High Bang-to-Buck Ratio Watch: Viña Valoria Rioja Blanco Crianza 2000
Anticuchos of octopus with herbed mashed potato, Chimichurri sauce, and ají panca, at La Mar Cerbicheria, San Francisco.
If you had told me last winter that one of my favorite dining experiences of the coming year would take place in a restaurant renowned for its ceviche, I would have wondered what you had been smoking. (Something aboout the washed-out white color over-citrused fish takes on. )
Can’t say that I crave ceviche now, but ho! did I love La Mar Cebicheria*, a Peruvian newcomer along San Francisco’s Embarcadero. The California halibut ceviche, the clásico, was pristine and refreshing and was a nice match for one of the Riojas I had brought along to this working press lunch (and which wine director very kindly let me open), a classic white I had never heard of before, Viña Valoria Blanco Crianza 2000.
Although the wine was a little tight at first, this classic white Rioja, aged in neutral oak for at least a two to three years, as far as I can tell, was quite a nice surprise as it opened up.
Same went for the wine’s compatability with our second course, Causa Limena: Dungeness crab with avocado pureé, cherry tomatoes, ají amarillo (yellow chili pepper), huanacaína sauce (a kind of cheesy/creamy ají amarillo dressing), and basil cilantro oil.
Then onto octopus skewers (anticuchos) over herbed mashed potatoes with red chilis and Chimichurri, which were so good that they very nearly made me forget that I was working, so badly did I want to just reach out and grab ‘em two at a time between my knuckles.
Similarly up my alley was a Peruvian stir-fry called Lomo Saltado: a bowl full of some of life’s most wonderous things–beef tenderloin, french fries, red onions, tomatoes, rice, cilantro, garlic, soy sauce, and that tasty little yellow rascal again, the ají amarillo. Ay!
In addition to the Viña Valoria Blanco, available at K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco for $18.99, we also brought along a Muga 2007 Rosado (always a food-friendly choice, $12), and a Marqués de Vargas 2004 Reserva, a great deal at $24 retail (and perfect with my blissed out beef experience). From the ever solicitous Emmanuel Kimiji MS, we ordered an over-the-top modern-styled, extremely value-oriented bottle of La Montesa, a newcomer from the esteemed Rioja Baja bodega of Palacios Remondo, as in Álvaro Palacios, $36 on the list, about half that in a store, $15.99 at PJ Wine in New York, for example.
*Until someone explains to me satisfactorily why it’s ‘cebiche’ and not ‘ceviche,’ I will continue to use the “v.”
January 12th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
The Wikipedia entry for Spanish explains this phenomenon pretty well:
“The bilabial approximate /β̞/ (which was written u or v) merged with the bilabial occlusive /b/ (written b). There is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v in contemporary Spanish, excepting emphatic pronunciations that cannot be considered standard or natural.”
With regards to orthography, using a “b” or a “v” seems dependent upon two major components: word’s origin and it’s “original” orthography, and whether or not there was a shift in orthography to represent “current” pronunciation. Finally, if the Real Academica says it’s spelled “ceviche” but pronounced “cebiche” then that’s just how it is.
All that aside, I do enjoy your blog very much; please keep posting!
January 13th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Wow. Thanks for that. And for reading!