A Quartered Lamb in a Latina’s Casbah, Part Two
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
….Continued from previous post
The wine service at La Posada de la Villa was a bit maddening, I must confess.
Although both wine and service for our white, Marqués de Murrieta’s Capellanía 2003, were flawless, red service left us baffled, as the staff tried to pawn off onto us an obviously unsound bottle of a well known Rioja Reserva (thoroughly madeirized and devoid of any fruit, the likely result of poor storage), even after one in our party noticed two staff members tasting the very same wine and discussing it at a service table before they brought it over and poured it for us without offering a taste!
The cordero lechal asado, however, didn’t disappoint. Carved table-side and presented in terra cotta cazuelas, the meat was rustic and slightly chewy, but it was beautifully seasoned, correctly moist inside/crispy out, smoky and very satisfying.
Once we sent back the first bottle with a collective harrumph!, we settled on a Remelluri Reserva 2003, which hit the lamb’s mark spot on, even if our wine did not arrive until halfway through the meal.
Note to Posada de la Villa managment: Thank you for the lovely lamb, but you ought to rethink how you deal with tourists; just because they are Americans sure don’t mean they don’t know when a wine ain’t right!
