Blame it on Rioja

Rioja wine dinner at Barcelona Restaurant, November 19, 2008

Gretchen Thomas, wine director for the Barcelona Restaurant Group in Connecticut and one of five sommeliers who came with me to Spain a couple of months ago, invited me up to one of the group’s five restaurants to help her host a wine dinner, and so earlier this week I hopped on a Metro North express at Grand Central Terminal and joined her at the Barcelona restaurant in Greenwich for a four-course meal prepared by the group’s culinary director, Adam Halberg, paired with six Rioja wines:

Pan seared trout with piquillo peppers, celery, and almonds - CVNE ‘Monopole’ Rioja Blanco 2005 and Marqués de Murrieta ‘Capellanía’ Rioja Blanco 2003

Grilled quail with olives, caparrones, stewed kidney beans with smoked pork - Abando Rioja Crianza 2001and Marqués de Vargas Rioja Crianza 2004

Braised lamb shanks with patatas a la riojana (check out this AWESOME YouTube video from ‘Cocinar para los amigos’ or ‘Cook for your friends’ on how to make this dish; it’s in Spanish but TOTALLY worth it.) - La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Rioja Reserva 2000 and El Coto de Imaz Rioja Gran Reserva 1996

I was happy to see that the meal stayed true to both season and classic Riojano ingredients (or fairly true: trout? check; lamb? check; patatas a la Riojana? big check; quail? hmmm, well it’s not partridge, a Rioja fave, but it is a small bird, so close enough).

A very, very cold evening outside made warmer by flattering lighting, plates of hearty winter fare, and Gretchen’s roundly superb wine selection.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 1:29 am and is filed under Food pairings, General, Red Wine, Tastings, 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.