Few things are capable of raising as many doubts around a table as a bottle of wine.

The dish has been chosen, the guests are seated, and then the question arises. What should we open?

For years, we have been taught that fish calls for white wine, meat demands red, and cheese seems to accept almost anything with a cork. They are convenient rules. They are also dangerously simple.

Because a good wine and food pairing does not depend only on whether there is hake or sirloin in front of us. The sauce, fat, texture, degree of cooking, acidity, spices and even the temperature of the dish all matter. The wine matters, of course, but so does how it is made.

And then there is the part we sometimes forget: personal taste.

Wine and food pairing: more about balance than obedience

Pairing is not about finding a perfect match hidden in some secret manual. It is about getting wine and food to sit together without either of them having to raise its voice too much.

Sometimes the wine accompanies. At other times it contrasts. And on the best occasions, something much harder to explain happens: after a bite, the wine tastes different; after a sip, the dish does too.

That is a good pairing. Not necessarily the most sophisticated one, but certainly the most balanced.

To achieve it, it helps to understand a few pairing rules, although it would be better to call them simply clues. In reality, rules that are too rigid tend to last exactly until a dish comes along that disproves them.

Intensity matters more than colour

Probably the first question to ask when thinking about how to pair wine is quite simple: which element is more intense on the plate?

A white fish steamed gently is delicate. But that same fish with a powerful tomato, garlic and spice sauce no longer is.

Likewise, a grilled red meat can have less aromatic complexity than vegetables slowly roasted with smoke, spices and a fermented sauce.

That is why, rather than setting “white against red”, it is better to think of a balance. Delicate dishes need wines that can accompany them without overwhelming them. Intense dishes need wines with enough structure not to disappear after the first bite.

Everything in life needs balance.

Fat calls out for freshness

Fat has a wonderful quality: it carries flavour. But it also has a less poetic one: it can saturate the palate. That is why rich dishes often benefit from wines with good acidity, tannins or even some effervescence.

Think of a mature cheese, cured meat or meat with an unctuous sauce. A fresh wine can cleanse the mouth and prepare the palate for the next bite.

Contrast works.

A dry sparkling wine with fried food, for example, can be far more interesting than some pairings traditionally considered more noble.

The bubbles cleanse and the acidity refreshes. And the diner appreciates it.

Wine for meat: it does not always have to be a big red

Here we find one of the most deeply rooted associations: meat equals red wine.

On paper, it makes sense. Red meats, particularly when fatty or cooked over embers, work very well with structured red wines whose tannins can stand up to their intensity.

But not all meats are alike. A long, concentrated stew does not call for the same thing as carpaccio. Roast lamb has little in common with spiced chicken. And white meat can be perfectly comfortable alongside a full-bodied white, a wine aged on its lees or, why not, a food-friendly rosé.

When looking for wine for meat, it is best to consider how it has been cooked first.

Grilling brings toasted notes and smoke. Stews add concentration. Sweet sauces change the whole picture. And very often, the accompaniment has more influence on the pairing than the protein at the centre of the plate.

Wine for fish: the end of an old prohibition

Few gastronomic dogmas have lasted as long as the idea that fish should never be served with red wine. Today we know that old rule contained far less absolute truth than it seemed to.

A delicate white fish still finds excellent companions among fresh, mineral whites. But think of seared grilled tuna, bonito or perhaps a caldeirada stew… These are fish with fat and character that a light, fresh, low-tannin red can accompany perfectly.

The key to wine for fish is once again intensity. It also means avoiding wines that are too tannic when the dish contains elements that can amplify metallic or bitter sensations.

There is no need to fear colour; it is better to pay closer attention to structure.

Pairing with cheese: the territory where rules become complicated

Perhaps no food demonstrates better how little use absolute terms are.

“Wine with cheese” seems an unquestionable pairing until we put a fresh cheese, a blue cheese, a goat’s cheese and one aged for two years on the table.

Should we really serve them all with the same wine?

Cheese pairing depends on ageing, intensity, fat, acidity and texture. Fresh cheeses usually appreciate wines that are also fresh and high in acidity. Aged cheeses allow wines with more body and complexity. And blue cheeses present one of the table’s most interesting contrasts: their saltiness and power work especially well with sweet wines.

It may seem contradictory, but that is precisely why it works. The sweetness softens the salty intensity of the cheese and creates a balance that no rule based simply on “red with cheese” could explain.

Sweet food has rules of its own

Desserts are dangerous territory.

A dry wine alongside a very sweet dessert can become completely lost.

As a general rule, the wine should have a level of sweetness similar to or greater than that of the dish, though even here there are nuances.

Chocolate, fruit, cream, nuts and caramel call for different paths. Bitter dark chocolate is not the same as lemon tart. The former seeks depth; the latter needs freshness.

Once again, the dish is in charge.

Spice, heat and the moment when wine makes things worse

Not all wines put out fires. Some feed them.

With very spicy food, a wine high in alcohol and tannin can intensify the sensation of heat even further. By contrast, an aromatic, fresh white with a touch of sweetness can provide a counterpoint.

Asian cuisines are a wonderful playground for seeing this in action.

Ginger, chilli, coriander, curry, fermented ingredients and sweet sauces introduce so many stimuli that thinking only about the protein in the dish no longer makes sense.

Here, aroma matters a great deal. And freshness even more.

Some pairing rules that are worth remembering

After taking apart quite a few of them, it may be worth keeping some. Not as commandments, but as a compass.

Look for similar intensity

A delicate dish usually appreciates a delicate wine, while a powerful dish needs a wine capable of standing its ground.

Use acidity to refresh

Wines with good acidity work especially well with rich dishes, fried foods, sauces and foods that need the palate cleansed.

Be careful with tannin

Tannins work wonderfully with protein and fat, but can become complicated with certain fish, bitter dishes or very spicy preparations.

Think about the sauce first

Very often the real star of a pairing is not the protein, but what accompanies it. A sauce can transform a dish completely and determine which bottle to open.

Do not forget where it comes from

Some combinations have worked for generations for a reason. Wines and products from the same area often share culinary culture, climate and tradition. It is not a guarantee, but it is an excellent starting point.

Does the perfect pairing exist?

Probably not. And perhaps that is good news, because if there were a perfect combination for every dish, drinking wine would be a much more boring activity.

Part of the pleasure lies precisely in trying and getting it wrong. Discovering that a full-bodied white works where we expected a red. Opening a sparkling wine with a meal that seems anything but formal. Or finding that the bottle we saved for an important occasion is much more enjoyable with a simple dish.

Wine and food pairing should not turn the table into an exam. It should make it more interesting.

Rules help us understand why certain combinations work, but from there come taste, curiosity and the desire to experiment.

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Madrid seems to have the virtue – or perhaps the flaw – of making almost everything happen within the city. Restaurants, markets, chefs, endless bars and a gastronomic calendar capable of filling several lifetimes. Yet it only takes a few dozen kilometres away from the centre to discover another Madrid. One where the landscape changes, vines appear and wine stops being merely something served at a table to return to its origin.

Because Madrid is also vineyard country. And not just one kind.

Wines of Madrid are born in landscapes that are very different from one another: from the limestone soils and plains of Arganda to the granite and slopes near Gredos, via Navalcarnero and the vineyards in the north of the region around El Molar.

Four regions. Different soils, different altitudes and very different ways of interpreting the same varieties.

Wines of Madrid: four landscapes within one denomination

As mentioned above, the DO Vinos de Madrid is currently structured into four sub-regions: Arganda, Navalcarnero, San Martín de Valdeiglesias and El Molar. Each responds to very different geological and climatic conditions, particularly important in a region where vineyards can lie between approximately 480 and 1,000 metres above sea level.

It is hard to imagine a single wine style amid such diversity.

In the south-east, Arganda looks out over drier landscapes, with sedimentary soils and a notable presence of limestone and marl. To the west, San Martín de Valdeiglesias enters the granite territory of the Sierra de Gredos. Navalcarnero sits on soils of siliceous origin with sandier textures, while El Molar adds a particularly varied geological mosaic in the north of the region.

The conclusion seems simple. To speak of Madrid wines as though they were one single thing would mean missing precisely what is best about them.

Arganda: where Madrid becomes more Castilian

Arganda is the denomination’s great wine-growing expanse. Here the landscape opens up. Gentle hills, plateaus and fertile plains replace the mountains, and the vineyard meets a drier, more continental climate.

The soils often have high limestone content and loamy or clay-loam textures, and the area experiences significant temperature swings.

It is also the sub-region with the greatest productive weight within the denomination. In the 2023 harvest, it accounted for approximately 71% of the grapes delivered to member wineries.

In this part of Madrid we find white varieties such as malvar and airén, alongside red varieties such as tempranillo and others authorised by the denomination. These wines are born in an apparently austere environment, where heat and dryness force the vine to manage its resources very carefully.

It does not seem the kindest of places. And yet the vineyard has been there for a long time.

San Martín de Valdeiglesias: the other side of garnacha

If there is an area that has changed the way many wine lovers view Madrid wines today, it is probably San Martín de Valdeiglesias.

Here we enter the easternmost slopes of the Sierra de Gredos. Granite replaces limestone. Hillsides and foothills appear, along with vineyards at higher altitudes. The soils are mainly sandy-loam and acidic, very different from those found at the other end of the denomination.

And upon them appears an inevitable leading character: Madrid garnacha.

Old vines, often grown on small plots that are difficult to mechanise, have shown that this variety can be far more delicate than was thought for years.

Red fruit, flowers, herbs, minerality and a freshness that surprises anyone who still expects heavy, overly ripe garnachas.

The landscape is in charge. And here it is very much in charge.

It is no surprise that some of the Madrid projects that have sparked the most interest in recent years have turned their attention back to these old vines and to less interventionist viticulture.

And sometimes modernity consists precisely in recovering what was already there.

Navalcarnero: a history written in sand and tradition

Navalcarnero has historically been closely linked to wine. Its soils, shaped by the action of the Guadarrama River, are mainly siliceous and sandy-loam in texture. The climate is dry once again, but the landscape changes compared with Arganda, and so does the way the vine expresses itself.

Here garnacha once more takes centre stage among red varieties, while malvar occupies a prominent place among whites.

For decades, this area was associated with a more everyday way of drinking wine, linked to taverns and local consumption.

Perhaps that is why it has something especially interesting. It does not need to invent a tradition, because it already has one.

The challenge is to reinterpret it without turning it into a museum piece.

El Molar: the north exists too

For a long time, speaking about the denomination meant thinking only of three main sub-regions. El Molar changed that map.

Located in the north of the region, this fourth sub-region added eleven municipalities and brought a new geography to Madrid wines as a whole.

It is possibly the most heterogeneous in terms of soils: granite, quartzite, slate, schist, gneiss, sandstone, marl and limestone all appear within its territory. A small geological encyclopaedia.

Here, garnacha tinta and malvar once again appear as particularly representative varieties.

And there is something stimulating about this more recent addition: it reminds us that even a denomination with decades of history can continue to redefine its boundaries and discover new voices within its own territory.

Garnacha, malvar, albillo real and other varieties that explain Madrid

Speaking about Madrid grape varieties means returning to the territory once again, since they do not all have the same importance in every area.

In San Martín de Valdeiglesias, the main varieties are garnacha tinta and albillo real. In Navalcarnero and El Molar, garnacha and malvar stand out in particular.

Arganda broadens the range even further and reflects that other wine-growing identity more closely connected to the plateau and its traditional varieties.

Among them all, garnacha has probably become the variety that has done most to renew the external image of Madrid wine. But it would be unfair to stop there.

Albillo real can offer textured, characterful whites; malvar is part of the region’s traditional wine-growing heritage, while varieties such as tempranillo and airén complete a landscape far more complex than it appears.

Madrid has more grapes than many people imagine. And more stories behind them.

Madrid wineries: when the project begins in the vineyard

A denomination can have rules, regulatory councils and promotional strategies, but in the end it is people who build its identity.

Madrid wineries have been undergoing an interesting transformation for years. Historic cooperatives, family projects and small producers coexist with those who have returned to old plots, challenging vineyards and varieties that for a time seemed destined to lose importance.

Some seek precision. Others, identity. Others simply want wine to speak once again of the place it comes from. And in many cases, that change begins before it reaches the winery: in the vineyard, in pruning, in the decision to keep a plot that may not be the most profitable, in respecting a minority variety or in choosing not to pull up an old vine.

They are small decisions, but they build the landscape.

2026: greater visibility for Madrid wine

This year, the Regulatory Council itself has again focused on one of the sector’s major outstanding challenges: giving the region’s wines greater visibility.

During the first half of 2026, the DO strengthened its presence at trade fairs, professional gatherings, gastronomic initiatives and wine-tourism proposals.

The aim is simple: to ensure that more consumers get to know the wineries and wines made in Madrid.

It is not a minor matter.

Madrid has restaurants, tourism, gastronomy and enormous power to influence. But for a long time, its wines have not occupied the same place in the collective imagination as other Spanish regions.

Perhaps because they were too close, and sometimes we look farther away than necessary.

A summer that reminded us wine is also territory

But 2026 has also left a far more difficult image to forget: the summer wildfires that affected the Sierra Oeste and reached wine-growing areas of San Martín de Valdeiglesias.

Suddenly, talking about vineyards ceased to be only about varieties, soils or wine styles. It became about loss. Landscape. Farmers. Wineries. And the fragility of an agricultural heritage that takes decades to build and only hours to be seriously damaged.

The images of the fires offered a painful lesson, but also another that was less obvious: in some places, the vineyards themselves helped slow the spread of the flames. Cultivated plots acted as breaks in the continuity of the forest landscape. In short, a crop that needed protection also ended up protecting the territory around it.

It is deeply paradoxical and symbolic.

The Sierra Oeste after the fires

After the fires, support campaigns for the sector and measures to assist affected wineries and growers were activated, but there are damages that cannot be resolved from one year to the next.

An old vine cannot be replaced in the way a machine is changed. It needs time: years to take root, find balance and produce grapes again that can precisely express the landscape they come from.

That is why, when we talk about Madrid garnacha and the old vineyards of San Martín de Valdeiglesias, we are also talking about heritage. Heritage that, once it disappears, does not always return.

Drinking can also be a way to support

All this adds another perspective to Madrid wines, especially those from the Sierra Oeste. Buying a bottle from a small local winery, visiting a vineyard or taking the time to learn about its projects is no longer only a gastronomic experience. It is also a way of helping that landscape stay alive.

Because behind every bottle there is much more than wine. There is a plot, a family, a decision to keep cultivating… And, very often, a particular way of understanding the territory.

A vineyard hidden in plain sight

Madrid does not need to resemble Rioja, Ribera del Duero or Rías Baixas to justify its wines. Its value lies elsewhere.

In the closeness between a great capital and vineyards that still preserve old vines. In the contrast between limestone and granite. In varieties that change completely depending on which side of the region they come from.

And in something even more important: the people who continue to care for those plots.

Perhaps this summer has given us one more reason to look towards them.

Drinking a Sierra Oeste wine is not only about discovering a garnacha born on granite or supporting a small winery. It is also about helping an agricultural landscape continue to exist.

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But before all that comes the grape.

Tempranillo, garnacha, albariño, verdejo, mencía, bobal, monastrell… Names we find so often on a label that we risk forgetting that each one has an identity behind it. And often a territory that would be difficult to imagine without it.

Spain possesses an extraordinary diversity of grape varieties. Some cover thousands of hectares and have become true international ambassadors. Others survive in small plots thanks to winegrowers who refused to pull them up when planting something else seemed more profitable.

That is where much of the magic lies.

Because understanding Spanish grape varieties is also a way of understanding why our wines taste of the places they come from.

Spanish grape varieties: when the landscape ends up in the glass

It would be convenient to divide them simply into red and white grape varieties. Neat, classified and perfectly arranged in two columns.

But wine is rarely that simple.

The same grape can yield completely different results depending on where it grows. Soil, altitude, aspect, available water, the age of the vine and the temperatures it withstands during summer all change.

And so does the person behind it.

Garnacha growing in an old vineyard in Aragon does not have to resemble garnacha grown on the slopes of Gredos. They share genetics, but not necessarily character.

We were able to see this at Madrid Fusión, when several Aragonese garnachas showed that a variety can sometimes hold many personalities beneath the same skin: red fruit, flowers, wild-herb notes, freshness, power and mineral nuances appeared differently in every glass.

One protagonist. Different stories.

Tempranillo: the variety that learned to speak many languages

Few Spanish grapes probably have as many names as tempranillo.

Tempranillo in Rioja. Tinto fino or tinta del país in Ribera del Duero. Cencibel in Castilla-La Mancha. Ull de llebre in Catalonia.

It is not simply a linguistic curiosity. It is an excellent clue as to how deeply this variety has integrated into different territories.

It remains the winemaking variety with the largest planted area in Spain. The latest figures published by the Ministry of Agriculture place it ahead of airén, with both far ahead of the rest.

In Rioja it is one of the pillars of the identity of its reds. There it can show aromas of red and black fruit, floral notes and a gentle texture in youth; with time and ageing, nuances of vanilla, cocoa, coconut or liquorice emerge.

But perhaps the truly interesting thing about tempranillo is its ability to change outfits without ceasing to be recognisable.

It can produce a young, direct wine or wait patiently for years.

Not all grapes know how to age with such elegance.

Garnacha: a survivor that became a treasure again

Some varieties seem to need to disappear a little before we rediscover them.

For decades, garnacha was often associated with high-alcohol, concentrated wines and a certain rusticity. It was hardy, productive and always there. Paradoxically, that did not always help it gain the prestige it deserved.

Today the story is very different.

Garnacha has become one of the most exciting varieties in the Spanish wine scene, especially when it comes from old vineyards, poor soils and high-altitude areas.

Aragon has an especially strong historical connection to it, but Navarre, Catalonia, Rioja and Madrid have also found different ways to interpret it.

In the glass it can be generous and fruity, but also delicate, floral and surprisingly fresh. Some garnachas arrive in a powerful voice, while others almost whisper.

That is its uniqueness. It does not impose a single style. It allows itself to be shaped by the territory.

And that is probably why it is also one of the varieties that best explains one of the great transformations in Spanish wine in recent years: the recovery of old vineyards and identities that remained in the background for far too long.

Albariño: the Atlantic turned into wine

There are wines that almost seem to bring with them the climate of the place where they were born. With albariño, it is hard not to think of Galicia: humidity, intense greens, stone, estuaries and an Atlantic that can be beautiful and unforgiving on the same day.

Especially linked to Rías Baixas, this white variety has a highly recognisable aromatic identity and an acidity capable of holding the wine together with precision.

Citrus, stone fruit, flowers, white fruit… Its nuances can vary, but there is almost always a sense of freshness that immediately makes us think of the table.

Shellfish, fish, rice dishes and simple preparations where the product is the star.

It is no coincidence. Great wines usually understand very well where they come from.

Verdejo: the Castilian character that hid more than one side

At first glance, the Castilian plateau does not seem the most delicate setting. Cold winters, dry summers, wide temperature swings and soils where survival requires a certain discipline.

Verdejo has been doing so in Rueda for more than ten centuries. The denomination itself considers it its native variety and highlights its notes of low scrub, fruit and a very distinctive acidity.

For a long time, for some consumers, verdejo was almost synonymous with young white wine: fresh, aromatic and easy to drink.

But that was only a very small snapshot.

Handled with ambition, it can offer wines with more body, texture and complexity, lees ageing or styles capable of evolving for years.

Sometimes the real treasure is not discovering something new, but looking more closely at what we thought we already knew.

Airén: the silent giant

If we spoke only of recognition, airén would probably occupy a rather discreet place. But if we speak of vineyards, the story changes completely.

With more than 180,000 hectares planted, it remains Spain’s leading white variety by area and represents approximately 43% of the vineyard devoted to white varieties.

For decades it was associated with high yields and simple wines, especially in Castilla-La Mancha. Yet it is becoming increasingly interesting to follow producers who have turned their attention back to old airén plots and chosen to treat them with a different sensitivity.

Lower yields. More attention to the vineyard. Careful winemaking… And suddenly another airén appears. One that was there all along.

Bobal, monastrell and mencía: when a variety tells the story of its territory

The map of Spanish wine grape types is full of almost sentimental connections between a variety and a place.

Bobal takes us to Utiel-Requena and Manchuela, where for years it was valued above all for its resilience, colour and productivity. Today there are projects able to draw wines of great freshness and personality from it.

Monastrell has the Mediterranean in its veins. Murcia, Alicante and other eastern areas are its natural territory. Sun, drought and high temperatures do not seem to frighten it much.

And mencía, particularly linked to Bierzo and other north-western regions, can offer fragrant, fresh reds with red fruit, flowers and a delicacy that bears little relation to the stereotype of powerful, ripe Spanish wine.

Three varieties. Three completely different landscapes. That is precisely what is so fascinating.

Godello and other white grape varieties worth following

For years, when people spoke of great Spanish whites, it seemed they first had to justify that Spain could make them too. Fortunately, that conversation is changing.

Godello, particularly in Valdeorras and other north-western areas, has shown a remarkable ability to produce wines with volume, minerality, freshness and interesting evolution in bottle.

It is joined by varieties such as treixadura, xarel·lo, macabeo or viura and palomino fino, each linked to very different geographies, styles and traditions. And there are still many more.

Some occupy only a few hectares. Small survivors in a vineyard that for decades tended to become uniform. And precisely for that reason, they matter.

What is the best Spanish grape variety?

It is probably one of those questions that does not deserve an answer.

Best for what? To accompany fish? To wait ten years in a cellar? To drink lightly chilled during a summer lunch? To go with a winter stew?

Tempranillo has depth and an extraordinary capacity for ageing. Garnacha can move us with its finesse and ability to convey the landscape. Albariño and verdejo show two completely different ways of understanding a white wine. Bobal, mencía and monastrell champion territories that, for a long time, did not always receive the attention they deserved.

Choosing only one would mean missing too much.

Perhaps it is much more fun to do the opposite.

Choose a variety, taste it in different regions, compare a young vine with an old one, or discover how two winemakers interpret the very same vineyard in completely different ways.

That is where we begin to understand wine for real.

The real luxury lies in diversity

Spain preserves one of the world’s most interesting wine-growing heritages. Its most widespread varieties live alongside small local grapes, centenary vines and vineyards that have survived because someone decided they were worth preserving.

They are not merely raw material. They are memory.

Every variety contains part of the history of those who cultivated it, the climate it had to adapt to and the territory it ultimately made its own.

That is why, next time we have a bottle in front of us, it may be worth pausing for a moment before pouring it. Looking at the label, finding the name of the grape and asking ourselves where it comes from.

Because very often, that is exactly where the journey begins.

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After admiring and drinking her wines for a long time, last December I finally had the opportunity to pay her a visit in her refuge in Ronda. “I just returned from a super inspiring trip to Burgundy with good friends in the industry,” she told me. It also served as therapy for a very difficult personal grieving process for her: the death of her brother.

After studying Chemistry and completing a Master’s degree in Viticulture in Madrid, she worked as a winemaker at Remírez de Ganuza and in Priorat before returning to her native Andalusia. The goal was to take charge of the dream of José Antonio Itarte, who bought the estate in 1999 to start a new life in southern Spain. He planted 17 hectares of tempranillo and french varieties: some cabernet Sauvignon, petit Verdot, and pinot noir. Pinot noir is the variety that has brought fame to the winery.

However, the reality of climate change forced Bibi to seek new land for new vineyards. This was a task she carried out slowly and carefully. From this search would come her garnacha and graciano wines. And Breñal, the winery’s only white wine, whose label reproduces the Sierra de Grazalema mountain range silhouette.

La encina vineyard

Ronda wines

Cortijo los Aguilares was a pioneer winery in the recovery of native vineyards in Ronda. But the first was Alfonso de Hohenlohe at Cortijo Las Monjas in the 1980s, whose 15 hectares of vineyards are also currently managed by Bibi García nowadays.

The first vineyards were planted by the Phoenicians, and their cultivation was promoted by the Romans. But phylloxera wiped them off the map in the 19th century. Poor decisions ultimately doomed the area, as rootstocks incapable of withstanding the colder, more continental climate of the Málaga mountains were chosen.

Today, more than 20 wineries have rewritten history with a different philosophy under the Sierras de Málaga designation. While fortified wines predominated before phylloxera, today there is a great diversity of grapes and styles that benefit from a Mediterranean climate, but with that Atlantic touch imparted by the mountains and the altitude. This gives them a very special acidity, fresh yet ripe.

In fact, the profile of visitors who come to Cortijo los Aguilares is very international. It should not be forgotten that Ronda has a long tourist tradition dating back to the 19th century, as it was on the route between Granada and Seville traveled by the intellectuals and explorers of the time.

However, as the winery’s oenologist acknowledges, “there’s still a bit of a disconnection between the world of wine and local culture, perhaps because the return to wine production is relatively recent here.”

Concrete tanks in the winery

Pinot Noir and Petit Verdot

The winery’s only plot of pinot noir is located in La Encina. It was a personal whim of José Antonio Itarte, who grew up in Switzerland and was accustomed to that style of wine. But “we can’t forget that Africa is just 100 kilometers away,” Bibi García explains. “You can manage the terroir and the soil, but you can’t change it. We can’t be Burgundy. Our pinot noir is a very beautiful wine, but it’s not a great wine. It’s a wine made from the heart. And even so, there have been years when I’ve considered not doing it because I wasn’t 100% happy with the result,” she says. “There have been vintages where we haven’t produced pinot noir because we couldn’t achieve the balance and coherence, I always strive for in all my wines. Fortunately, the 2025 vintage is shaping up very well.”

To achieve the balance and elegance that has made her pinot noir one of the best in Spain, Bibi harvests in two separate moments. The first harvest is very intense, acidic, and fresh, which she handles in a very specific way. The second takes place eight or nine days later, with riper grapes and more body.

For this reason, this vineyard is treated like a botanical garden, as Aitor Azpitarte, head of wine tourism at Cortijo los Aguilares, explains. “We take much better care of the foliage and shade, and we always do very careful manual pruning. We only irrigate a little by drip irrigation if there’s a heat wave,” he adds.

Petit verdot is another of her signature grapes. It forms the backbone of her Pago del Espino, in addition to a blend of tempranillo, syrah, and garnacha. Then it evolves 15 months in oak barrels. Bibi confesses that it’s one of her favorite wines from the winery. So much so that it accompanied her on her wedding day.

Tadeo and Tadeo Tinaja are their single-varietal petit verdot wines. “I’m aware that their body and structure aren’t what’s fashionable now, but it’s what the variety and the climate demand. If I harvest two weeks earlier, it gives me less alcohol and more acidity. Less balance.”

Aitor Azpitarte walking through the vineyards

Wines, trends, and identity

The trend of somewhat forced high acidity in many Spanish wines, which are essentially Mediterranean, is a hot potato that should be debated. “Now everyone wants to make wines like in Madeira. Everything is Atlantic. And even in Ribera del Duero, we’re Mediterranean,” explains Bibi. “And you certainly can’t do that in Jumilla. Yes, you can harvest earlier, but sometimes the grapes have barely finished their veraison. It doesn’t make sense at all.”

The winemaker recalls the other extreme of the pendulum when she started working at Remírez de Ganuza in 2002. “It was the Parker era, when hyper-extraction and hyper-concentration were super trendy. Some wineries were doing double passes through the winery to achieve the profile that was popular at the time.”

For her, it’s a matter of insecurity that Spanish wine can’t seem to shake off. “In Germany and France, they’re more stable and consistent in that regard. We go wherever the music plays. And in doing so, we lose our identity.”

It’s also true that certain gurus have insisted on a style of wine that not everyone can produce due to climate and region. And giving up on proper ripeness seems like a real shame to me. I want my wines to smell of their origin. Of mountainous Andalusia, with cool, high-altitude nights. With scrubland and balsamic notes. But they also have to be at their precise moment of maturity.”

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A few days ago, he shared his most personal project, Casa Aurora, in La Canibal,  one of the most famous wine bars in Madrid. I had the opportunity to chat with him for a while prior to this tasting.

PART I. THE STORY

He defines himself as a first-generation winemaker, of humble origins, who started his career from scratch. “My father came from the clothing business and my mother had an art school. When I was a teenager, they had a complicated divorce and I decided to move in with my grandmother in Albares, a little town in Leon” he recalls.

Although German didn´t know it yet, the seed of Casa Aurora had grown into him. But there are seeds that take years, or even decades, to flourish.

He studied Oenology in Madrid while working at Lavinia, a prestigious wine shop, to be able to pay for his studies. Although it can be assumed that wine captivated him from a very young age, he does not consider it that way: “It is more complex than all that. I wasn´t sure about anything, but I had a creative motivation. And here I am still,” he recalls.

RIBERA DE DUERO

He never dreamed of having his own winery, but sometimes life gives you more than you expect. “It was the time of the big wineries, and my goal was to find a job in one of them.” He wanted to return home “because I was in love with an Asturian woman who is now my wife, and with whom I have built this dream.”

Chance and necessity led him to Aranda de Duero, where he began working first for Felix Callejo “who treated me wonderfully” and then as a consultant for several wineries. And there, in Ribera de Duero, 19 years ago, his first project was born: Quinta Milu.

“A good friend’s family set up a winery and they were having some difficulties getting the project started, so we decided to join forces” he recalls.

CASA AURORA WAS BORN

In 2006 Germán’s grandmother died. “For me it was a very big shock. It took me four or five years to return to her hometown,”. But one day when he was traveling from Aranda de Duero to Gijon, he felt the emotional need to visit the family vineyard. “I didn’t even know how to get there, one of his friends took me there.”

As a catharsis, he began to take care of that vineyard without even saying anything to his wife Cristina. When the neighbors saw him there, they began to give him their abandoned vineyards to take care of and little by little the Casa Aurora project began to take shape. “I knew that making wine in Bierzo Alto was going to be much more difficult than in Ribera and that I would have to do it all myself.” It was 2010, and the first vintage was released on the market in 2013.

RIBERA DE DUERO

In 2015 he got the bug to start from scratch in a new area and return to the origins of Quinta Milú, his wine made in Ribera de Duero. “I call the Rioja project my business. “I buy grapes, rent facilities, produce and sell,” he explains. “ La Bicicleta Voladora is a white Tempranillo wine, which is a grape that was having a hard time selling to winegrowers in the area. It took me a while to understand that it is a simple and austere grape. It is an everyday wine, easy to drink, cheerful. “A wine of textures.”

PIONEER IN RIOJA

When I tell him that his career reminds me of other winemakers like Telmo Rodríguez, one of the most reputed winemakers in Spain, he smiles. “I am a big fan of Telmo Rodríguez and Álvaro Palacios, and I think that little has been said and little has been appreciated for what they have done for Spanish viticulture. We are not a country in which the merit of others is recognized.”

He also considers himself a classic, after 19 years of making wine. “You can’t be in the news forever, it’s part of life, the press likes news. In exchange, experience gives you stability and a loyal market.”

When asked who drinks his wine, he answers that “I make wine for normal people, for everyone. Living outside of the manufacturing areas gives me a cleaner, more interesting perspective, although at first, I thought it could be a disadvantage.” In fact, 50% of the 30,000 annual bottles produces are sold in Spain, an unusually high percentage. The US is another relevant market for his wines.

PART 2. THE WINE

At the tasting held a few days ago at La Canibal, attendees had the opportunity to try all the wines from their project at Casa Aurora, as well as some surprises.

VINEYARDS AND ELABORATION

Casa Aurora vineyards are located in Bierzo Alto, between 800 and 1000 meters of altitude. “It is a very economically depressed area, where the vineyards were abandoned due to the minery,” he commented.

The main varieties most adapted to the climate are what Germán R. Blanco calls the Holy Trinity: “Palomino for the liters, Garnacha Tintorera for the color and Mencía for the quality. We work wih this heritage and we make a reinterpretation. My vineyards are like a piece of music and I have great respect for them. I don’t like to overwork wine.”

All wines in Casa Aurora are made in a similar way: 95% of the grapes are destemmed and a “pie de cuba” is made. This process consists of harvesting a small percentage and fermenting it. The rest of the deposits are planted with it. No additives or sulfur compounds are added either.

It is in the use of containers where this producer brings out his inner “chef”: clay amphorae, PVC, stainless steel, Flextank, used barrels… As for aging, it is always approximately 12 months. “I like the wine to be cold in winter and hot in summer,” he explains.

LA TRUENA

This is the first white made at Casa Aurora, a 100% Godello from old vineyards. He decided to play with all the available containers, although for the next vintage there is more stainless steel.

Apricot, saline notes and a subtle note of the clay amphora. A wine with a lot of nerve.

PEPINK

Pepink is the unexpected claret and unexpected success of Casa Aurora. The wine that was         made at home to accompany the long days in the countryside. That light red. That 90% white 10% red vinified as a red. Again 12 months in barrel and amphora.

“It’s a wine I was making for myself, but people started asking me to try it. A provocative and versatile wine, which admits all temperatures and all accompaniments since it has a more rustic than fruity character.”

LA NAVE

“La Nave is that premium regional wine that we were missing. It is called that because in 2020 we bought a warehouse to be able to grow, although it is difficult for me to get used to it,” he tells us. Fruit, clean wine, aged in wood and 100% Mencía.

CLOS PEPIN

Germán describes Clos Pepin as his most personal wine. “It comes from one of my vineyards in Albares and three or four other plots. 40% Mencía 40% Palomino, Garnacha Tintorera and other varieties. I call it my stew wine, because you decide how you cook it as it comes from different vineyards.” Again 12 months in amphora and barrel.

CARAS NORTE

Caras Norte is another new feature from Casa Aurora and right now is his most cherished project. A north-facing vineyard that, with climate change, has gone from Cinderella to princess. “I always thought what a beautiful vineyard, what a shame it is in the North. They offered it to us in 2022 and I took the plunge.” 60% Palomino, 30% Garnacha Tintorera and other varieties.

Volatile a little higher, tannin a little greener. A wine with more character, not suitable for all audiences. A wild unicorn.

LA VIÑA DE LA SEÑORA AURORA

The family heritage, a delicate and feminine Mencía. 300 recovered plants, 300 grafted and 300 new. A Vineyard facing east in a cold area at 930 meters of altitude, one of the highest in the province. Again, an ugly duck that turns into a beautiful swan.

POULA

Poula is the great house wine. Its name comes from a local term that refers to abandoned land. Curiously, it is not a parcel wine. It is made with the best grapes from the best vineyards, in the style of the great classic Rioja wines. “I wanted to show that the Bierzo mountains are also capable of creating great wine.”

Poula would be Clos Pepín’s older brother. 30% Mencia and the rest various varieties: Garnacha, Portuguese, caiño…

A wine with great aging capacity as the 2019 vintage already demonstrated, which we were also able to try. A wine to take the Bierzo mountains home and keep it for decades.

Maybe you will find interesting…

Bodegas Frontonio garnacha in the heart of Aragon

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Does food need wine or does wine need food? Seeing the number of people that accompany their meals with water, beer, or diet coke in whatever restaurant around us, we should be convinced of the latter. Few beverages are so dependent on a complement, perfect or imperfect, to match it. Let’s say wine needs its other half, a perfect partner.

What’s most fascinating and complex about the relationship between food and wine is that each person has their own palate and criteria, and each feels spice, sweetness, saltiness, and bitterness differently. To some extent, of course, no one will deny the saltiness of an anchovy sandwich. But a lot is left to personal taste.

Wine, food and flavor

In general, two components in food make wines taste “rougher”, that is, more bitter, more acidic, and less sweet and fruity. Those are sweetness and umami. And we best not try to define exactly what umami is because we will lose our minds a little. Let’s just say it is present in foods with an elevated content of sodium glutamate like asparagus, eggs, mushrooms, and some cheeses.

There are other foods with high umami levels like shellfish, fish, or cured/smoked meats as well as some cheeses like parmesan. However, they are also quite salty, which counteracts the adverse effect on the wine.

In terms of sweet elements, it’s ideal to accompany them with a wine that is at least as sweet as the plate. As obvious as it may sound, it doesn’t seem so when half the world is still hell-bent on pairing cakes and desserts with highly acidic sparkling wine. This tradition is well established and I fear it’s a lost cause.

Spicy food will pair perfectly with white wine, pink wine, or some red wines that are lighter and fruitier (and have fewer tannins).

On the other hand, saltiness and acidity are wine’s best friends. Perhaps because of this many restaurants go all out when it comes to seasoning their food, for my taste even a bit too much at times. I admit that I’m very sensitive to salt. And here we come back to the starting point that we each have different palates.

To summarize, there are some basic rules that can help guide us when it comes to choosing the right wine. But to give more precise clues and get rid of antiquated ideas, I have asked four of my favorite Spanish sommeliers to give us some insight to help us traverse the fascinating world of pairing wine and food.

They each received the same questions with total freedom in their response. Here we go.

Juan Luis García

Sommelier of Casa Marcial (Arriondas)

1. What combination of food and wine does everyone think works well, but you disagree?

Depending on the situation of the dish in a meal the style of the wine matters. For example, in an appetizer or starter, I would never serve foie with a sweet wine (the classic Sauternes, Tokaji, Moscatel,…) because our body, in its full wisdom, would tell us that it is done eating after consuming this sweet and fatty combination. In this case, I would serve a dry or sparkling wine or even an Amontillado from Sanlúcar de Barrameda. If this dish were to be served towards the end of the meal before dessert, I might consider the previously mentioned sweet wines.

2. Which combination of food and wine sounds strange or uncommon, but you think works perfectly?

There is a dish in Casa Marcial of squid with its ink and a celery and bean mole. in this zone of Asturias, both beans and squid with its ink have been eaten with rice, but this dish does not contain this ingredient. Therefore, I pair it with a sake SAKE ENDO KOSHU that has been aged for at least 20 years. Koshu means aged, and it is created by mixing two vintages, 1989 and 1999.

3. If you could only choose one bottle of wine for a meal with several varied foods (fish, shellfish, meat), which would it be?

It depends a bit on the style of the wine so here I’ll give several options. The first is a white wine with lots of personality, Valtuille Blanco 2021 of the godello grape variety in the Bierzo zone. It’s elaborated by César Márquez, nephew of Raúl Pérez jointly with the family winery, Castroventosa. 

The second is a sparkling wine, Izar-Ieku, elaborated by the traditional method of second embattled fermentation in the town of Zarauz (Gipuzkoa) with the Hondarribi Zuri grape variety. It’s the project that Juan Carlos López Lacalle has in this region, with 30 months of aging.

I also propose a light red wine, but with lots of personality, like O Gran Mein 2020. This wine is from Orense (Ribeiro) and elaborated from caiño Tinto y brancellao from a great vintage that Laura has interpreted perfectly. Lastly, another option is a sparkling cider like Prau Monga which belongs to the cidery Viuda de Angelon en Nava (Asturias).

Rocío Benito

Sommelier of Jaleo (Abu Dhabi) and wine influencer

1. What combination of food and wine does everyone think works well, but you disagree?

Truthfully, my perception of wine pairing has changed immensely throughout the years and I think it’s just as personal as it is. It´s difficult to answer this question. One combination that I’ve gotten sick of is Sherry wines, manzanillas and finos, with Iberico ham. It’s true that Iberico ham will go with anything you serve alongside it. I even remember once trying it with Sake and almost shedding tears. But nowadays it’s commonplace to assume Iberico Ham has to go with manzanillas and finos, and I believe that these wines shine much more with other foods.

2. Which combination of food and wine sounds strange or uncommon, but you think works perfectly?

One of the pairings that most people didn’t get at first but soon became a must in the restaurant Lera is beans with hare and champagne. This stew is potent but light at the same time. The hare contains lots of flavor while the beans are very smooth. I believe the combination of the beans, soft as butter, with the potent hare and bubbly wine was a winner from the start. Eventually, people started ordering it when we served this stew!

3. If you could only choose one bottle of wine for a meal with several varied foods (fish, shellfish, meat), which would it be?

For me always a sparkling wine, and not necessarily champagne. I believe the south o France and Cataluña have old wines of high quality and low price that are perfect for our meals. They pair with everything.

Israel Ramírez

Sommelier of Saddle (Madrid)

1.  What combination of food and wine does everyone think works well, but you disagree

The first thing to keep in mind is that the world of tastes is very personal, and just because I think it doesn’t work doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. The job of a sommelier is to recommend, not judge what others order. That being said, one pairing that I see works worse is a structured red wine such as a Ribera del Duero Reserva or a Priorato with cheeses in general. Some cheeses certainly pair well with it, but the wine likely won’t pair with every cheese in a varied board. The wine ends up tasting like cheese and losing its meaning. I insist each person has their own tastes, but I see the combination much better with a fresh white wine or sparkling/sweet wines.

2. Which combination of food and wine sounds strange or uncommon, but you think works perfectly?

We work in a classic and contemporary restaurant, so we don’t venture too far with extreme combinations, but we do sometimes explore different harmonies.

Two of my favorites are Malus Mama, a very special sweet cider from Astigarraga made by Iñaki Otegi, with tuna cheek or any piece of tuna with lots of flavor and fat. It doesn’t seem intuitive, but the wine’s acidity cleans your palate and combines well with it. This same cider, with the foie gras entier we work with at Saddle and the brioche Nantes-style, is one of the best combinations we’ve made.

The other combination would be a sauce we make with marinated seaweed. The vinegar doesn’t help much in finding combinations. We find a wine with lots of character like such made with Trebbiano by Emidio Pepe in Abruzzo. The wine by itself is already amazing, but the combination of both creates flavors that aren’t present in the plate or the wine. At the end of the day, our job is to find these perfect combinations and share them with those who visit us.

3. If you could only choose one bottle of wine for a meal with several varied foods (fish, shellfish, meat), which would it be?

The first thing I always say is that we shouldn’t go crazy with harmonies. The important thing is to have fun, in the restaurant as well as at home. It’s complicated for a wine to pair well with four or five dishes. It can mix well but never be perfect unless the menu is designed for said wine.

The key is to think of versatile wines, with medium-high acidity and few tannins in general. In summer I’ll always go for white wines, which are always more appetizing. For example, a new discovery I’ve made is a winery called Balassa which makes a dry tokaji in the Hungarian town of Màd, brought to Spain by Victor Cardona. It’s a wonderful wine with several levels of complexity. It has notes of its volcanic soil, a medium-high acidity giving it versatility, and a woody finish that produces oiliness and depth. What more can we ask from a wine?

In winter I might lean towards an Atlantic red wine, always depending on the menu. Red Ribeiros are growing on me, especially those from Luis Anxo Rodríguez in Arnoia, or the new ones being made by friends of Alma Carraovejas in Viña Mein. I recommend you take time to rediscover this winery.

Javier Pozo Caballero

Sommelier of Rekondo (Donostia-San Sebastián)

1. What combination of food and wine does everyone think works well, but you disagree?

White wine always with fish and shellfish and red wine always with meat. I think a structured white wine can go very well with foods that have a certain meatiness and complexity of flavor, like meats. For example, a Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru white wine from Burgundy or other regions like Puligny Montrachet, Meursault, etc. can go very well with meats like beef sirloin, beef chops, roasted pig or Duck a l’Orange. Game meats, which also have intense flavors, could pair with a Riesling like Grand Cru from Alsace or Germany. Another option is a Xarel·lo del Penedés.

There are also red wines that are delicate, fruity, mineral, and have a fresh acidity that harmonizes well with fish/shellfish dishes like a seafood grill or braised clams. As an example, a Pinot Noir from Burgundy or even Spain, such as the one made by Cortijo de los Aguilares winery in Ronda. There are also varieties like garnacha which go perfectly with grilled or baked turbot. The Tierra Calma winery from DOP Vinos de Madrid comes to mind, as well as Garnacha made in DO Méntrida.

2. Which combination of food and wine sounds strange or uncommon, but you think works perfectly?

Stews of game meat, intense stews in winter like Cocido, or lighter and fresher ones like gazpacho in summer, as well as semi-cured and cured cheeses, are well harmonized with fortified wines from Andalucia: fino, manzanilla, oloroso, amontillado, palo cortado, etc. 

3. If you could only choose one bottle of wine for a meal with several varied foods (fish, shellfish, meat), which would it be?

It would be sparkling wines. Some cava, Spanish corpinnat, or champagne with brut nature or brut type. Depending on the type of meat or fish, I would choose its structure, complexity, and time of aging, as well as the vintage.

Read more about Casa Marcial

Read more about Saddle

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The cooking that Pedro Sánchez exercises in the tiny Michelin star Baga dining room transcends local traditions and customs. It reflects the dreams of a cook who wanted to return to his motherland: “I cannot live without Jaen, without my land and without my family”, Baga has been featured as one of the coolest restaurants in the world to eat in 2023 by Forbes magazine

This chef is an example of how you can be a genius from a small restaurant without losing focus or humility, and how your curiosity can break down unimaginable barriers. The chef from Jaen put food trends upside down, dives deep into our gastronomic imaginary and shapes everything as if he was doing origami.

This radical and totally fresh point of view has made this 45 square meter restaurant a place of foodies pilgrimage all around the world, as stated in an article recently published by the magazine Forbes about the 10 coolest places to dine in 2023.

Pedro Sanchez has made a lot of food aficionados travel to Jaen, the Cinderella of a community exuberant with monuments and charms. When you arrive, you discover a city full of life, home to one of the most impressive Renaissance cathedrals in Spain.

However, what surprised me the most about my visit to Baga was finding a much more universal cuisine than I expected from an ambassador of his land as few have known. And it is that having roots is not incompatible with having wings. And Pedro Sánchez has both of them.

Appetizers

The bottarga and the carrueco, are the perfect presentation card for everything that we will be able to enjoy later. In his book, Pedro Sánchez explains that in the orange/bottarga he intends to combine in a single bite the sweetness of the oranges from Jaen, which he slices and dehydrates, with the salinity of a grated mullet roe artisanal bottarga.

The carrueco consommé, a type of elongated pumpkin typical of the orchards of Jaen, is the other appetizer with which we warm up. It brings back one of his most cherished childhood memories. Despite Jaen being the largest world producer of extra virgin olive oil, veggies production still plays a key role in the province.

In this case, instead of serving the soup that his grandmother prepared, he surprises us by filtering and serving only the broth, the negative of the photo, which treasures the purest flavors. This game will be constant throughout the entire menu that awaits us. Fran, the sommelier, wisely accompanies it with a manzanilla from Sanlucar de Barrameda in Cadiz.

Baga wine list

The rest of the meal we will drink O Morto 2019, a godello wine from DO Ribeiro, fermented in amphora for nine months on its lees. Perfect for an eminently seafood menu. “Fran, the sommelier, loves Jerez wines. 90% of our menu is made up of white and sparkling wines because we understand that they are the perfect complement to our type of cuisine. Our wine list is short and cozy because we have limited space”, Sánchez explains.

Motril shrimp/shitake

The next dish nods to the sea and the mountains, and to the crossroads that Jaen represents, one and a half hour away from the coast. Motril shrimps swim happily in a light and elegant shitake mushroom broth, which once again shows us how Pedro Sánchez can recover and make shine what we, amateur cooks, would throw away.

Beetroot/codium

This dish wanted to radically unite sea and the land. To do this, the beetroot is roasted in aluminum foil for 24 hours. Then it is roasted again with its skin wrapped in nori seaweed for approximately a day and a half, depending on the size. In this way its structure changes completely. The sauce is made from the seaweed, which has an intense flavor of the sea.

This is where we beet lovers are really happy as Pedro Sanchez has very present in his kitchen this Scandinavian veggie root.

Partridge/caviar

Again, a dish full of contrasts. Not of textures, but of flavors, totally surprising and outside our usual coordinates. It has retro eighties flair, the era of aspic and jellies, but it´s recreated in its most sophisticated form. The combination you thought wouldn’t work, does.

It is a partridge consommé that has turned into jelly, accompanied by a caviar pâté that is placed in the center. Mapy, the extraordinary front of the house manager, recommends that we eat it from bottom to top without mixing flavors.

Pear/smoked eel skin

This is it. The technical culmination of the Pedro Sanchez thought process. He suddenly presents us a whole pear in the middle of the menu. The pear has undergone a fermentation and oxidation process in which the sugars disappear leaving a sneaky pear skin. And speaking of slippery skins, Baga chef then creates a foam with the eel skin. A prodigy of sustainability

Coconut/almond/pineapple/basil (Baga ajoblanco)

And we arrive to one of the signature dishes of the house. The dish that will never disappear from the menu, even though Pedro Sanchez describes it in his book as “the one that people like the most, although I am tired of serving it.” The dish that he has prepared for 14 years and remains frozen in time.

He now considers this dish it a little rest for the mind and the palate after a demanding and complex start. I thought it was delicious, and I see something very unconventional accompanying it with a pineapple and basil granita that is more salty than sweet on my palate.

Celery root/hake

Another salute to the sea and Nordic cuisine, in a dish that combines celery root, a very rare tuber in Spain, with an aioli made with collagen from the hake heads emulsified with olive oil. Once again, a wonderful nod to sustainable cooking with an exquisite result.

Green pepper/oyster Île d´Oleron

Again, a game of contrasts. In this case, it´s between the delicacy of the oyster from the île dÓleron and the green pepper that has a very intense flavor, on a sauce also made of green pepper. Surprisingly, the delicacy of the oyster is not nullified, but enhanced.

Seaweed nori/meunière

This is one of the most innovative dishes from Pedro Sanchez. In fact, he has been doing research on its development for the past few months. A simultaneous nod to Japanese and French cuisine, in which seaweed takes center stage from sole and becomes a princess for a day. Wonderful contrast with the fried capers that add a touch of saltiness that had been tempered by the butter.

Ultimate freshness

We return to the Andalusian coast to present a sea urchin, but with a totally unexpected sauce from the dessert world: whipped cream, which displays for all its versatility here. The same happens with the trout, strawberry, tomato, and chamomile roe, in which the acidity of the strawberry is at the service of the salinity. The chamomile granita refreshes the palate to enhance that transition. Another of my favorite dishes for its lightness and freshness.

Main dishes

And we come across another star dish on Pedro Sánchez’s menu, which once again shows us an unexpected aspect of fish: cod tripe with sheep butter and edible flowers. A gift for the eyes and the palate with an unforgettable texture. And behind him the only concession to meat devoid of any accompaniment. A long-aged beef steak flavored with vanilla from Tahiti. I call it a concession, because I have the impression that Pedro Sánchez would be happy with a menu without meat of any kind, but perhaps he thinks that the client expects a dish of these characteristics.

The Upside-Down dessert

However the double somersault comes at dessert time when a lettuce heart in syrup appears on your plate. Not only because it breaks the rules of how and where on the menu you should eat lettuce. You discover that it has a neutral and crunchy flavor and that it really is delicious accompanied by a double cream ice cream. But also, because it gives an obvious role in a Michelin star menu to a humble product, and again with an eighties flair.

The same happens with the egg/coconut, in which it also takes advantage of the neutral flavor of the egg to offer it in a salty visual format but accompanied by a sweet element. Here, right at the end, we have already launched ourselves on an exciting culinary journey without a net.

In small format

This is a culinary trip in which the environment also plays a fundamental role. Baga’s tiny and charming dining room makes you feel as if you were in the Orient Express, traveling to a magical and distant place. And at the same time as if you were at Pedrito’s house and you were his guest and not his client.

In the same way, his cooking stems from his love for his land, Jaen, and he embarks on free flight without worrying about concepts such as kilometer zero or local cuisine. A kitchen that knows no ties or conventions. Simply unclassifiable.

You can by Baga book here ( only in Spanish)

Read about other Spanish Michelin star restaurants

Casa Marcial

Saddle

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The professional merits of the British journalist Tim Atkin, Master of Wine are so impressive that you need five minutes to read them on his website. But for many Rioja winemakers, he is simply Tim, the person who opens the doors of his house every year and shows his work to the world. He has been and continues to witness the profound transformation that is taking place in this DO in which the grape, the land, and the diversity of a unique place in the world are making their way to success. And the decline of an aging classification system that has become obsolete without many wanting to admit it

You are the only man alive who is able to taste more than 1,000 wines in a few weeks. Could you share the secret of this meticulous plan?

There is none really, it´s quite tiring tasting 1,000 thousand wines. The thing to do is drinking tons of water trying lots of sleep drinking lots of coffee and spit obviously. I am Drinking a lot of water between glasses of wine but it´s quite physically demanding  I don´t think I´m the onlyman alive that can do it it but it´s physically quite rigorous and demanding.

Your first 100 points red wine is not a choice coming from a classic traditional great winery. Do you think this has been a surprise to Rioja or does it an unstoppable trend?

I´ve given a 100 point white as you know before. I think it might be a surprise really to many people because it´s from a single vineyard. It´s although it´s not registered as one. It´s not a classic winery, and it´s not particularly well known. It was making carbonic maceration wines until the early nineties when Arturo´s father I thinks it´s Ricardo started doing carbonic maceration wines and selling his own wines.

So yes, It´s a young winery in some ways. But I liked it I think they are people who going back to old traditions and they are much focused on the vineyards. Because they are vineyard people. But I think it´s an important statement to give a 100 points wine prize to a small vineyard and to a small winery. And to show that there is a future for such places that Rioja doesn´t have to be about big bodegas. Some of those are very good, but it can be about small being beautiful.

There is a future for such places that Rioja doesn´t have to be about big bodegas. Small can be beautiful

Tim Atkin

In your opinion the traditional homogeneous Rioja model has arrived to a dead end. Do you think the crisis due to an excess of production could be a tipping point in the DO strategy?

They are not quite at a dead end. I think there will always be a place for wines that are blended across the region and they can be very good. I think much more that the crianza category is in deep trouble. It´s devaluated. Very few people drink it or if they do they drink it at very cheap prices. I think dividing Rioja by crianza, reserva and gran reserva, in other words dividing it by the amount of time it spends in oak, is a dead model in many ways. I think Rioja is not talking sufficiently about villages, about winemakers and about vineyards.

The excess of production should be a tipping point. Rioja is in a crisis and one can only be honest about this and say that that´s the case. But as I said in the report, there are two Riojas really.  This one bit of it is in a crisis, which is the volume part of Rioja, and a lot coming is from cooperatives and the stocks that they held in big wineries.

But on the other end you´ve got these incredible exciting wines that are the most incredible wines that have been made in the history of the region. They are coming from small wineries just like Artuke, Miguel Merino and José Gil, Sierra the Toloño. It´s very exciting but at the same time it´s a little bit depressing.

Do you see it possible that this new and diverse Rioja could be discovered in the international market without the support of the big wineries or do you think this is a utopia?

It´s difficult, a lot of people still think that these new style Riojas don´t taste like Rioja, because the Riojas they like are the wines that taste like American oak and are soft and sweet and very pleasant to drink. I think it´s difficult, but I think the more those wines emerge as having a story which is about place and about vineyard, and the more people understand the differences between the villages: Samaniego is not the same as Labastida which is not the same as Laguardia, which is not the same as San Vicente, which is not the same as Briones and those are all within a few miles of each other.

Then the people will begin to talk about Rioja as they do about French or Italian wine regions. The villages of Barolo, the villages of Burgundy. And I think that that´s why we need, as a fine wine end to the business. And I think that has to come from the marketplace but also Rioja itself needs from promote those wines.

The consumer has to talk about Rioja like talking about the French or Italian wine regions. As one speaks of the villas of Barolo or Burgundy. This has to come from the market, but also from the appellation itself, which has to promote these wines.

Tim Atkin

You consider Rioja is again making fantastic white wines. Do you see them as a new contender of more traditional Spanish wines as Albariño or Verdejo?

I think they are brilliant. Verdejo and Albariño are particularly great grapes. But Rioja has this incredible diversity of grapes varieties and styles. I think Rias Baixas and Rioja are the two most exciting white wine regions in Spain.

You are really candid about the way the Consejo Regulador is using their resources not at their best to promote Rioja wines. What would you do in a different way?

The most important thing is the soil study so we actually know what the soils are. The second thing is to change the current requirements so you can only make a village wine from the village in which you have a bodega. If you have vineyards in a different town you should be able to make lots of different villages wines.  I would rename the crianza category. I think the marketing budget could be spent better actually. Rather than trying to promote Rioja generically which doesn’t really help anybody  I suggest promoting it individually. Talk about villages, talk about sites, talk about history, talk about the dolmens, talk about the Sonsierra… Give people the sense of what this unbelievable region is like. We don´t really have that now.

Rather than trying to promote Rioja generically which doesn’t really help anybody  I suggest promoting it individually

Tim Atkin

Wine tasting with Tim Atkin

Tim Atkin presented his Rioja report 2023 during the celebration of Barcelona Wine Week in early February. The attendees had the opportunity to taste several of the best rated wines and also listen to Arturo de Miguel from Artuke who spoke about La Condenada, the first red to achieve 100 points ever.

The three wines that I would highlight and that I liked the most are:

1) White Remelluri

A wine as complex as it is mysterious, since Tim Atkin commented that he doesn’t know which varieties, some native and some international, are behind. It is said, it is commented, it is rumored, that some of them are not currently accepted by the DO Rioja. It is the totally opposite concept to parcel wine, since it comes from different vineyards located in the municipalities of San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Labastida.

An example of the rebellious character of Telmo Rodríguez, who exercises his right to open new paths and make 100% personal wines to finally decide to create a great classic. Herbaceous aromas of white flowers and aniseed, peach, and other stone fruits.

Perfect for grilled fish and seafood rice dishes as it has a structure that will accompany them perfectly.

2) Jose Gil La Canoca

The success of the young winemakers José Gil and his partner Vicky has been so meteoric since they were discovered by critics and prescribers a few years ago that there is the paradox that their wines are sold out as soon as they go on sale, when in fact they´re are made for storage and enjoyment on the long haul.

La Canoca is without a doubt the best landmark in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. If Rioja were classified by the Burgundian system it would undoubtedly be considered a Grand Cru. It is a wine closely linked to the land that produces it, which is the most beloved estate for the young couple.

It´s a 95% Tempranillo wine and 5% Viura, made precisely in the Burgundian style. “They don’t like the extraction, sometimes it includes a bit of stalk. No doubt this 2021 is still young. It´s a good idea to keep it in the cellar 5 or 10 more years”.

Cherry and blackberry, mineral notes and an elegant aroma of vanilla and a perfect rounded tannin.

I would pair it with something earthy but light, with hints of pepper, like sautéed mushrooms or steak tartare.

3) La condenada (Artuke)

Arturo de Miguel from Bodega Artuke took the opportunity to thank Tim Atkin “for the voice you are giving to all the farmers in our area and the small wineries”, although he added that “Rioja needs to move faster”.

La Condenada comes from a 0.95-hectare vineyard in Baños de Ebro that mixes different varieties: garnacha, palomino, graciano and tempranillo. It was abandoned for three years until the winery decided to buy it to give the land a new life. “Sadly, this is a very common story and reflects the reality of many people who went to study to the city in the 80s and 90s and left the tradition of their elders behind. When their parents die they are left with an old vineyard as a burden and not as a gift”.

This wine has as little make-up as possible: it speaks of the land. And curiously it has meant a return to the traditional way of elaboration of Arturo´s grandparents. Seven days of fermentation and 13 or 14 months in used barrels, so the wood is present in a very subtle way.

Strawberry and black fruits like cherry and blueberries. Perfect for grilled meat and other intense red meats.

Find Tim Atkin Rioja report 2023 here

If you are interested in Rioja wine read this

The post “Rioja is making incredible and exciting wines, the best in history” appeared first on The Yummy Bull.

The enologist and owner is Alberto Lopez, who explains the origins of his project: “My ancestors always had vineyards in the town. In 1998 I studied oenology in Madrid as a hobby to help my father, but I was working as a tv cameraman at the time. In 2013 I lost my job and decided to start making my first wines”, he recalls.

During the pandemic Alberto decided that the time had come to open his own winery. Therefore he rented an abandoned warehouse in Valmojado (Toledo) that belonged to the Catholic Church.

This last campaign has been especially complicated due to the extreme heat suffered in the Méntrida area in July and August. “The grapes haven’t ripened well, because above 36 degrees they don’t do photosynthesis,” laments the winemaker. “I’ve never seen these temperatures before.” His plots are in a privileged environment, at almost 700 meters of altitude, but this fact didn´t protected the grapes enough. I ask him if these imbalances can be corrected in the cellar “Very little, because my wines are also organic and we work with local yeasts in the fermentation”, he explains.

In addition to climatic difficulties, viticulture is a risky profession for other reasons. According to our protagonist, the farmers in the area are very discouraged. You work a lot, everything is very expensive in the supermarket, but you are earning the same money as 20 years ago. In his town cooperative the grape is being paid at 28 cents per kilo. There are 300 members and 1,200 hectares of vineyards that produce between 4 and 6 million kilos of grapes per year. The wine they produce is marketed in bulk because bottling all that volume is complicated.

A small Spanish organic winery

Alberto wanted to follow a different path, led by his vocation and his family tradition. “I always knew that I wanted to farm organically because it is sustainable and the right thing to do. But it is better not to make a business plan, because if you do, you will leave this adventure soon,” he smiles.

Being known and respected when you are a recently created family winery takes time. Alberto takes it easy, but without pause, devoting the hours that the day does not have to his project. In fact, he has already found an importer interested in his wines in Nigeria. When I asked him how he met him, he replied: “I have no idea, he wrote us an email and then came to see us and get to know the wines.” The export paths are mysterious.

Almavid wines have also recently been highlighted alongside other wines from the Méntrida PDO in a Spanish specialized magazine. Anyway the best promotion is the word of mouth from the people who visit the winery. Almavid is currently collaborating with the tourism program of the Méntrida-Toledo Wine Route, and they organize guided tours.

They are receiving more foreign visitors thant they expected. They come attracted by this small corner close to Madrid and to Sierra de Gredos to enjoy the old vines Garnacha wines protected by the mountains.

Visiting the vineyards

Last August I had the opportunity to accompany Alberto López on a tour of the 4.5 hectares of vineyards that are his greatest pride. The first one is called Cruz de San Gregorio. “My grandfather planted vines here it in 1934. Unluckily I will lose it in a year because a solar plant is planned.” This beautiful piece of land is a heterogeneous mixture of Airén, Malvar, Jaén and some red Garnacha. The wine made with these grapes cannot be labeled as Mentrida PDO because they are not grapes admitted by the rules. “They want us to differentiate our wines from other areas of Castilla La Mancha”, he comments.

In this parcel you can find beautiful old vines that will be destroyed soon. “I am the only one who did not want to sell, so there is no other solution. People in the area are tired, they want to retire.” Alberto and several wineries in the area have created a platform to defend the native vineyards against the fever of photovoltaic panels. But they have a powerful opponent.

Syrah vines grow in the second field that we visited. Alberto planted them a few years ago and he chose this variety because it is perfect for harmonizing Grenache wines and because of its sustainability. Syrah adapts really well to drought and warmer climates. He searched for a long time until he found the perfect one. “I was worried about a Syrah disease called decay, which in the medium term causes longitudinal cracks that suffocate the vine because the sap produced does not go down to the root and they run out of reserves. They told me about a nursery east of Venice in Italy, and that’s where I went to look for the best clones. We finally chose an Australian one that is also drought resistant,” he says. “At the moment I am happy with the result.”

I also had the opportunity to visit the oldest estate, Fuente Ignacio, planted by his grandfather in 1917. In 1919, after the phylloxera plague, he grafted it with Garnacha Aragonesa on goblet vines that today are pampered by Alberto’s knowledge. “I prune them so that the bunches are loose. That way the grapes ripen evenly,” he explains to me.

Almavid is a little gem to discover half an hour from Madrid. An ode to tradition and sustainability. Modern wines from vines with history. Wines with soul.

The wines

The final production usually varies between 15,000 and 20,000 bottles, all organic.

Find Almavid wines here

Do you want to visit this winery? Follow this link.

The post Almavid: organic wines in the heart of Spain appeared first on The Yummy Bull.

I have never seen a restaurant that more clearly reflects the personality of its creator. After a long career in the hospitality world, Cesar Martin shaped his dream, Lakasa, a decade ago. Now, he has reconfigured your way to understand Italian cuisine with Mola Pizza

He greets me with the familiarity of someone who has known you all his life even though he has never met you. Cesar Martin is one of the most respected and beloved chefs in the profession for a reason. This is precisely my first question: “I have been in this for many years, and that gives you many friends along the way. Perhaps it is also because Lakasa has no pretensions of being a luxury restaurant, and this is a place where many people who work in the hospitality industry come. They prefer something more informal when they go out”.

It is curious how Cesar insists on giving the appearance of normality to one of the most special and authentic restaurants in Madrid, which has already earned the name of classic on its own merits. A classic that was the culmination of what he himself describes as a “long and turbulent road”.

A long professional way

His professional career is perfectly reflected in the book Madrid, la nueva movida gastro, published by Alberto Fernández. Cesar went from the Casa de Campo Hospitality School in Madrid to the kitchen of his great mentor, Iñaki Camba, in Arce. In 1996 he opened the first restaurant of his own:  Abaceria de la Villa, closed in 2004. After several years working in other people’s restaurants, he would be able to regain the freedom to make his own dream come true with his wife Marina ten years ago.

Good things started to happen. “We were doing great … Until Covid hit. The pandemic paused life for everyone and for us too. Although we are doing better now than two years ago, nothing is the same. The train no longer goes at 100 per hour. Now it goes to 80”, he complains. “There is a feeling of apparent euphoria, but when you work with the public you become an observer, and things are not the same as before. People work differently, live differently, and you must know how to adapt. Perhaps doing a different menu at noon and another at night. We will think about it.”

A very personal restaurant

The Lakasa menu is heterogeneous and very personal. The perfect reflection of Cesar’s career and character. A menu that mixes seafood and game, dishes with an Asian touch and much more classic preparations. A menu that is there to make the diner happy, but also its creator.

“Our restaurant is market or seasonal, but not kilometer 0. If we like a product from France, like the Bouchot mussels, whose season has just started, we bring them”, adds the chef. Lakasa is a cosmopolitan and seasonal restaurant at the same time. In this concept, suppliers are key players. “There are some with whom we have been working for a long time and we talk to them daily. Others are seasonal, like our tuna from Gadira, or the berries that come from Lozoya in the Madrid mountains”, he comments. “Although now we have children and it’s not so easy anymore, my wife Marina and I love exploring when we travel.”

Cesar Martin is not one of those who imprisons himself in his own concept and throws away the key. He enjoys like a child when he introduces something new on the menu: “40 portions come out the first day, because I tell everyone, you have to try this, you have to try this”.

The best beef Wellington in Madrid

As say so gastronomic gurus like Víctor de la Serna. You can try Lakasa´s beef Wellington on request on Mondays and Fridays at noon. This dish has become one of Lakasa’s most memorable.

Cesar himself tells the story of why a traditional English dish became a signature dish at the restaurant: “10 years ago we opened on Saturday and Sunday, and we wanted to make Sundays a little special. We had a cart that we were carrying around the room. One day we came up with the idea of ​​making beef Wellington and it was a revolution. We repeated it and it stayed with us forever”.

More than complicated, César Martín describes this dish as laborious: “It is a dish that entangles you. You have to do a part. Stop. Do again. Mark the sirloin the day before. Let it cool until the next day. The advantage is that today’s ovens are perfect and there is no margin for error. We actually have a button that says Wellington on it,” he says with a smile.

La corvinita pibil, which was another great success with critics and audiences, was on its way to becoming Lakasa’s second great classic, but its owner decided to remove it from the menu before he became tired of the dish.

A tailored wine list

Lakasa can brag of having a very interesting and heterogeneous wine list, which, like the menu, alternates great classics with more risky proposals. “My wife Marina and I started it because we really like wine. We wanted to have a little bit of everything, but without driving you crazy,” he recalls. But over time they began to feel a bit overwhelmed, and they hired a sommelier, who made a spectacular, very powerful list of wines.

However, Cesar thinks that we must never forget that the wine must be in tune with the dishes and the philosophy of the restaurant. “Sometimes it is difficult to make sommeliers understand this. Some tend to make it too personal, and it’s tricky. We are happy with Borja now. He likes different things, but the menu is 100% Lakasa. Everything is coming back to where it should be.”

The chef is very clear about the role of wine: “Twenty years ago you had to have a very large wine list, keeping the wine in the cellar. Now you must be more active, going out, seeing things. Harmonize the menu with seasonal products”, he comments. “We like to break stereotypes, such as that La Mancha wines are not good. This happened 30 years ago. He recognizes that “there are still classic clients who are not very willing to receive advice. It is a process that takes time.”

A light box with some secrets

One of the things that most caught my attention about Lakasa is its timeless and very personal style. “We just wanted something to represent our personalities. The reform was carried out by Julio Touza, who has been a friend for a long time, and he understood us perfectly,” explains the chef. Wood, dark tones, and tons of natural light. And some very comfortable chairs, I would add. “Julio’s projects do not only think about aesthetics, but they are also very functional. For example, he created a corridor so that we can move from one side to the other without going through the restaurant,” he says.

At Lakasa you will find red, plants and books, many books. You can even read Don Quixote de la Mancha between courses. “Each corner of the restaurant tells a story about us, about our favorite books, about our friends. Sometimes they even bring some to us to put here,” he jokes.

The 80-square-meter glass-enclosed kitchen is another of the restaurant’s jewels. Like a watchtower, it constantly connects the preparation of dishes and the room. But curiously, its function is the opposite of what might be expected: “For us it is very important to observe what is happening in the room. People’s faces and their reaction before the dishes. It helps you with the rhythm of the service. It allows for a greater connection.”

Mola pizza

Cesar Martin has just converted his second restaurant, the Italian Fokacha, into Mola Pizza: a closer and more affordable concept. “Our idea with Fokacha was to create a Lakasa in Rome. Unfortunately, the idea did not catch on. There was a very knit group, who came very often. Unfortunately, they were not enough for the numbers to work”, he regrets. “But we already had the structure, the wood-fired oven, a very elaborated pizza, so we wanted to take advantage of all this by taking our initial idea down a notch, especially in high-quality Italian suppliers”.

Reflecting on why the concept did not work out as he expected, César comments that it might be very difficult to change the idea that people in Madrid have of an Italian restaurant, especially when it comes to the price.

The long shadow of Lakasa’s success could also be another reason. “Perhaps there were people who thought, to go to Fokacha, I go to the original, which is next door. That is why we want the public that visits Mola Pizza to be completely different”.

A commitment to quality, good work, and that comes from the heart. Like all Cesar Martin’s projects.

Make your reservation to Lakasa here

Make your reservation to Mola Pizza here

You could be interested in these restaurants in Madrid too:

Leña

Saddle

Barrera

The post Lakasa by Cesar Martin: seasonal and personal cuisine appeared first on The Yummy Bull.