Every few months, Culinary Director Adam and Wine & Spirits Director Gretchen lead a handful of Barcelona?s managers and chefs on a whirlwind trip to Spain. The point of the trip is to experience first-hand the food, drinks and dining culture of Spain.?Here?s Gretchen recounting of their visit to two wineries:
Today we left Barcelona, bright, early and foggy headed. We knew this would be a big day of working, visiting two wineries in the Catalunya region, so we stocked up on cortados and churros y chocolate before tackling the challenge of retrieving the cars from the labyrinth-like underground parking garage (think, Austin Powers). First stop, Bodegas Sumarroca in Pened?s, a highly regarded cava producer that specializes in Brut Nature wines. Alexander, the Director of Sales, who knew everything about this family property?s story, guided us.
Sumarroca cava bottling line
Mr. Sumarroca, the owner, is one of Spain?s most important and awarded agriculturists. He decided to own one of the largest estate-only grown vineyard cava producers in Spain. A mouthful, but ultimately it means that the family cares so much about the quality of their grapes, they don?t leave the care-taking up to?contractual help, the Sumarrocas prefer to do it themselves. We were lucky enough to see some fun activity in the winery since it was harvest time, and last year?s cava was getting bottled as we tip-toed around the noisy equipment. For lunch, we tasted numerous wines and cavas, including the Brut Nature Gran Reserva we have on the Barcelona menu. It happens to be one of the best cavas produced in Pened?s, in my opinion. We were also introduced to a special cuvee called ?Allier? that tasted like Grand Cru Champagne?it was magical. This particular cuvee is not currently sold in the States, so keep an eye out
for that one as I work with Frontier Imports to bring it in.
Sumarroca test vineyard in Penedes (left), Stephen venturing out onto a cliff (right).:
After touring our first vineyards of the day, where we saw Catalunya?s only ?test vineyard? with nearly 300 different varietals being grown in Pened?s soil for study, we jetted off to Montsant to visit with Celler Malondro. Unusually, we arrived to our meeting place on time, so Adam and I knew something wasn?t right in the universe. He called the winemaker, Javier, and sure enough, they weren?t expecting us to arrive that day. Somehow the plans got lost in translation. Within minutes, a man in an old pick-up truck pulls up, dressed in hard labor attire and introduces himself as Juan Carles, the owner of the winery. He wasn?t expecting to entertain us at all, but he dropped what he was doing and proceeded to capture our hearts.
Checking out the Montsant mountain views
We visited the breath-taking gorges of Montsant, famous for climbing and views, then to his vineyards where he showed us his own trellising invention that he wields out of steel in his garage. Then a quick car ride to a middle-of-nowhere shack-like restaurant to eat typical regional food, which he called a ?chiringuito.? Plates of jamon, local cheeses and olives hit the picnic tables, followed by snails roasted in chocolate and salt, then a real mountain paella that had been cooking an hour before we arrived. We were the only people in the chiringuito, and got to grab food out of the kitchen, and whiskey from behind the bar at our own ?discretion?, which clearly went out the truck window after a few hours hanging with Juan Carles.
Juan Carles (Celler Maladro) explaining his trellising invention (left),??Chocolate roasted snails at the Montsant ?chiringuito? (right).:
His wines were great; we have loved and still love Besllum, which is on our menu, full of dark fruit and intense body. But nothing was more impacting than just conversing with Juan, who obviously bore the role of being a ?social mayor? in Montsant. He knows everybody, helps everybody, and employs almost everybody. Who knows what time we got back to the hotel that night, the?camaraderie was so thick after dinner, we shrugged off needed sleeping hours?to plan our future visits to see Juan Carles, hopefully as soon as possible.
Source: http://www.barcelonawinebar.com/blog/?p=2276
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