra virgen olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper shakers and a bowl of Maldon salt on the side. I sprinkle the tomatoes and onions with the Maldon first, then drizzle on a good quantity of olive oil, followed by a sprinkling of vinegar. The oil and vinegar will pool on the plate, mix with the juice of the tomatoes and make for prime dipping for the excellent, crusty, thick pan galego (Galician bread) in the basket alongside. The tomatoes are just ripe, never overripe, and are still firm to the bite and the sheer onion slices make a perfect counterpoint. I am in heaven with this salad.

 
Zamburiñas, tomates, Godello and Décima Ribeira Sacra Mencia at O Grelo restaurante, Monforte de Lemos, Ribeira Sacra, Galicia. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Zamburiñas al horno

For the main course, I have zamburiñas al horno (oven-baked small scallops). There are eight of them, each in its half shell cradled by a crescent of pink-orange coral with the milky white scallop juices pooling up in the shell. 

Zamburiñas and my notebook, lunch at O Grelo restaurante, Monforte de Lemos, Ribeira Sacra, Galicia. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

The zamburiñas, one of my favorite of all Galician bi-valve or crustacean dishes (which is saying something given the incredible range of Gallegan mariscos), are unflavored by anything but the sea and their own good taste and are incredibly delicious.

Dessert is arroz con leche with a caramelized sugar, créme brulée-like crust on top.

The Pena Das Donas Almalarga Godello 2008 with its sweet stone fruit flavors and long, compelling mineral finish balanced perfectly by fine acid levels is a superb match for the scallops and made this luncheon complete, ethereal, unforgettable.

Antonio Lombardía pouring Pena Das Donas Godello. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes 2008.

Wine Tasting note:
 

Pena das Donas, Pombeiro, Pantón (Lugo), Ribeiras do Minho Almalarga Godello 2008 Summum $21 (13%) US Importer: Eric Solomon European Cellars

Lively green tinged, white gold.

Beautiful nose of lime, white peach and minerals.

Soft, silky and well balanced with lovely, sweet white peach fruit, and a haunting, lingering bitter almond and a haunting mineral finish. This is wine that may benefit further from a year in bottle. 93 points Exceptional value.

(This summer I drank the 2006 Almalarga, one of several bottles I had, and rated it 96 points.)

Antonio Lombardía, one of the owners of Adegas Pena Das Donas, who makes the stellar Almalarga Godello. With him a his vineyardist-partner, Jesus Vázquez Rodríguez and visitor Basilio Izquierdo, who made the top Rioja CUNE wines for 30 years. Views of Pena das Donas vineyards. Photos by Gerry Dawes©2008.

Restaurant & Hotel Info:

O Grelo, Campo de la Virgen, s/n, Monforte de Lemos (Lugo) 15011, Spain (Just down the hill from the Parador.) Telephone: 011-34 982 404 701. 
 

Hotel Parador de Monforte de Lemos, Plaza Luis de Góngora y Argote, s/n - 27400 Monforte de Lemos (Lugo), Spain. Telephone: 011-34 408 916 9102; Fax: 982418495; monforte@parador.es

Road Warrior's Inexpensive Hotel:
 

Hotel Ribeira Sacra, Rúa do Conde, 17, 27400 Monforte de Lemos (Lugo) Teléfono: 982411706; Fax: 982411546; ribeirasacra@yahoo.es

Modern, plain, comfortable (good beds) and homey, sometimes a bit noisy; wi-fi on the first floor and in the breakfast room. Spartan breakfast available: pan tostado or croissant with butter and jam, café or tea and freshed juiced orange juice. At about 30 Euros per night, a steal. My home-away-from-home in Ribeira Sacra.

More on Galicia

La Queimada in Galicia with Paco Dovalo & the Group of Bodegueros Artesanos - Video by Zachary Minot, Devour.tv

Lampreia: Eating Lamprey Eel Along the Minho River in Southern Galicia

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About Gerry Dawes   

 The American writer and town crier for all good Spanish things Gerry Dawes . . .” – The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and The World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese (The Dial Press, New York), Michael Paterniti, Bestselling Author of Driving Mr. Albert. 

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"Gerry Dawes, I can't thank you enough for opening up Spain to me." -- Michael Chiarello on Twitter. Chef Chiarello toured northern Spain with me in October 2011 and was just in Barcelona again in January 2013.  He is preparing to open his new Spanish inspired restaurant, Coqueta, at San Francisco's Pier 5 in April.

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"In his nearly thirty years of wandering the back roads of Spain," Gerry Dawes has built up a much stronger bank of experiences than I had to rely on when I started writing Iberia...His adventures far exceeded mine in both width and depth..." -- James A. Michener, author of Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections

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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 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.

 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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