Blame it on Rioja

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Last night was the first team meeting that included all of the major players, held in a private room at Juan Nales’ Restaurante Las Duelas inside Hotel Los Agustinos. Ricardo Aguiriano, director of marketing at the Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Calificada de Rioja (CR), was there, along with Rebeca Gómez, head of international promotions for the CR; Tom Perry, head of the Rioja Exporters group; and, on our end, Jon Stamell, head of Vibrant Rioja campaign; Kelly Bucher of CRT/tanaka; John Barkley, associate director of strategic initiatives at CIA Greystone; Chad Wilmouth of CIA; and me.

It’s been crazy here in Haro, music and carrying on until the wee hours. Friday night, there was a wedding inside the hotel, in the courtyard below, and something that sounded like Iron Maiden coming from the town’s main square at about 2:00am, a bocadito of cacophony I found more amusing than obtrusive. I mean, who I am to complain? I am the interloper.

But the fiestas have meant that everything’s been closed since Friday afternoon, with nowhere to print and copy the schedules, except the front desk at our hotel, and that was like pulling teeth. One guy, a manager-type who looked and acted like he didn’t really like his job all that much, had warned me on Thursday night that they “were not set up to do big jobs.” And yesterday we exchanged words when I came down to pick up the schedules I had emailed down to a compliant receptionist a half hour earlier. “Remember what I told you?” he told me when I asked for the copies. That’s when I reminded him that we were bringing eleven people to this hotel and staying for six days, and that it was a little ridiculous that he was giving me a hard time over 70 sheets of paper. Ten minutes into our meeting, the schedules were delivered.

Today was a whirlwind day that began in Logroño, at the Fiesta de la Verdura, a festival that celebrates the harvest of all the killer fruits and vegetables that are cultivated in the region. It hasn’t been happening for all that long, according to Ricardo, and it’s sort of spin off of a major verdura fiesta that takes place in Calahorra further downriver, home to Chef Nino, who we are visiting later this week.

Today was set aside for exterior shots: bodegas facades, rivers, vineyards, etc. Man, it’s beautiful here. Temperature in the 70s, not a cloud in the sky, cool at night. In other words, perfect weather for the days leading up to the harvest. For the sake of the ’07 vintage (my vintage, in a way), I hope it stays this way.

Dinner at La Vieja Bodega in Casalrreina was very good. Three sommeliers arrived today, accompanied by the awesome Jose Guerra of Wines from Spain (ICEX): Skye LaTorre of A16 in San Francisco; Juan Gomez MS of the Breakers in Palm Beach Florida; and Jason Smith MS of Micheal Mina at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. They were a little beat after such a long travel day, but I liked their energy nevertheless. Good group so far.

Ángel Pérez Aguilar, the proprietor of La Vieja Bodega, opened the place just for us tonight, and he exhibited the kind of happiness in his life’s choices that I always dream about: he couldn’t take life in Madrid, and when he found this place, saw its underground cellar, well, he knew it was for him. He took us on a tour of those caves, showed us a wall of ancient bottles and pulled two 375ml bottles for us to taste, with barely legible labels that said: Monte Real, Blanco Semi-Dulce, 1954. Somewhat Sherry-like, with baked apple, faded floral, and hazelnutty aromas, the wine still had quite a lot of life. I never even knew such a wine existed here.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 6:40 am and is filed under Consejo Regulador, Dining Out, Rioja, General, Personal Travels, Rioja, Personal Travels, Spain, Vintages, White Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.