Three Class Acts from Haro in NYC, Part one
DEEP ROOTS IN THE VILLAGE OF HARO: From left to right, Jesus Madrazo, María José López de Heredia, and Jorge Muga.
A whirlwind of activity this past week, based around a major trade tasting on Tuesday at City Winery in the South Village of Manhattan, organized and executed with enviable finesse by the U.S. campaign of Wines of Rioja, a.k.a. Vibrant Rioja.
It was all quite a thrill for me, given that I spend a good part of my time tracking down, assessing, pairing food with and writing about Rioja; here, before me, lay table after table of the upper Ebro valley’s bounty–I didn’t even know how to tackle everything, so I just sort of wandered around and hoped I didn’t miss anything.
Without question, however, the biggest thrill for me, both personally and professionally, was being onstage with the three winemakers pictured above: Jesus Madrazo from Viñedos del Contino, María José López de Heredia of Bodegas R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, and Jorge Muga of Bodegas Muga.
All three of whom, by coincidence, come from winemaking families with deep roots in the Barrio de la Estación, the neighborhood in downtown Haro (Rioja Alta) close to the railway station, around which some of today’s most esteemed producers established their first bodegas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Continued in a post to be published tomorrow….