One of my favorite wine road warrior hotelitos in northern Spain: Hostal La Puerta del Perdon, Plaza de Prim, 4, 24500 Villafranca del Bierzo

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One of my favorite wine road warrior hotelitos in northern Spain is Micro-Hostal La Puerta del Perdon, Plaza de Prim, 4, 24500 Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain.  987 540 614


Damián Canepa with wines from Bierzo at La Puerta del Perdon Hostal-Restaurante in Vilafranca del Bierzo. Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter.

 "I highly recommend this wonderful Hostal, which has an excellent restaurant, much frequented by the best winemakers and wine people in the Bierzo region. I have stayed here on several occasions, once with my fiancee, another time with California chef Michael Chiarello. If you don't want to heft your luggage up the stairs, owner Herminio García Corral will do it for you. The food is really good here and you can sample the best wines of Bierzo. The Wi-Fi is free and works. I would have no trouble spending a week here. The hostal is right on the Camino de Santiago, so you will see a multitude of pilgrims walking by."  - - Gerry Dawes

Spain’s Food & Wine Fairs: A Perpetual Feast

Palacio de Congresos in Valencia, Scene of Vino Elite


Tetsuya Wakuda at Madrid Fusión


Ferran Ádria at Alimentaria's BCN Vanguardia

Spain’s Food & Wine Fairs: A Perpetual Feast

by Gerry Dawes
All photographs copyright 2008 by Gerry Dawes (Not to be used without permission gerrydawes@aol.com)

Spanish food and wine fairs, wine trade fairs, promotional events and gastronomic conferences can keep dedicated Spanish wine professionals, foodies and aficionados alike busy all year round, as I found out over the course of 2007, when I made a half dozen ten trips to Spain, many of them connected two and three deep to Spanish wine events. Spain now has thousands of wineries and it takes a lot of tastings to bring all that wine to the attention of the press, importers and consumers.

Read more. . . . .

Three-star Michelin Chefs Santi Santamaria, Ferran Ádria, Paul Bocuse and Juan Mari Arzak

at the Salón Internacional de Gourmets in Madrid

Vinoble: Tasting in the former Mezquita of the Alcazar in Jerez de la Frontera

Wine News Oct/Nov 2007 Mencía - Terroir & Balance

The unheralded existence of terroir-driven native varietals flourishing in northwestern Spain is comparable to the iceman encased in the glacier: By shining a critical spotlight on Bierzo, at the gates of Galicia in León province, and Ribeira Sacra, in Galicia's Ourense and Lugo provinces - much like sunlight melting back a glacier - the native mencía grape emerges from obscurity. Grown in precariously steep vineyards and often clinging to treacherous slate-strewn hillsides and Roman-style terraces, the indigenous variety is responsible for some of Spain's most intriguing and delicious terroir-laced reds. Read More

Mencía: Articles on an Amazing Grape Variety From Northwestern Atlantic Spain

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 Articles on the Mencía grape in Bierzo & in Galicia (Ribeira Sacra & Valdeorras):

The Wine News and Wines From Spain News - ICEX-USA

All Photographs by Gerry Dawes.

Pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago in Vilafranca del Bierzo, Castle of Vilafranca del Bierzo

Godello Grapes

Mencía grapes.

Mencía grapes.

Ricardo Pérez tasting Corullon at Descendientes de José Palacios Bierzo.

Old vines vineyard near Corullón.

Plowing in the precipitously steep vineyards of Corullón. 

A mule is brought in especially for this task.

Vineyard worker in the Palacios's vineyards near Corullón take a vino break with a drink from a wine bota.

Corullón, Bierzo.

Sunset from Palacios's Moncerbal Vineyard in Corullón, Bierzo.