You: Hey Whitney, what was the wine you were most excited to try last week?

Me: Friend, let me tell you. The brand spanking new 2010 “Piedi Grandi” from La Clarine Farm is what!

photo brought to you by my iPhone

You: Piedi grandi! What the heck is that?

Me: It means “big feet” in Italian.

You: Why did Hank name his wine that?

Me: Some of the grapes were foot-stomped by little kids. He’s funny. And totally not into child labor. The name is in Italian since the main grape in the blend is nebbiolo (with syrah, mourvedre and a splash of roussanne and viognier bringing up the rear.) There’s some whole cluster and it spends 6 months in tank and 6 months in old puncheon.

Verdict? Delicious! It doesn’t necessarily taste like a nebbiolo, but I don’t care. Like most of Hank’s wines, the fruit is pure and there’s an undercurrent of spice and dried herbs. All of his wines remind me of something familiar and cozy but totally new at the same time. Buy his wines. They don’t cost an arm or a leg…or a big foot.

So, I got to attend TWO kick ass Holiday staff parties this year! Hollerrrr.

Max was kind enough to take all of us Terroni sommeliers out to dinner at Mezze. We ate some delicious Middle Eastern inspired food, had a blind tasting of wines from our all-Italian cellar and then exchanged gifts; pretty much everything that constitutes a perfect evening in my book. If you threw in a chocolate fountain and someone giving 90 minute massages my brain would have exploded, but that didn’t happen. Let’s not get carried away.

Each of us got to choose ANY bottle from the Terroni cellar. THREE people ended up bringing Etna Rosso. We sure do love us some Sicily. But, we started off with some bianco from Campania and Piemonte.

We tasted each wine one by one. Made our (usually) completely wrong (and sometimes spot on) guesses and then unveiled the bottle beneath its tin foil cocoon with gusto.

If I could only ever eat one salad for the rest of my life, it would be fattoush. It’s the salad of my people!

Warm, homemade pita glistening with honey and butter. Aaaaand SCENE.

Max brought an extra treat- a bottle of 2002 J. Lasalle Special Club Champagne. ‘Cause he’s THE BEST.

A little Slovenian/Italian Pinot Noir by way of Simcic, shall we? Yes we shall. PS- this wine was damn good with the above pâté.

Francesca unveils the Biondi M.I. she brought.

Max reveals his wine, another Etna, Salvo Foti‘s I Vigneri “Vinupetra”. Embarrassing fact- A lot of us kept thinking these Etna wines were possibly Piemonte nebbiolo. Seriously. We suck.

I thought the color of the Biondi M.I. definitely did not look like a nebbiolo (not rusty enough) and the others didn’t really either, but the lighting in the restaurant was a bit golden and dim as you can tell from the photos. Add in the fact that we were all consuming a lot of WINE and our hypothoses for the identities of the wine started to not be so awesome. Oh well.

But, we sure were having fun. I made a moving GIF of Dave revealing his Tenuta delle Terre Nere. It seemed like the right thing to do.

 

Lamb shoulder over smoked oatmeal. Very interesting combination, but delicious.

Heavenly brussel sprouts. How come I only like brussel sprouts when other people make them?

The wine I brought! 2001 Quintarelli Valpolicella. This one was unmistakable. As soon as we started drinking it, everyone started saying “Veneto”, “corvina”, “passito maybe?”, “high alcohol”. Ding ding ding!

Guiseppe actually reached into his own cellar for our oldest bottle of the night- 2000 Marchesi di Gresy Gaiun Martinega Barbaresco. A small parcel within a single vineyard- our boy Dave guessed that right. Freaky genius wine geek psychic!

We ended the evening with this delightfully warm little sweet bite- kind of like the love child of a churro and a doughnut hole. Dang! So. Good.

What a wonderful night! It’s safe to say I learned quite a bit. And left feeling even more proud to call all of these people my colleagues. Grazie to you Max and Francesca for such a delicious experience, in every sense of the word.

Happy holidays to you all! I hope everyone gets to sit around a table with the ones (and the wines) they love.

A few weeks ago several wine peeps in LA gathered in the back room of Terroni, as usually happens with any cool tasting in LA. We arrived with notebooks and eager palates, thirsty for that of the unfiltered variety. We were there to taste skin contact aka extended maceration aka orange wines.

Lou was acting as MC with Max from Terroni as host, Stetson from Blue Danube as organizer and Jay Latham and Ben Andersen as bottle contributors. The wine was at the ready; decanters, funnels, ice buckets and thermometers on hand.

We tasted 16 wines in 4 flights, arranged according to length of skin maceration. Basically, all the wines are fermented without temperature control or commercial yeasts, some with oak (usually older oak) and some in steel, cement or amphora or a combination and little to no sulfur additions.

I’ll list all of my notes as I wrote them that day…

Flight 1: Baby orange wines. A few days of contact with skins or less (many of us noted that they pretty much looked like chardonnay.)

2004 Movia “Veliko (pinot grigio and rebula/ribolla gialla, Slovenia)- lees-y, yeasty orange ice. *One wine rep, a newly minted Master Sommelier, dubbed this wine “undrinkable” because of the yeasty/bacterial finish. Lou loved the wine and I enjoyed it as well. This started a good discussion on how we judge wines in this style, if some people are prone to love them and hate them no matter what, etc. The discussion continues…

2009 Monstero Suore Cistercensi “Coenobium” (trebbiano, malvasia and verdicchio, Lazio, Italy)- dirty flowers, high minerality, touch of smoke, good acidity, fresh.

2008 Brkic “Greda” (indigenous grape zilavka, Bosnia Herzegovina)- oak more perceptible, smoke spice, savory tang.

2008 Zidarich Malvasia (malvasia, Friuli, Italy)- corked or off-bottle. not presented.

2008 Batic Pinela (pinela, Slovenia)-  spicy, has the most weight of the flight, pine resin.

Flight 2: 2-3 week macerations. When the tannins finally come out to play.

2009 Monastero Suore Cistercensi “Coenobium Rusticum” (trebbiano, malvasia and verdicchio, Lazio, Italy)- no oak, tobacco, orange pith, tannin, acid=mouth water

2009 Paolo Bea “Santa Chiara” (grechetto, malvasia, garganega, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, Umbria, Italy) – chew, tangerine spice, touch of petrol. delish!

2006 Paolo Bea “Arboreus” (trebbiano, Umbria, Italy)- body, salinity, spice, dusty grip. the energy of the wine matches the color- golden copper.

2008 Zidarich “Prulke” (malvasia, sauvignon blanc, vitovska, Friuli, Italy)- smoky peach, petrol, limestone, salt water, savory essence of wood, cool climate.

2009 COS “Rami” (insolia/inzolia and grecanico, Sicily, Italy)- lactic quality, bruléed grapefruit, tannin.

Flight 3: Maceration until fermentation complete or around 1 month.

2008 Terzavia “Occidens” (grecanico, catarratto, grillo and zibibbo, Sicily, Italy)- better than i remember. *Sorry for the rather unilluminating tasting note. See the link above to get more in depth and spot on notes.

2008 Zidarich Vitovska (vitovska!, Friuli, Italy)- very aromatic, sauvignon blanc element, smells like weed or hoppy IPA in a bright and fruity way, spice crunch, little bitter on finish, velvet tannin.

2008 Kabaj Rebula (rebula, Slovenia)- celery, rocks, lemonade.

2009 Batic “Zaria” (pinela, zelen, rebula, vitovska, klarniza, chardonnay and yellow muscat, Slovenia)- Flinstone vitamins and weed.

2007 Dettori Bianco (vermentino, Sardegna, Italy)- preserved lemon, stone, a purity and focus in texture and visually.

Flight 4: the Amphora/Qvevri flight. 2 to 10 months maceration.

2004 Radikon “Jacot” (tocai, Slovenia)- sweet whiskey, coconut undertones.  *The only one not in amphora.

2009 Foradori “Fontanasanta” Nosiola (nosiola, Trentino, Italy)- i love this wine. *And that was my complete tasting note…

2006 Vinoterra Khakheti Kisi (kisi, Georgia)- leaves, band-aid, warmth, musk, savory.

2007 Kabaj “Amfora” (rebula, malvasia and tocai, Slovenia)- dusty tannic chew, masculine, tar, oxidation.

We’re not the only (or the first) geeks to gather and drink orange wine. For further reading, please do yourself a favor and read this from Levi Dalton and Dr. Vino. And if you want to go even deeper, check out Mr. Thor Iverson’s account of Levi’s epic Orange wine tasting back in 2009.

Bottom photos of the full lineup from Ben Andersen.

Tales of my Spain trip haven’t finished just yet! Don’t you fret.

I haven’t talked about our brief visit to Priorat! We had an appointment with Clos Mogador in the morning and that epic Laureano visit later in the day and in between there was a small window of a few hours to meet with one more winemaker. That person was Dominik Huber of Terroir al Limit.

Our time was limited, as was his, so we ended up joining him for a quick lunch tasting in Falset al Priorat’s Michelin rated El Celler de l’Àspic. We arrived a touch early to an entirely empty restaurant and were instructed to take a seat at the incredibly long table by the window. Christina and I were a bit puzzled. All this for 3 people?!

Soon enough, Dominik walked through the door with several bottles in hand and almost the entirety of the VDP die Prädikatsweingüter (The Association of German Quality and Prädikat Wine Estates)!

The more the merrier! Dominik himself is German, so it didn’t seem completely out of place. Terroir al Limit is actually a partnership between Dominik and South African winemaker Eben Sadie. Their first vintage was 2001. They are clearly the outsiders in the area, but are very keen on resurrecting a traditional Priorat style of winemaking (larger neutral oak foudres instead of new barrique, for example). They farm biodynamically, harvest earlier than most, ferment with native yeasts and use minimal amounts of SO2.

Terroir al Limit focuses almost exclusively on old vine grenache and carignan with the star of the show being carignan, in their opinion. We tried all the 2009 releases: Torroja, Arbossar, Deys del Terra, Les Manyes and Les Tosses. They all had that Priorat boldness (sexy, dark, spicy) but were surprisingly well balanced. The tannins were beautifully integrated, the alcohol tempered by a silkiness and pureness of fruit. But let’s not get it twisted- these are distinctly dude wines. They drip of testosterone in my opinion, and in the most pleasing way.

I had never tried the wines before (the total production is 20,000 bottles and they’re not widely distributed in the States), but Christina was familiar with them and had been strongly recommended to check them out. I’m glad we did!  They are a tad pricey, as are a lot of Priorat wines, but worth the bucks if you wanna feel like a baller/shot caller.

Real quick? The food. We ate paella, pata negra pork belly potato soup (!), steak and this…

I don’t get to put that many pretty pictures of sweet things on this here blog. So, I just had to. It was good. Duh.

Making their official West Coast debut….drum roll please….the wines of Frank Cornelissen!!! I’ve been waiting a while to get my hands on these and thanks to Amy Atwood us Cali peeps can finally enjoy these Mt. Etna anfora goodies.

Please excuse the cellphone photos, they suck.

When everybody on the block heard that Amy would be by the shop with open bottles of Cornelissen, they hightailed it over to taste. Jesse from Salt’s Cure, Willy from Tasting Table, Jonathan from Hatfield’s and even Anthony Wilson all came ’round.

Cornelissen is a die hard naturalist- NO treatments in the vineyard (organic, biodynamic or other), no sulfur additions in the cellar and only native yeast fermentation, of course. He also has quite the collection of 400 liter terracotta anforas and ferments and ages almost all of his wines in them. If you’re thinking, wait a second- Frank Cornelissen doesn’t sound Italian! You are super freaking smart. He’s Belgian. And was drawn to the incredible volcanic soils of Sicily’s Mt. Etna back in 2001 by way of Burgundy, where he was at one time a wine broker.

So, we tasted the 2010 “Munjebel 7″ (the 7th time he’s made this wine) a blend of carricante, coda di volpe and grecanico that spend 4 months on their skins. I really dug this stuff (pictured above). It has a kind of celery and preserved lemon vibe going on and the texture is such a mouthful of glorious chew, but still has a vibrant freshness. Love. Other fav? The “Munjabel 7″ Rosso (blend of 2009 and 2010 vintages). It’s 100% nerello mascalese and damn sexy. I dubbed this “vampire wine.” As in, if I was a vampire, this is the stuff I would drink when not drinking blood and trying to be civilized. Strawberry seeds, pomegranate, ash, iron, violet flowers and sturdy tannins. Again, Love.

These ain’t super cheap, but definitely worth the dollar bills.

The most interesting visit of the trip to Spain was without a doubt the one to see Laureano Serres in El Pinell de Brai, tucked away just south of Priorat wine country in Tarragona. Laureano is one unique dude, truly one of a kind. And so are his wines.

So, we arrived in El Pinell (I always think it a miracle that we find literally anything EVER while traveling.) We found his cellar door and soon after hopped in his car with his amazingly sweet dog Brisca and headed out to see the vineyards…and the day of quotable quotes began!

We walked, we talked, we touched dirt. We talked vegetal water.

Quote: Wine in its purest form is “vegetal water” or at least it should be, he said. If you spray your vineyards with herbicides/pesticides or add commercial yeasts or SO2 to your wine, the pure essence of the grape’s liquid/the soil/the sun becomes compromised. This is when vegetal water becomes soup.

There’s water and then there’s soup. I think I get it.

We headed back to his tiny cellar, which is beneath his home, and settled into the office where a few dozen wines awaited us. His wife brought down some plates of jamon, the most amazing jamon+ queso biscuits and pa amb tomàquet (the classic Catalan bread and tomato snack). His kids played with Brisca and swept up all the peanut shells she had been chewing on. There were piles of boxes, empty wine bottles you could tell he loved or at least wanted to remember, an old fan…

Outside the office were some small tanks, a few old barrels and 3 amphorae, which he started using in 2010.

The label Mendall is named after his mother’s childhood home. We tasted 2007 thru 2011 of the “Terme di Guiu”, which is 100% macabeu. In general- think a bit of skin contact, crunchy texture, spice, salinity and gentle oxidation. Basically, it should be the national white wine of Spain if we’re talking pairing abilities with the food.

As we continued to taste, I started to feel like all of these wines before us were some kind of little miracle. This tiny cellar, this one man, no added sulfites…and here they were and they were lovely. His white wines are really where it’s at; they’re unique but still so very Spanish.

We tasted. And tasted. The 2010 and 2011 “Abeurador” (macabeu), 2005 “BB Escollades del 5 (garnaxta blanca or barnatxa blanca/BB in local dialect), 2005 Miau- Macamiau del 5 (macabeu). Then we got into the reds. We tasted every single one from the 2011 harvest. Some whole cluster, some foot stomped, usually a short maceration period and still very young, fresh and vibrant. We then ventured into some 2010′s- “Espartel BP”(local garnatxa clone), “Rock ‘n Roll” (blend of all his reds), “Cabeilles” (10 month barrel aged carignan and cabernet).

All the while, Christina and I spit in our little bucket as Laureano certainly never spit out anything. He continued to tell us funny stories, get poetic about the importance of vegetal water…and sometimes get off track. One moment he stopped for more than a few beats and apologized, “I got involved with this wine.”

And thus is born my official new way of referring to intoxication.

To finish, or so we thought, we tasted “BRUTAL!!!” Complete with a scythe-wielding sulfite-killing Grim Reaper. This was the product of all the red wine that ended up having flaws, like some major flaws. Brett, VA, etc. They all came out to live it up at one big we don’t give a fuck party. And they were proud.

Quote: “My brutal is the most brutal of all brutals.” (Brutal pronounced “brew-tall”, of course.) Can’t say that I’d want to sit down and tuck into a glass of this wine, but I definitely admire his sense of humor.

This back label alone made me fall in love with this man, as if I hadn’t already.

When all was said and done, we had gone through about 2 dozen wines, a handful of which weren’t even his. He started pulling down any bottle that looked fun and enjoyable from his myriad of shelves and stacks. I mentioned my fondness for Olivier Lemasson’s Les Vins Contés wines. Well, wouldn’t ya know! He had some of his “Gama Sutra.” OK- let’s try that too!

Speaking of kick ass labels…how clever is that? I can’t even handle it.

This wine, Laureano said, was soup. “Very good soup, but soup.” Olivier adds very small amounts of sulfites at bottling. We enjoyed it nonetheless, but, I don’t think that Laureano actually swallowed this wine. He said he only drinks vegetal water- completely natural wines.

Did we want to pop open some half bottles of 2003 and 2004 Els Jelepins? All right then, let’s try those too. The night could have gone on like this for, I’m sure, a few more hours. But, we had a 2 hour drive back to our house still ahead of us.

And Laureano had some very good vegetal water to look after.

If you missed my Let’s Do class at Domaine LA last week, it was all about Italian wine and pizza pies. We talked regions, grapes and general food and wine pairing tips.

Here are the wines I poured alongside some delicious Mozza pizza. I called them my Ultimate Pizza Wines. But really, only being able to choose 5? SO hard.

I knew I wanted a Lambrusco (or a Gragnano). For SURE. I also wanted a barbera and a sangiovese based wine. Nebbiolo? Definitely. Then I would need a somewhat oddball- so, I picked one of my fav Emilia-Romagna orange wines. It’s a style of white that can handle bolder flavors.

If I could have gone on, the list would’ve also included an aglianico, nero d’avola, montepulciano and some aromatic lighter reds like frappato or rossese.

My main criteria for pairing wine with pizza: good acidity and some semblance of structure and tannin. Anything nice and cold is also pretty dope. Red bubbly? Perfect. It’s like the wine version of beer or Coca Cola (which is apparently what Italians really like to drink with their pizza.) Main things I avoid and that sound super icky: jammy, oaky or incredibly full bodied flabby wines. Actually, I usually avoid those qualities in wine regardless of whether or not there is a pizza in front of me. Point is- there are more things in the world of Italian wines that work with pizza than don’t. So it ain’t rocket science.

Thought: Could one become solely a pizza sommelier? That would be an off the charts amazing as hell job.

Question: If you could attend any wine class or tasting what would you want the topic to be? I would love to know. And if you live in LA, maybe I can make it happen!

We had a very lovely visit one delicately rainy day with Raventós i Blanc in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia. I was excited to see the winery and meet the faces behind the bottles as I really enjoy their Cava. To be honest, it was one of the first I actually really liked.

After walking the beautiful vineyards (with borrowed boots- thanks!) and seeing the cellar and bottling/disgorging line, which was rented in preparation for the busy holiday season, we sat down to taste. (See the link above to see Christina’s video of the “fancy disgorging machine.” They had been doing almost all disgorgement by hand up until not long ago.)

Fast facts: we were standing pretty much where Spanish Champagne method sparkling wine was first thought of as a possibility in 1872 by Josep Raventós i Fatjo. That’s right, RAVENTOS. Pretty cool, huh? Cava used to be called Champán, but that became a no-no with those controlling Frenchies. So, Josep Raventós i Blanc- the other Josep’s grandson- created the D.O. Cava (which means cave, as in wine cave) in the early 1970′s. This D.O. protects the style of winemaking- traditional/Champagne method- not necessarily a defined region, but 95% of Cava production happens in the Penedès.

In summation- this is the OG Cava.

We tasted a few of their still white wines, but the Cava is where it’s at. And they know it- it accounts for most of their production. Raventós does all single vintage bottlings, instead of the more common NV (non vintage) found in the majority of Cava. They use all estate fruit and farm organically.

More fast facts: the autochthonous grapes found in Cava are almost always parellada, xarel-lo (thought to be the star of the show) and macabeo. Monastrell and garnatxa are the red grapes you usually find blended in for rosado Cava. Good ole chardonnay and pinot noir are also present in some blends.

Just look at that! How can you not want to drink it? We tried the 2006 Gran Reserva de la Finca and 2007 de Nit Rosado. Hands down favorite was the Rosado. It’s a wine I’ve had before and I liken it to little dancing  strawberries in pink tutus. It’s just pretty as hell- to look at and to drink.

But, both of the wines were great and proof that Cava is much more than some supermarket plonk and “a cheap option for a party.” The Raventos Cava is elegant, sophisticated, refined. And you know what? Still a pretty affordable option for a party. Take one of these to a Holiday shindig and you’re a guaranteed hero.

Further reading: This is a great post over at Catavino about the history of Raventós, the inception of Cava and its family ties to megawinery Cordoniu.

Photo of old vine xarel-lo courtesy of Raventós.

On a very rainy evening, Christina and I arrived to the “town center” of Font-Rubí (really just a building and a sign) to a smiling woman and her young daughter waving warmly to us. This was Gloria Garriga and Berta of Els Jelepins.

We all loaded into Gloria’s car, Berta’s violin and all, and carefully climbed the muddy and pot-holed dirt road up to the cellar and their home- almost getting stuck once or twice. Two very enthusiastic (and wet) dogs greeted us at the cellar door, which is basically the basement of their home.

The house and winery are run on solar power and heated by fire and pipes of warm water that run below the floors. It hadn’t been very sunny lately, so we sat at the dining table with but a single bulb of light over us. It was all we needed.

Gloria, beyond being a mother and winemaker, has a day job as an agricultural engineer. So…basically she is a superhero.

Els Jelepins produces about 2,000 bottles per year. Which is practically nothing, the very definition of “small production.” Everything is bottled by hand and simply labeled with a tiny painted symbol. Each vintage has a different one.

We tasted just the reds: 2003 (their first vintage), 2004 and 2006. The first vintage was made with borrowed equipment and a “we’re still very much trying to figure everything out” mindset. You can tell that the style changes as they get into their groove and discover what works best for their grapes. By the 2006 vintage, which was my favorite, there’s more sumoll and less garnacha in the blend. Gloria said of sumoll that it gives flavors of “cherry, red fruits, black pepper…it needs to be a free soul. (You) can’t force it.”

Force it she most definitely does not. All fermentation is with native yeast and uncontrolled temperatures, a good amount of whole cluster and several months in open top barrels. She prefers a  long elevage- 40 or so months in old barrels and some in amphora and then another couple years in bottle. There’s no racking, fining or filtration and only a very small amount of sulfur added at bottling.

Gloria felt that because of weather, the wines were “less expressive.” Maybe, but I had nothing to compare it to and thought they were delicious. Balanced, layered, thoughtful and texturally lovely. Just look at the color and translucence…

As we tasted and talked, Berta was busy in the kitchen. I heard the sound of something frying and then the sweet and savory smell of pork sausage. It’s a smell I’ll always know and love- when I was little my Mammaw was the kindest sausage sample lady in her grocery store in Kentucky. Anyway, I hoped that Berta would be sharing!

And share she did. A plate of hearty bread, baked earlier that day, accompanied what are surely the best sausages I’ve EVER had, made by a local butcher not too long before we ate them. Gloria gave us napkins and that’s it.  I realized quickly I should use a chunk of bread as my plate and just dig right in. With the juices and warm fat soaked into the bread- I think I know what heaven tastes like.

We spent the rest of the night talking about our collective travels, gardening and…pets! Gloria loves them and usually can’t help it when one finds its way into her life. This little cat was abandonded and Gloria and Berta took him in…

Sitting around Gloria’s table with a belly full of those sausages and a glass of Els Jelepins in hand, I pretty much felt exactly the way that kitten did in the moment above.

Further reading on Els Jelepins from: Alice and Cory. And here’s what sumoll vines look like!

You never know if a visit with a winemaker or to a winery will end up being thrilling or a snoozefest or somewhere in between. It’s usually the latter. But, SOMETIMES and usually with every big trip I’ve taken, there’s always that one visit that defines the whole thing. The one that you’ll laugh about the next day while recounting all the crazy things that happened, daydream about a month later when you’re stuck in traffic…

That visit was with Peciña. It began at 10:00 AM and ended around midnight? 1:00 AM? Who knows. We were too busy having a good time.

We arrived to the winery and met Pedro Peciña and Mikel Martinez (export manager and Pedro’s best childhood friend). They showed us around the winery and explained their process; native yeasts, mostly older barrels, as little sulfites added as possible, no fining or filtering. Good Rioja wine, that can age well. Simple. We headed upstairs to their small dining room meets tasting room and a table was set with linens, plates of jamon…and every wine they made.

Two different styles of white, 2010 Cosecha, 2005 Crianza, 2001 Reserva, 2001 Gran Reserva, 2001 Harvest Selection and a few more.

Being able to taste a winemaker’s entire lineup of offerings is THE best way to really understand the personality and style of the house. Throw in some older vintages of a few things and you’ve got yourself an ideal tasting. But, a visit for me and Christina is not complete (or ideal) if we can’t also see the vineyards. This is key. It gives a sense of place and a true understanding of where it all begins.

Mikel and Pedro drove us to their lowest and highest vineyards. Being able to walk the rows and see the landscape of the area and surrounding land by foot and by car is the way a place really gets stuck in my brain and my visual memory…and my tasting memory too.

We picked a forgotten tempranillo bunch from the vine for a taste and spied some vines of white viura hidden within the rows. Their bright yellow-green leaves gave away their identity, as the tempranillo leaves were all golden orange and red.

Their El Codo vineyard was impressive; a beautiful, neverending slope.

We finished taking in the sights and got back in the car. We had to get to lunch! That’s right. The boys had made reservations at a fantastic spot loved by locals and winemakers in the area called Alameda, in the town of Fuenmayor. We would eat local and seasonal specialties and drink one of their older vintages- the 1998 Gran Reserva. OK…if we must.

Zucchini soup with fried jamon and olive oil, croquetas filled with- you guessed it- jamon and bechamel, warm and tender artichoke in a puddle of olive oil and topped with slivers of fried garlic and crispy bits of jamon…

And then- enter STEAK HEAVEN. Presented with the bone and all its glorious, blistered fat.

Add the ’98 Gran Reserva and you’ve got what would be one of the best food and wine pairings Christina and I have ever had.

Could the day get any better? Yes- why, yes it could!

Did we want to go to the “Balcony of Rioja”? OK!! So we drove up and up and up until we got to see this.

And then we hiked up the rest of the way on foot to the tippy top. We caught our breaths and realized we were thirsty. We should get a beverage. What kind of beverage? Gin and tonics. Or rather “yin and toneeks.” Back in the car we went to drive to Vitoria, which was technically in nearby Basque country, for a bit of tapas and drinks.

We talked about natural wine, the use of sulfites and their importance, crazy winemakers, travel, family, oak, Rioja, tradition…We ate horse meatballs, drank mediocre red wine, ordered beers in Basque…sang a Katy Perry song, of all things, at the top of our lungs on the drive home.

Needless to say, I think we can all say we made some new friends.

And I learned a hell of a lot more about Rioja than by sitting in a room sipping and spitting some wines and looking at maps. Lucky me. Lucky me, for sure.