Gael Greene in The Bite on Ibiza Tapas Danbury by Ignacio Blanco

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Gael Greene in The Bite on Ibiza Tapas Danbury by Ignacio Blanco 

"Gerry Dawes, passionate lover of all things Spanish, insisted I come to Ibiza Tapas Danbury for dinner." 

September 24, 2018 | BITE: My Journal

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Come From Away: Ibiza Tapas

 

Feroe Islland salmon with maple syrup and aged sherry vinegar is served on crisp rice soccarat.

          

Alas, I don’t feel I have a choice. It’s not like I had big plans for Saturday night when my one-time tapas buddy,  photographer and Spanish grapenut Gerry Dawes, called to say I needed to explore Ibiza Tapas Wine Bar. Dawes, mono-manically crazed champion of everything Spanish, had made Manhattan tapas rounds with me in 2008 (Click here to read Manhattan Tapas Crawl). He’s bold and willing. He and his wife Kay would drive down from Patterson, NY to pick me up.

“That’s crazy,” I say. “If you’re coming to New York, let’s have dinner here.”

The wines list offers 14 whites from Chile, Spain, Italy, California amd Uruguay, plus two dozen from Spain. 

           

On reconsideration of geographic challenges, it seems the owner of Ibiza will send a car and driver. If tapas coercion were a little bit sexier, I would expose this plot on #MeToo. I certainly feel slightly pressured, but I am free after all, and the traffic going north won’t be like Friday night. Now it sounds like an adventure and I agree to come.

The dining room is separated from the bar by colorful glass panels.

At last. We pull into the designated lookalike little mall. I’m here.  A blur: Ibiza stretches long and wide with a 14-seat banquette running the length of the room, a bright painting at one end and tiny fiber-optic lights embedded in the bar-counter.

 

Gerry Dawes, passionate lover of all things Spanish, insisted I came to Danbury for dinner. 

           

Dawes and his wife Kay sit sipping a sparkling rosé with Robert Brown, author of Restaurant Politics.com and his mate, Susan Reinhold of the graphics gallery Reinhold Brown. I’m offered my choice of seats and Gerry pours some pink bubbles for me.

 

Legend says one in nine shishito peppers will be torrid. My two are just a bit hot.

A waiter delivers a platter of fried shishito peppers and Dawes introduces Ibiza’s owner Ignacio Blanco – he’s not a cook, Dawes says, but he’s the creator here. Blanco protests. Salt-cured tuna scallops with tomatoes, red onion, ginger and scallion are set before us.

"This is not authentic Spanish food,” Dawes announces, spearing some tuna for his wife and some for me. “It’s all invented by Ignacio.”

Salt-cured tuna is served with tomatoes, red onions, ginger, scallions and micro greens.

         

“But of course we have Gil Trejo,” Ignacio protests. “He is the chef.”

           

“But you dream up this stuff,” Dawes persists.

 

Salt-baked sea bass with raisins, pinenuts and paprika oil sits atop potatoes, carrots and mushroom confit.

           

The tuna plates are removed to make way for a stunning platter of salmon rectangles smeared with Taconic Distillery sweet maple syrup sauce, a scattering of baby greens and orchid flower petals on top. It looks like a festival against the black painted wood table. Not till I taste it do I realize the fish is sitting on a nutty crisp. It’s socarrat, the baked-on crust that sticks to a paella pan.

 

Large shrimp served in a bowl with a dressing of garlic, parsley, lemon, tomato and guindilia pepper. 

           

Now it’s time for shrimp. The first little bowl is garlicky with parsley, lemon, tomato and guindilla pepper. Large grilled shrimp in barbecue-scented seaweed escabeche are mounded in a second dish. 

 

Grilled Stonington scallops with pickled onions and drops of alioli nest on black socarrat rice.

          

Smoked Galician octopus with smoked Spanish paprika, cucumber and mango follows. The tender chunks are sitting on smoky bomba rice. Scatterings of coarse salt bite the tongue. Black rice socarrat appears again, this time under grilled scallops decked out with radish, pickled onions, and little sprigs of green. There are small islands of aioli on the plate and more sauce in a bowl alongside.

Romesco escabeche flavors the duck confit cannelloni.

          

All these tapas are filing. I find myself staring at the salt baked bass strewn with raisins, pine nuts on a hill of potato, carrot and mushrooms confit and groaning.  I take a small taste. 

“Just one more dish,” Gerry assures us.  “Or maybe two,” he corrects himself.

I plan to take just a small taste of the foie gras hazelnut nougat layered with salt-cured tuna.

A plate of fresh fruit cut in chunks signals that dinner is reaching a dessert climax.

           

Each individual cannelloni of duck confit with foie gras and veal in Romesco escabeche seems large, but it’s so good. I manage a few bites. I plan to take just a small sample of the foie gras hazelnut nougat, colorfully layered with salt cured tuna, and caramelized mango on toast on rich streaks of Pedro Ximenez reduction. It turns out to be salty and lush and sweet.  I manage to put away a substantial little pileup.

Desserts accumulate including donuts to dip in chocolate. The evening’s only flaw, curdled chocolate.

There is cheesecake among the desserts. I can resist that too.

         

I consider abstaining from dessert, but then it appears. Gerry spoons up some crema catalana (the Spanish inspiration for crème brûlée).  I take a spoonful of the crackle and custard of his dish, and then another. 

I have bypassed most of the desserts to save myself for two spoonsful of crema catalana.

           

The long drive home always seems faster.  Especially when you’ve been basted and amused and stuffed brilliantly in good company and you manage to fall asleep.

          

Ibiza Tapas Danbury, 93 Mill Plain Road. Danbury, CT. 203 616 5731.Tuesday to Thursday 5 pm to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 5 pm to 11 pm. Sunday 5 pm to 9 pm. Closed Monday.

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 About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.

  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@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

Clemente Gómez, Maestro Cortador de Jamón Slicing the Superb Jamón Ibérico Pata Negra de Bellota de Pedroches (Córdoba), Producers of Some Amazingly Good Jamones

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Maestro Cortador Clemente Gómez with a freshly cut slice of  
Jamón Ibérico Pata Negra de Bellota de Pedroches (Córdoba) at Madrid Fusión.

Slide show of Clemente Gómez cutting Jamón Ibérico Pata Negra de Bellota
de Pedroches (Córdoba) at Alimentaria 2010 in Barcelona in March.

* * * * *

Clemente Gómez, Maestro Cortador de Jamones, when not slicing Pedroches hams at gastronomy fairs, can be reached at his 'day' job in Andalucía as owner of:

Supermercado Atlántida

1ª pista de La Barrosa

Chiclana (Cádiz)

956 494 164 - 615 326 637

clementegomezcortador@hotmail.es

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About Gerry Dawes

Writing, Photography, & Specialized Tours of Spain & Tour Advice

For custom-designed tours of Spain, organized and lead by Gerry Dawes, and custom-planned Spanish wine, food, cultural and photographic itineraries, send inquiries to gerrydawes@aol.com.  

I have planned and led tours for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Lomonaco and Michael Chiarello and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez and led on shorter excursions and have given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities such as Drew Nieporent, Norman Van Aken, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg, Christopher Gross, Rick Moonen, James Campbell Caruso and many others.

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“The American writer and town crier for all good Spanish things Gerry Dawes . . . the American connoisseur of all things Spanish . . .” Michael Paterniti, The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and The World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese

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"Gerry Dawes, I can't thank you enough for opening up Spain to me." -- Michael Chiarello on Twitter. 

"Chiarello embarked on a crash course by traveling to Spain for 10 days in 2011 with Food Arts

contributing authority Gerry Dawes, a noted expert on Spanish food and wine.  Coqueta's (Chiarello's new restaurant at Pier Five, San Francisco) chef de cuisine, Ryan McIlwraith, later joined Dawes for his own two week excursion, as well. Sampling both old and new, they visited wineries and marketplaces, as well as some of Spain's most revered dining establishments, including the Michelin three-star Arzak, Etxebarri, the temple to live fire-grilling; Tickets, the playful Barcelona tapas bar run by Ferran Adrià and his brother, Albert; and ABaC, where Catalan cooking goes avant-garde." - - Carolyn Jung, Food Arts, May 2013.

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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

 * * * * *

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. 

* * * * *

Trailer-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

Travels in Spain with Gerry Dawes: Specialized, Customized, Unforgettable Food, Wine & Cultural Trips Planned and Led by an Internationally Known Expert on Spain

* * * * *

 Gerry Dawes drinking wine from a porrón at a the great traditional Catalan cuisine Restaurante Ibèric in Ullastret, Girona, Catalunya.

"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. . . is adventures far exceeded mine in both width and depth..." -- James A. Michener, author of Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections

 My close friends, Mari Carmen Onrubia y her husband Manolo Esquivias

dancing Sevillanas in their caseta in the Feria de Sevilla.

A long-time insider, Gerry Dawes, a traveler in Spain for decades, leads travelers on unforgettable food, wine and cultural adventures in Spain. I put together customized trips for groups. You put together a group, I design, budget and lead the trip. I specialize in Spanish gastronomy (both modern and exceptional regional cuisine), wine (I am considered by many to be the American authority on Spanish wines), culture (historical sights, fiestas, art, etc.), back-country adventures (I have led 60 Minute television crews and numerous famous American chefs on Spanish adventures), Jewish Spain (one of my aficiones; beyond Sevilla, Toledo and Córdoba--Have you ever heard of Ribadavia, Hervás and Girona?) and more. And I can customize any trip to encompass several of my areas of expertise. 

 Lunch at Jardines Alberto in Granada, Commonwealth Club of California Taste of Spain Trip 2013.

Depending upon your financial resources, I can design and lead trips from couples and small groups of friends to larger groups such as those I led (twice) for the Commonwealth Club of California (25 people), graduates of the U. S. Air Force Academy (twice, 16 people each trip) and the Club Managers of America. 

Gerry Dawes, Tetsuya Wakuda, Rochelle Smith, Lidia Iaccarino, Janet Van Aken, the late Charlie Trotter, Norman Van Aken at Marisquería Rafa in Madrid on an outing I organized.
 

I have planned and/or led tours, outings, dinners and tapas crawls in Spain for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Norman Van Aken, Charlie Trotter, Michael Ginor, Rick Bayless, Michael Lomonaco, Tetsuya Wakuda, Rick Moonen, Christopher Gross, David Burke, Terrance Brennan, Michael Chiarello, Ryan McIlwraith; restaurateurs such as Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent and Cindy Pawlcyn; culinary figures including Michael and Ariane Batterberry, Rozanne Gold, the late Peter Kump, Michael Whiteman, Tim Zagat, Jeffrey Steingarten, Colman Andrews, Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, John Sconzo, Ruth Reichl, Jim Poris and John Mariani; and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez, Senator James Abourezk (D-SD) and I have given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities. 

Gerry Dawes and baseball great Keith Hernandez at the Alhambra in Granada, 2013.

Baseball great Keith Hernandez: “Gerry (Dawes) is one of the great, premiere Spanish wine experts and he does tours to Spain. I did one on my 60th Birthday four years ago. I went for a month to Spain with Gerry and had the most wonderful time. We went to all the right restaurants in Madrid, Sevilla, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, everywhere we had to go, Gerry put it together. We just had the most wonderful time, wined and dined. And that is what Gerry does.“

 With John Sconzo and his son L. J. outside Segovia on our jamón Ibérico tour of western and southern Spain.

“I have said this before and I’ll say it again, nobody knows Spain like Gerry Dawes. I sincerely doubt that there is another American, and very few, if any, Spaniards can approach, let alone surpass his knowledge of the people, food, wine and culture of Spain. He has been frequenting the depths, breadths and heights of the country as a second home for nearly fifty years, leaving no stone, and especially no wine, unturned during that time.” -- Wining and Dining Around Spain with Gerry Dawes: Part 1 (of a 6-part series) by John Sconzo, Docsconz: Musings on Food & Life (Sconzo has been on six trips to Spain with me.)

 My great friend Chef Javier Muñoz at his Palacio de Cibeles Restaurante overlooking the heart of downtown Madrid. 

Contact: gerrydawes@aol.com

___________________________________________________________ 

  

 

About Gerry Dawes

"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 WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.  Gerry Dawes & Friends can be heard live on Mondays from 7-8 p.m. and Saturdays from 2-3 p.m. at www.pawlingpublicradio.org.

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@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

Arrós en paella with Calasparra rice from Murcia, shrimp, scallops, squid rings, chorizo, green beans, peas, red pepper "stars", Pimentón de Murcia and saffron

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Arrós en paella with Calasparra rice from Murcia, shrimp, scallops, squid rings, chorizo, green beans, peas, red pepper "stars," Pimentón de Murcia and azafrán (saffron)--yeh, we know it is overloaded with ingredients and yes, it's about the rice, Get over it. I had seven hungry paella lovers to feed! Paella after it came of the grill and prior to covering with a towel a few minutes before serving. Photo: Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com. 

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Slide show on making the paella. 

__________________________________________________________________________

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 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. 

 

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

The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

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

A Modern Version of Cordoban Classic Tomato-based Salmorejo at the Legendary Taberna Mesón Juan Peña

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At the legendary Taberna Juan Peña in Córdoba, the classic tomato-based salmorejo with Cordoban extra virgen olive oil, topped with hard-cooked egg and small bits of Spanish jamón Ibérico de bellota (from the D.O. Pedroches, Córdoba province), ham from free-range pata negra (black hoof breed) pigs fattened on acorns.  Juan's wife, Mari Carmen, makes theses salmorejos.  It was served with a sherry-like fino from Montilla-Moriles, a D.O. also from Córdoba province.  Berenjenas fritas, olive oil fried eggplant strips are often served with salmorejo as a sauce into which the eggplant strips are dipped.  Like the most exquisite French fries with the most exquisite ketchup you have ever eaten.  

At Taberna Juan Peña in Córdoba, two exceptionally good salmorejos, one tomato-based, the other white-and-green asparagus-based, both topped with hard-cooked egg and small strips of Spanish jamón Ibérico de bellota (from the D.O. Pedroches, Córdoba province), ham from free-range pata negra (black hoof breed) pigs fattened on acorns. Photos by Gerry Dawes©2009. Contact: gerrydawes@aol.com

Pamplona Portraits from the Past: Alice Hall, Matt Carney, Derry Hall, Big Dave Pierce, Chris Humphreys, Joe Distler, Jimmy Hollander, Davey Crockett, Donnie Spicehandler, Charles Patrick Scanlan, Tim Hatfield, Noel Chandler, Jesse Graham, Ray Mouton & More

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Matt Carney.

All photographs by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact: gerrydawes@aol.com

Excerpt from Homage to Iberia (Chapter One): My Arrival in Spain 50 Years Ago on January 2, 1968

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Bullring, El Puerto de Santa María.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

On January 2, 1968, not long after daylight, our military plane banked near El Puerto de Santa María and I got my first glimpse of Spain: whitewashed buildings surrounded by palm trees in a sea of stubby vines surrounded by stark white soil, for the base at Rota lay near the Sherry vineyards between Jerez de la Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda.  As the plane circled before landing, I could not help noticing the circular enclosures which I would learn were bullrings, the big one at El Puerto de Santa María and smaller ones where I would one day find first hand that young fighting cows are tested for bravery.  Spain was already beginning to fascinate me and I had not even touched the ground.     

 

The plane landed, physically in Spain, but on an American enclave, where I would stay for the next week, champing at the bit to discover my first foreign country.    New arrivals were not allowed off  the base until they had attended the don’t-drink-the-water, don’t-eat-the-food, don’t-get-in-fights-with-the-natives, don’t-molest-the-señoritas lecture, which was held once a week.  Alas, for our just arrived group, the indoctrination lecture was not scheduled for nearly a week.  

All I saw of Spain during my first week in Rota were the glimpses I got on the daily bus rides to my work assignment at a large white security building, surrounded by a huge antennae field-- derisively known to the enlisted men as the “hum locker” because of the constant humming sound the antennaes made--where Navy linguists in French, Arabic, and Russian clandestinely eavesdropped on radio conversations from around the Mediterranean.  
    

From the perimeter road, across the strands of barbed wire that encircled the base, I saw men plodding along on burros past scrappy-looking farms with cottages, many of which in those days still had thatched roofs and in whose sparse environs grew cactus and palm trees.  I saw little of the greenery and trees that I knew from my native Midwest; this was more like parts of California, perhaps even more barren.  Still, those few glimpses were tantalizing and exotic. 

Burros, once common in Spain, now very rare. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Finally, along with other new arrivals, we were given the indoctrination lecture and allowed off the base.  I went to downtown Rota with a fellow sailor for my first meal in Spain: Spaghetti with meat sauce, served in an “American” bar, where Spanish and foreign girls, very few of whom were actually prostitutes, tried to keep lonesome young men engaged in conversation, thus keeping the wheels hot on the trucks that delivered San Miguel and Cruzcampo beer to the bars of  Rota.  The latest American rock music blared from a jukebox, continually reminding my compatriots of the girls they had left behind, perpetuating their homesickness and underscoring their determination to get out of “Mother Nav” and away from Spain, whose people some of them contemptuously referred to as “Moes” (or Moroccans) the name laid on the local Spaniards by sailors who had been transferred to Rota from Kenitra, Morocco.  

La Gitana Manzanilla, a Sherry made in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, about 10 miles northwest of Rota.  
Sanlúcar de Barrameda has long been one of my favorite towns in Spain. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

I knew men who spent two years at Rota and never got more than a few kilometers from the base.  Once I lured one of them as far away as Cádiz, that wonderful, exotic seaport city across the bay from Rota, to see the sights, but he became so uncomfortable after a couple of hours, that he demanded we return to the Rota to drink in the American bars.

I too joined the daily post-shift migration to the bars of  Rota, drinking my share of drinks,  playing my share of pool, telling my share of jokes, and trying, like hundreds of other enlisted men and officers, to woo the too many times wooed, often hardened, young women who served drinks.  But, gnawing away at my insides was the thought that Spain was my chance to see Europe, maybe my only chance, before returning to small-town Illinois, where, with the help of  the GI Bill, I would  resume pursuit of my teacher’s degree at Southern Illinois University.

But, in addition to hanging out in the bars, I continued reading about Spain, and like many others before and since, became enamored of Ernest Hemingway’s books, especially the ones set in Spain, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises, and in particular the latter, which drew on the experiences of the Paris-based Lost Generation.  Influenced by images of Hemingway writing in cafés, I would sometimes sit for hours in a beach front bar in Rota and scribble in a notebook, my imitation prose flow lubricated by sherry or beer.  

Sunset, Bay of Cádiz.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Lisa Abend's Article on Fish Foam and Spherified Mango Juice: Will Spanish avant-garde cuisine stand the test of time? (Slate 2008)

* * * * *

"In a recent e-mail, Gerry Dawes, an American expert on Spanish food and wine, wrote, "I am getting a little weary of the Catalan-driven techno-cuisine. Many of these 'experiments' would be better off if they didn't show up anywhere but at chefs' conferences." His words sum up the critical attitude: It was fun at first, but enough with the chemistry kit! I'd like some real food now, please."  Lisa Abend, Fish Foam and Spherified Mango Juice: Will Spanish avant-garde cuisine stand the test of time?  (Slate 2008)

Fish Foam and Spherified Mango Juice: Will Spanish avant-garde cuisine stand the test of time? by Lisa Abend (Slate 2008)

 Gerry Dawes with Juan Mari Arzak and Ferran Adrià in New York.

___________________________________________________  

 

 About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.

  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@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

Jewish Spain: Toledo Santa Maria La Blanca 12th-Century Ibn Shushan Synagogue

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Toledo Santa Maria La Blanca, 12th-Century Ibn Shushan Synagogue.
Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2019.

Now maintained by the Catholic Church as la Iglesia de Santa Maria la Blanca, this unique 12th-Century Ibn Shushan synagogue, thought to be the oldest synagogue in Europe, is of Mudéjar construction and was contracted by Jews in Toledo and built by Moorish craftsmen in a style desired by their Jewish patrons, when all three religions were living in relative "convivencia." There are few greater examples in the world of the influences of three great religions under one roof. Although this marvelous structure with its horseshoe arches could easily be mistaken for a mosque and an exceptionally beautiful one at that, it was a synagogue. 

 

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Viña Cazoga, Jorge Carnero, The Spanish Artisan Wine Group's "Wild Child" From Ribeira Sacra

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Viña Cazoga Mencía - Jorge Carnero, Ribeira Sacra, Amandi sub-region (Lugo province), Galicia

Jorge Carnero, Viña Cazoga, La Ribeira Sacra (Lugo province), Galicia.

Tuesday, May 8, 2015 on Gerry Dawes & Friends on WPWL Pawling Public Radio 103.7 FM in Pawling, New York, my guest Ron Miller and I tasted The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group wine Viña Cazoga 2016 (Ribeira Sacra, Amandi sub-region, Sil River).

One of the stars of The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirts Group is a unique wine from a rustic bodega in the back country. It is owned by a young winemaker, Jorge Carnero, who took over his late father’s vineyards and decided to make his own very personal wine, Viña Cazoga. We import both Jorge’s Viña Cazoga Tinto 2016 and Viña Cazoga Don Diego 2012 & 2015, a wine that spends some several months in 6-year old, 500L re-conditioned Allier oak.  For more information on Viña Cazoga or any of the other wines of The Spanish Wine & Spirits Group - Gerry Dawes Selections, please e-mail:  contact@spanishartisanwine.com

Viña Cazoga Mencía 2016***  $27.99  13.5% (alcohol)

Gerry Dawes & Friends 5-8-2018

Tasting Viña Cazoga Ribeira Sacra Mencía 2016

from Gerry Dawes on Vimeo.

Viña Cazoga has a long history of fine wine production in the Ribeira Sacra and was once one of the largest and most important estates in the area, but during the nadir of the region’s fortunes- which really started at the dawn of the twentieth century, when so many of these steep vineyard sites were abandoned and young people emigrated en masse in search of more profitable work- Jorge Carnero’s family’s vineyard holdings in the village of Amandi dwindled down to almost nothing. 

Jorge’s grandfather, Raimundo Vidal, was instrumental in starting to resurrect the Ribeira Sacra region in the 1970s and today the family owns a single, 3.9 hectare parcel of vines right above the Sil River that was long recognized as the finest vineyard in Ribeira Sacra. Almost the entire vineyard is planted with vines in excess of one hundred years of age, with ninety-five percent planted to Mencía and the balance made up of a mix of Tempranillo and Merenzao.

The 2010 Viña Cazoga Mencía is a beautiful wine, offering up a deep, very intense and complex nose of black cherries, pomegranate, black pepper, a touch of spiced meats, slate soil tones, espresso and a topnote of cigar smoke. On the palate the wine is deep, fullbodied and very sappy at the core, with great focus and grip, excellent balance, bright acids, virtually no tannins and outstanding length and grip on the dancing and palate-staining finish. Great Ribeira Sacra! 2012-2020. 94. -- John B. Gilman, View From The Cellar

"From old vines on the Sil River, this is "back-country" wine as described to me by the importer Gerry Dawes.  I am not sure if he is referring to the rustic qualities of the wine or the people that make it.  Either way, "the ram's head" is all rustic beauty - cherry, raspberry, smoky, spicy, meaty with lifted aromas of lavender and rosemary. Cazoga is serious business.  Although drinking now, I would hold onto this; there is enough density, concentration and balance to age at least for a few years.” - - Chris Barnes, Chambers Street Wines   

Even the most expensive wine in Dawes's porfolio, "Viña Cazoga Don Diego Crianza from Ribera Sacra, an exotic, chocolate- and tobacco-flavored wine with some of the "wild" character the French call animal, retails for only $50." - - Colman Andrews, The Daily Meal.

To read more, click on title:

Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop:Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes.

Gerry Dawes, Jorge Carnero and John Gilman at Cazoga with the 1995 Mencía, which was made by Jorge's late father.

"Jorge Carnero is one of the sweetest and most self-effacing winegrowers in all of Ribeira Sacra, and I am not really sure if he truly knows just how spectacular his wines are, but he is quite clearly one of the stars in the region. He very generously offered to open a few older bottles the morning following our dinner with other growers at O Grelo in Monforte, but apologized in advance that “Mencía from the decade of the 1990s was going to be a very old wine and probably no good to drink!” We chuckled, anticipating something a wee bit more vibrant at that age, and the following day, I think the light was beginning to go on for Señor Carnero regarding the aging capability of his wines, as his 1995 Mencía was absolutely stellar!" – John Gilman, View From The Cellar

The 2014 Mencía from Viña Cazoga is another absolutely stellar wine from Jorge Carnero, who has run this small family estate with great skill since taking over from his father several years ago. The wine offers up a superb and youthfully complex bouquet of blackberries, pomegranate, wood smoke, a touch of pepper, a fine base of slate minerality and a touch of tree bark. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and still fairly primary in personality, but with the complexity to come readily apparent. The wine is sappy at the core, focused and seamless in balance, with moderate tannins and outstanding length and grip on the vibrant finish. While this is deceptively easy to drink today, it is still a puppy and I would give it at least three or four years in the cellar to start to develop some of its secondary layers of complexity. It is a great bottle of Mencía in the making! 2019-2045+. 94.- - John Gilman, View From The Cellar    

Viña Cazoga Don Diego 2008, a wine that spends some several months in 4-year old, 500L re-conditioned Allier oak, is one of the top wines in The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections.  Photo: Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Viña Cazoga Tinto 2010 ($27). Another Ribeira Sacra mencía, surprisingly soft, with a generous bouquet, a blackberry-and-black-pepper tang on the palate, and a long, satisfying finish. - - Colman Andrews, The Daily Meal.  Read more: Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop: Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes

Viña Cazoga Don Diego Tinto 2011 Ribeira Sacra 13.5% $39.99

"Oh, and he doesn't have much patience with excessive pricing, either, and all but one of the 30-plus selections in his portfolio (he is adding more) have a suggested retail price of less than $30 a bottle, and some are less than $20. (Even the exception, Viña Cazoga Don Diego Crianza from Ribera Sacra, an exotic, chocolate- and tobacco-flavored wine with some of the "wild" character the French call animal, retails for only $40.)"- - Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop: Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes

One of the stars of this group is a unique wine from a rustic bodega in the back country. It is owned by a young winemaker, Jorge Carnero, who took over his late father’s vineyards and decided to make his own very personal wine, Viña Cazoga. We import both Jorge’s Viña Cazoga Tinto 2014 and Viña Cazoga Don Diego 2011, a wine that spends some several months time in 7-year old, 500L re-conditioned Allier oak.

We don’t expect either of these wines to be for everyone because they are so unique and unlike other red wines you may have tasted before.  For this reason, on my fourth visit to the winery when I took a guest, l I decided not to say anything and just let him make up his own mind about the wine without any pre-suggestion from me.  Cazoga wines were the ones the guest liked the best of all from our 2,500 km., 20-winery trip.

Cazoga wines show themselves best with food. By the time you get to the last glass in the bottle, you realize you have been drinking something unique and special.  And you don't like that old-fashioned label with the Cazoga (ram) head you say.  Cazoga is Gallego for Carnero, or ram, the owner’s name.  Get over it and concentrate on the wine in the bottle.  We wouldn't change a thing about this place.  Besides, there is not enough wine to fill even the modest demand we think those who really like this wine will create.  The Spanish Artisan Wine Group’s wild child; if you don't like it, I will drink it.

Viña Cazoga consists of 3.9-acres in a single plot bordering on a slope just above the water line of the Sil River.  The site wine was traditionally recognized as the best for growing wine grapes in the parish of Amandi.  The grapes are 95% Mencía, the rest Merenzao and Tempranillo.

The history of the winery is very old.  Jorge Carnero’s grandfather Raimundo Vidal owned the largest winery  in Amandi, which he inherited from his father. Carnero’s grandmother remembered from her childhood bringing down to the fair in Monforte 37 carts each with a cask of new wine.

But at the beginning of the 20th century the cultivation of those steep river banks was not profitable, so there was much emigration and many descendants inheriting their portion of a vineyard )under the Galician mini-fundia iheritance rules, so the old family vineyard was divided into dozens of plots among the cousins, some of whom kept making wine for themselves for home consumption, but other vineyards were abandoned. 

It was not until the late 70's when Jorge Carnero’s father, Diego Carnero Vidal, set out to re-unite the former vineyards of the Vidal family, re-open the old winery and recuperate the denominación de origin claim for Amandi, for which he always acted as ambassador, when, at a time, it was considered insane to try to cultivate those precipitous river banks.

During the grape harvest and fermentation period, they used a cuba (a large horizontal wine vat, a huge barrel) from the epoch of Jorge’s great grandfather to sleep in.  They cut a door in one end of the barrel and put a bed, lights and a television inside, making a bedroom out of the ancient barrel.  "They called my father “el tolo de Cazoga,” the crazy Cazoga, slept in a barrel and was going to bury los cuartos, the money from the vines," Jorge told me.  The barrel now has a taxidermist-prepared head of a ram mounted on the front of the barrel, the image of which is on Cazoga’s wine labels.

 

Jorge Carnero (Carnero is Cazoga in Galician, which means “ram,” thus the ram’s head, the symbol of the winery), tasting his wines with a visitor from New York.  Jorge Carnero is inside a large barrel formerly used to make wine, now with door installed and a bed and television inside. Cazoga sometimes spends the night in the barrel during the long hours of the grape harvest.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011.

Cazoga was the first important winery in what would later become the Ribeira Sacra D.O.  Cazoga is a pago, a single vineyard cru, in the most rocky location with the best orientation.  Among those who know the Amandi subregion, the wine was always considered the best.  The production is very low and most of  the vines are a century old. 

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 About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.

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@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com