Merrianne comes to visit.

My longtime friend Merrianne came to visit for a few days. We met over forty years ago in Houston through a wine tasting group. She was on a five week bus and cruise tour of Italy before she landed in Barcelona. Merrianne is an art historian and a culinary historian. We had a blast!

I took her around to see the sights. We went to Scala Dei one afternoon. Another day we visited Miravet and stopped at the ceramics factory nearby. We hiked out to the Ermita and to the dry-stacked shepherd's hut near El Masroig. We had a nice hike along the beach. Then there were the walking tours of Sitges and Tarragona. I'm guessing we walked over three miles a day. We definitely got our steps in!

Merrianne knows food and cooking so we had some fabulous lunches. We went to l'Ancora, Celler d'Aspic, Brichs and Clos Figueras. We made sure to get in our quota of jamon iberica. I cooked a couple of meals at home. Merrianne even got to meet Frances for coffee at the Casal.

Please check out the photos below.

Thanks for coming Merrianne!!!

 

At the Miracle Beach in Tarragona.

So much ham! So little time!

At the ancient McDonald's in Scala Dei.

The town fountain in Scala Dei.

In Finca Alta.

Late breakfast of bocadillo de iberica in El Molar.

The ceramics factory in Miravet.

Miravet with the Ebre river.

Lunch at Clos Figueras. Merrianne had an artisanal omelet.

Gin and tonic gelato for dessert!

Old shepherd's hut outside of El Masroig.

Merrianne identified this plant as a "squirting cucumber". Check out this amazing YouTube video:

The "Bar" at the Ermita. 

Knife and sword sharpening place at the Ermita.

You can't beat the Med for pretty.

Gigantes in Tarragona. 

 

MY FORTIETH HARVEST!!!

 It's a little hard to believe this is the fortieth time I've been through this cycle. It seems like yesterday I was standing on the crush pad at Phelps and this is my tenth vintage in Spain.  As they say, time flies when you're having fun!

2022 looks to be an outstanding vintage in Montsant. We've had near perfect weather in spite of the fact that the vines were almost two weeks late coming out in the spring. We had a few little heat waves but nothing too severe. 

Josep Maria has done an outstanding job. He brought twelve people to pick and they were done by a little after 3:00pm. We ended up with three full trailers (6350 kilos or right at 7 American tons). We were done processing by a little after 5:00pm. The fruit looked fantastic! Small berries with practically no raisining or spoilage. The chemistry is spot on.

The fermentations are going well. I have three pumpovers left to do and then we'll let it rest while the fermentations perc on down. I'm so grateful!

                                                                      ¡BENEDICIONES!

Getting started Tuesday morning, September 20.

I picked a little. I can't begin to keep up with these people!

The reason I'm laughing in this video is because the guy with the pink hatband broke into some crazy dance moves as I turned the camera away. It turns out he's from Mexico. After all these years, he's the first Mexican I've met over here.

Josep Maria pulling the trailer along the road to keep from damaging vines.

I have two white grapevines in the vineyards. This is over three pounds off one vine. They were super sweet this year.

Finca Alta.

Into the hopper!

Up the conveyor!

Through the de-stemmer and the must pump!

Old Faithful. I also have another fermenter but this is where the wine will end up after fermentation.

Lunch with friends

 I had lunch on Thursday with two of my favorite people from the village. Pilar on the left. Montse in the middle. Friday was Montse's birthday. Montse is my landlady. Her birthday coincides every year with the Festa de Santa Tecla in Tarragona. This year marked the 700th anniversary of the arrival of the arm of Santa Tecla which is kept in the cathedral. Every September 23rd (weather permitting) the arm is paraded around Tarragona in a huge procession. This year the weather didn't permit. A super-cell thunderstorm settled over Tarragona late in the afternoon and dumped five inches of rain in less than two hours. There was widespread flooding. One of the restaurants I like to take friends to (l'Ancora) was almost swept away. You can check out the video.

Montse, Pilar and I had a lovely meal in a sweet little restaurant called Les Coques. A couple of the highlights are pictured below.

                                                                   ¡Buen provecho!

Pilar and Montse at Les Coques.

Dessert of fresh figs with vanilla custard. ¡Si hombre!

Starter of mandolin sliced melon with jamon iberica.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Montse!

This is the area I like to take my friends to eat. It's adjacent to the marina in Tarragona. So sorry to see this.😢😢😢

@bcnwinegeek at the Poboleda Wine Festival!

@bcnwinegeek

Freya and I went to a wine festival in the wine village of Poboleda in Priorat. Freya has worked with a couple of wineries there for the past five years. She helps out with harvest and social media. 

Food trucks are a thing over there now. We had an artisanal sandwich before joining the tasting. It was a warm afternoon so we stuck mostly to the whites and rosés. Garnacha blanca is the predominate white grape but you also see Macabeu, Muscat, Chenin blanc and some Viognier. The rosés are mostly Garnacha negro and/or Carinyena. I would guess that well over 90% of the wine bottled in Priorat is red so the whites and rosés are not well known.

We tasted one rosé that was made by a 12 year old girl. She was proud of it and it was a great first effort!

It's always fun to travel and taste with Freya. She's becoming a force in the Spanish wine scene. If you want the latest in what's hip and happening with Spanish wine, go on Instagram and follow:

@bcnwinegeek

Please check out the photos below.

Gracias, Y'all!!!

The bread on these sandwiches was incredible! I would have liked to sample them all!

             Entering the wine fair in Poboleda. There were twenty or so wineries participating.

Franck Massard pouring his wines. Franck has a number of projects including several offerings available through Naked Wines. Freya helps him with his social media.

                                                                   

Freya does most of her social media on Instagram (@bcnwinegeek). We've had some fun with this stuff!

This is the rosé that was made by the 12 year old. Pretty darn good!

 

Sardinada 2022

 

September 11th is the "national day" of Catalunya on which they commemorate a defeat by the French in 1714. Don't ask me why. Everybody takes the day off and they usually throw a big party in the Plaza de Vila. Today was the first one since Covid so we were all looking forward to it. 

The idea is for everyone to turn out and have a traditional Catalan breakfast. Ordinarily, they offer salt-cured sardines but this year they offered fresh fish. The salt-cured fish are almost too salty to eat. The key word here being "almost"! You can get at least a week's worth of sodium chloride in one serving.  Fortunately, someone put a bag of salt on the table so I was able to bring the sardines up to speed.

 This set off a lively discussion at the table about my blood pressure. I pointed out that I only eat one salted sardine a year (if I'm lucky) so it wasn't likely to kill me outright. This seemed to make everyone feel better. We enjoyed a warm, clear, beautiful morning. Everyone was very happy to get back to normal.

MUCHAS GRACIAS EL MASROIG!!!

My sardinada rig. Table, bag chair, sardine cooker and backpack for accessories.

"Mare's nipple" table grapes. Note the distinctive shape. This is an ancient variety that dates back to at least the 7th Century. One reference describes it from the 2nd Century B.C. in China. You never know what's going to turn up around here.

I was invited to sit with these folks. They're all wonderful people!

Cooking my sardines (bottom right). Some people bring their own sausage.

Passing out the goodies. For 1€ you get a sardine, loaf of bread, tomato, onion, olives and as much wine as you can drink.

They have peculiar way of organizing public events. You have to purchase a ticket and then give the ticket to whoever is handing out the food, drinks, etc. I thought for a moment I was going to get some whisky with my sardine. Alas, it was a clever deception.

Pilar (on the right) and a friend. Pilar has been a good friend to me!

Freya's Birthday!

Freya had a birthday recently and I wanted to take her out to celebrate. Sammy flew in from England to join the festivities. Unfortunately, Siebe is in Australia on family business. We'll catch up with him for his birthday in October. 

We started out on my favorite beach. The weather was glorious and the water was refreshing after sunning in the heat. It's been a little warmer than usual. Ordinarily fall arrives around the first of September but it's a little late this year. Anyway, a temperature of 90 F is just perfect for the beach.

We went to Brichs restaurant in Falset for dinner. It's one of the places we took the group from Barons Creek last June. I've been there a couple of times and the food is excellent! Also, I have a friend who works there.

We had a fantastic meal as you will see below. 

Sammy and Freya went to Barcelona on Saturday to do the big city thang. Sammy caught the train back to Tarragona on Sunday afternoon. I gave her a short historical walking tour. We than had lunch at a restaurant I like by the marina. It's called l'Ancora. My Spanish friends make fun of me for going there because they think it's touristy. I like the food, however, and they throw a mean plate of patatas bravas. 

I took Sammy to the airport this morning and she's now back in rainy England. ¡Pobrecita!

THANKS, Y'ALL, FOR GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Your boy kickin' it on the beach. Got the cooler, book and umbrella. Cerveza not pictured.

Sammy and Freya.

These were our starters. Grilled endive in chicken broth. Heirloom tomatoes with olive puree.

Livin' it up!

Two kinds of croquettes. Roasted chicken with truffles below. Jamon iberica above.

My entree: Confit of braised lamb shoulder with plantain, cocoa and cashew sauce.

Yeah, baby!

You can see Freya's tuna steak in the background. There is a big tuna fishery not too far from here.

Sammy's entree: Canelon catala.

You really need to watch this short video of Freya explaining dessert. 

Sammy at the Roman amphitheater.

Balco del mediterrani

Sammy got a butterfly tattoo in Barcelona. It was done by a woman known as "Señorita Dinamita" (Little Miss Dynamite). Apparently, tattoos are relatively inexpensive in Barcelona. If any of y'all are thinking about a little ink, I can hook you up!

Sammy with a demolished plate of bravas. One of the many things I like about her is that she loves patatas bravas as much as I do! She just had braces on her teeth and is trying to conceal them.