Kelly and Hector

I received an email a few weeks ago from our long-time friend, Bill C. (Sharon's husband). He told me he had some friends who were coming to Spain. I was thrilled because it's been a little lonely around here since Susan left.
Bill's friends turned out to be Kelly and Hector and they are the most delightful young couple I've met in a while. Kelly is a physical therapist and Hector is a gas trader. They were on a whirlwind tour of the great cultural sights of Spain. It's a little difficult to appreciate how much there is to see here until you're on the ground. After a few days, it can begin to feel like you're living on chocolate cheesecake because the cultural richness is almost overwhelming. Sometimes, it's a good idea to get out of the cities and hunker down in a small town.
They accepted my offer of a room and a washing machine and I picked them up at the train station in Marça. We hiked out to the Ermita while the washer was running and had a picnic. The rest of the day was spent puttering around the house and we had an early dinner. We walked up into Masroig for the paseo and met some of the locals. We ran into our old neighbor Josep, the trumpet player. He had been practicing in the church and invited us back to the church for an impromptu concert with his buddy the organist. It was fantastic!
Kelly and Hector both speak Castellano so it was fun for them to be able to talk to the people in town. They slept in the next day while I went to Tarragona on business. We drove around looking at vineyards in the afternoon. The following day was the Catalan National Day (Sept. 11) and there was the sardine cook-off in the plaza. We walked up and Kelly and I ate salted sardines while Hector took some pictures and charmed the locals.
I drove them to the train station in Tarragona. They went on to Valencia, Madrid and Seville.

                                                   On the way to the Ermita.

                                                          Finca Alta.

                                            Dinner on the balcony. That Blanco is good!

                                                 What they give you for one euro.

                                               The young people's band plays the town song.

                           Kelly and Feliciano.

Garnatxa 2013

This is my 31st harvest. It's a little hard to believe. We picked the garnatxa from the vineyard near Marça on Monday, September 16th. This is a sweet little one hectare vineyard planted on decomposed slate. It's the same one we picked last year and I was thrilled with the quality of the wine. This year looks just as good.
Because of the wet spring, harvest this year has been pushed back by about two weeks. As you may notice if you look at last years pictures, the vines have more vigor this year because of the rain. We have had near perfect weather for the last few weeks and I'm knocking on wood as I'm writing this. The forecast looks good. I sampled Fincas Alta and Vieja this afternoon and got 23.8 Brix. The pH is still low but the fruit looks good and will probably go another ten days. I received final label approval from D.O. Montsant yesterday. We will probably bottle the 2012 Celler D. Russell Smith on October 2nd.
 For those of you who don't already know, Rose and Ted had a baby girl on Wednesday! Please call Susan for details. As always, thanks for your interest!

Garnatxa 2013

Susan's gazpacho

Susan's gazpacho is so wonderful that I'm going to give you the recipe. It should be made in a blender or food processor.
INGREDIENTS
One 800 gram can of peeled whole tomatoes or you can peel 800 grams of VERY RIPE plum tomatoes
One 3 inch diameter onion
One red bell pepper
One medium cucumber (6-8'' long by 2'' in diameter)
Juice from one half of a large lemon
1/4 cup Balsamico
1/4 cup good quality Spanish olive oil
One clove garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil lightly packed
Two teaspoons of SMOKED Spanish pimento powder. It comes in regular and spicy. Get the spicy.
Salt to taste.
PREPARATION
Peel and de-seed the cucumber. Chop the cucumber, onion, garlic and bell pepper. Just get them small enough so that the blender can handle them. Dump all the ingredients into the blender and spin them until you have a smooth liquid. Gazpacho is best enjoyed well chilled. It gets better if you leave it in the fridge over night. I try to keep all the ingredients in the fridge so I can serve it just after preparation. This recipe will yield four servings.
You will also need a fresh baguette or some croutons. Please remember to place a cruet of good quality olive oil and some sea salt on the table.
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
Celery-Personally, I find celery to be as superfluous as it is unseemly. It is, however, included in many gazpacho recipes.
Snap-E-Tom- Add a small can of the hot one to give your gazpacho a Texas kick.
Sour cream or crème fraiche- A dollop of either will add a little piquancy.
REFLECTIONS
We have enjoyed many gazpachos here but Susan's is still my favorite. I will never forget the time we served our 86 year old neighbor, Luis, gazpacho. He took a couple of bites and shook his head. He went back to his house and returned with an immersion blender.
Gazpacho is an Andalusian dish and I doubt most Andalusians had ever seen a blender until the relatively recent past. Nevertheless, your gazpacho will taste better if it's well blended.
 ¡Buen provecho!

Susan's gazpacho