Lunch with Gerard and Joelle Guez

  We were invited to lunch today by Gerard and Joelle Guez. I met Gerard at the wine supply store in Falset. He is a French osteopath and bought a beautiful finca west of Ametlla del Mar about 46 years ago. It's an extraordinary place.
  There are several residences, a pool and a commercial kitchen. Gerard began planting hillside vineyards a few years ago and has garnatxa, garnatxa blanca, macabeu, syrah, monastrell and muscat established. He plans to put in some malbec and pinot noir. He built one of the most interesting wineries I've ever seen. It's a combination winery and wine museum.
  Gerard designed it so that the museum displays can be moved out of the way when it's time to harvest or do other processing. The winery is built on two levels so that the fruit gravity feeds into the cellar. His production is small and he makes a number of fresh and unique wines. He makes a muscat in the manner used in Amarone. He picks the fruit and places the clusters on beds of straw arranged on wooden racks inside the winery. The clusters are turned daily and, after slowly dehydrating for a few weeks, are then processed and fermented. The result is a concentrated yet delicate wine with a wonderful floral character.
  The museum displays are not large but offer a comprehensive overview of the history of winemaking. Gerard gives a lively presentation while escorting you through the museum. He has tremendous energy and enthusiasm. He sleeps an average of 5 hours a night.
 Outside, there is a fascinating collection of old vineyard and winery equipment. He has two phylloxera killing machines made in the mid-1800s. They are some of the only surviving examples. In my wildest dreams, I never expected to see one on the hoof. The idea was to inject super-heated water into the root zone of the vines in order to kill the root louse (phylloxera). They were widely used in France and, although it was a valiant effort by the French, didn't work. If you have any interest in grapes and wine, you should read The Botanist and the Vintner by Christy Campbell for the whole story.
  Gerard walked us up to the top of his vineyard where he has a large underground water storage tank. He also has a station where fire-fighting helicopters can fill up with water. Talk about public service! Catalunya should give him a medal. From the top, there are sweeping views of the Med and the coastal mountain range.
  We were joined on our tour by Ana and Manel of Restaurant La Bodeguilla in Barcelona. They own a fabulous restaurant and wine shop and we can't wait to visit them. At the moment, they're on vacation at the beach in Miami Platja (not far from our favorite beach). They're a delightful couple.
  For lunch, we were also joined by a young Latvian man, Janusz, who is doing an organic farming internship with Gerard. He speaks excellent English and is lively company. As you can imagine, lunch was spectacular!
  There were so many parts to the meal, I hesitate to list them all. Instead, I'll describe a few of the most memorable:
1) There was a starter that featured what appeared to be long barnacles. They looked like the legs of a toy dinosaur. Once you peeled off the tough outer part, a sweet and tender cylinder of meat was revealed. They were smaller around than a pencil and absolutely delicious.
2) Gerard prepared a fresh (as in laid this morning) egg omelet and topped it with a piece of foie gras the size of a hockey puck. I heard a chorus of Angels shout "Hallelujah"!!!
3) For dessert was a just-out-of -the-oven apple and fig tart. It had a thin, sweet crispy crust and was served with lightly chilled ruby port styled wine. ¡Perfecto!
  I sat next to Joelle for the entire meal (when she wasn't working). She is so attractive and gracious and I wish I spoke better French. Joelle is the seventh of fifteen children in her family. With two children of her own, she is the picture of equanimity even while serving and preparing an elaborate meal.
  After lunch (three hours but who's counting) Gerard informed us he was jumping in the pool and then the bed. Since we were all closing in on a food coma, we thanked them and headed for home. What a memorable afternoon!