Memento Restaurant is not strictly a wine place, but it is one of my favorite restaurants and it does have a nice, well-selected wine list.  Memento Restaurant is owned and run by Karen Bell, an experienced young American chef who was looking for a change of scene when she moved to Spain five years ago.  When she arrived in Madrid she saw that missing from the restaurant scene was a great California/Spanish fusion place.  She opened Memento three years ago and has been building up quite a local following.  Her cuisine is inventive yet satisfying, a great blend of some unusual ingredients with some really comforting classics.  Her sauces and use of herbs is genius…and when you live in Spain long enough you crave sauces and herbs!   If you are a mussel lover make sure you order them…it’s one of her signature dishes and are some of the best I ever eaten.  She offers a high- end menu del día (prix fixe) lunch which is great value at 18.50€.  Her latest creative addition is a great jazz brunch every Sunday between noon and 4PM.  She offers brunch classics served with a creative twist:  Potato latkes with smoked salmon and mixed greens or crab cakes with poached eggs and a spicy hollandaise sauce.  A group of us went yesterday and we loved it!  You can enjoy your brunch with cocktails such as a Bellini or a Bloody Mary or just stick to the brunch classic, a Mimosa.  It’s hard to find a great brunch place in Madrid and Memento really hit the spot…I’m already craving those crab cakes again!  Check out their regular menu and contact info at:  http://www.restaurantememento.com/.

I’ve been complaining a bit about the over-oaked state of many Spanish wines lately and probably the worst region for it is Ribera del Duero.  There’s no denying that some of Spain’s best reds come from the area….reds from a robust variant of Tempranillo called Tinto Fino.  Tinto Fino gives wines of great body and structure that do well in new oak.  Many wine-makers have taken that favorable characteristic and taken it too far.  Many top Riberas have way too much oak despite their great fruit and structure….many of my clients have been disappointed by tastings of top Riberas lately.  Inexpensive Riberas are often tough and hollow…lacking in fruit.  It’s not an inexpensive region by Spanish standards….I have found few Riberas below 20€ that I have really liked.  I tasted an Emilio Moro Crianza the other day…it used to be one of my favorites…it’s good value for Ribera at 17€, but the 2005 I tasted the other day was overly oaky.  One of my favorite wineries in Ribera is Dominio de Atauta…they make a range of blends and single vineyards wines that really stand apart from other Riberas…they really focus on terroir.  They are very intense and focused with lean, elegant fruit and great acidity…most importantly they are very carefully and moderately oaked.  Ferratus, the wine I’m rating below, is a new winery (2003) that has garnered some great ratings from Spanish critics.  I am not so impressed.  Read on for my detailed rating.

I’m on a tapas roll!  Yesterday we tried another newish tapas and wine bar called Estado Puro, located right across the Paseo del Prado from the Prado Museum.  A very stylish locale, it offers the innovative and elaborate tapas of famous Madrid chef Paco Roncero.  He’s the chef at the top rated Casino de Madrid.  The tapas are modern interpretations of classic Spanish dishes and the menu is filled with interesting choices.  The tapas are very creatively presented and arrive on slate board plates.  We tried four different tapas and results were mixed:  the tempura asparagus and the “meat bombs” were delicious while the deconstructed tortilla and the presa iberica with chimichurri were just ok.   There are lots more things on the menu I would like to try though, such as the mini hamburger plate, the fried egg with baby squid and the boletus carpaccio with pine nuts.   The tapas are a bit pricy…they range from 6 to 12€, but are smallish, so this is a place to come and try only a few at a time then move on to one of the more traditional places in nearby Huertas.  The wine list by the glass offers 6 reds, 3 whites and a couple of rosés….a good variation, though none of the wines were spectacular.  In the whites my favorite is a nice Godello called Montenovo, the best red was Artazurri,   a joven red from Navarra.  The wines are all priced at 2.50€ a glass, which is a bit steep for this level of wine….but the pours are really generous.  To sum it up:  Estado Puro is a fashionable new alternative on the tapas trail…the location is amazing and they also have a really nice outdoors terraza seating area with spectacular views.  I’m not completely sold on the food, but I’ll definitely be returning to try some more.  Another plus is that it offers its full menu all day from 11AM to 1AM, a rarity still here in Madrid.  Read on for more details on the food and wines at Estado Puro. 

Vinos de Madrid is an improving but still little known wine appellation within the province of Madrid, the small region surrounding the city of Madrid.  Traditionally it was known for joven or “young” red wines without any oak, wines that were often served in the bars in the capital.  There has been a tremendous effort to improve the wines and the area has become quite trendy here in Madrid.  Unfortunately the best wines have become so popular that they can be quite pricy.  There are three major sub-zones in the area, each with very differing soils and climates:  Arganda to the southeast, San Martín to the west and Navalcarero to the southwest.  The climate is generally very hot continental, similar to La Mancha.  Grape varieties allowed are numerous:  the most common ones are Tempranillo and Garnacha, though Syrah is catching on.  Some of the most well known wineries are Tagonius, Qubel and Regajal…I find their wines very good but quite pricy.  Probably my favorite wine form the area, though it is not an appellation wine but rather a Vino de la Tierra is Montazo, a wonderful wine made by the famous enologist Telmo Rodriguez.   The winery Nueve Valverde is in the zone of St Martin and makes two very interesting reds.  They also represent quite good quality compared to many.

Bierzo is a great wine area that I’ve written about several times.  It is home to the very high quality red grape Mencía as well as the excellent white grape Godello.  Mencía has become quite trendy and it’s harder to find good value these days.  Also I’ve noticed an interesting trend in my wine-tasting groups…Mencía seems to have a love/hate effect on them.  A minority loves it and the majority hates it!  I think this has something to do with the grapes strong personality.  It is often intensely mineral and structured, with a lot of acidity and tannin.  There is also a wonderful, aromatic, floral, red fruit side to the wines, but sometimes that can be a bit lost in the intensity of the structure.  Also Bierzos frequently come in 2 styles than do not make fans.  The first is a joven or “young”  wine with no or very little oak, with exuberant young fruit…at its best this style can showcase the Mencía fruit, but is at its worst it has too much of that candy-like carbonic maceration fruit…aromas of banana and sweets.  The second style is the other extreme….over-oaked, a style that makes people more comfortable, but doesn’t make Mencía stand out.  The ideal is somewhere in between.  Unfortunately for every great Bierzo, there are a handful of indifferent or poor ones….and the trendiness of Mencía is only exacerbating the situation.  Mencía is top flight grape, but it is a difficult grape to get right….it is hard to tame its intensity and preserve its delicate floral aromas.  It is not the easiest grape to drink but when it’s just right it has given me some of my best Spanish wine experiences.  The wine I’m rating today is considered Bierzo’s top joven-style Mencía.