Another edition of the Salon Gourmets has past in the Feria de Madrid…Gourmets is a four day professional food and wine show that launches the fair season.   In the past wine has been a much bigger part of the show and this year I noticed that even less wineries participated.  Food dominates this show and sadly I’ve seen the wine component diminish every year.  Wine shows in Spain have yet to find the international audience that justifies many wineries participation.  It’s a fun show to walk around, with delectable offerings at stands such as jamon, olive oils, cheese, paella and even grilled steaks and roasted suckling pigs.  It’s a bit of a struggle to get samples at the most interesting stands as there are often long lines, but very fun.  Another interesting element are all the national and international gourmet stands looking for distribution in Spain.  I’ve notice a huge increase in those over six years…a great sign of the times…Spain is going gourmet big time!  As to the wine scene…there were a few interesting regional offerings, especially from Castilla Leon, and Galicia.  I tasted a fascinating 150€ wine from the Denominacion Vinos de Madrid!  I’ll be doing a separate post on the Ricardo Benito Winery.  The best wine section of Gourmets is the Wine Tunnel.  In the wine tunnel, wine is served at stands organized into grape varieties.  The first edition was last year and I went thinking there would be few wines of great interest, that they would mostly be inexpensive wines.  It turns out the wines offered at the stands are some of the top wines in Spain, some very expensive and the wine tunnel is a great opportunity to taste different styles of the same varietal from around Spain.  Read on for information on some fo the stand out wines in the wine tunnel this year. 

I’ve been very remiss in posting…we’ve been crazy busy with tastings. But I’m determined to get back into it!

There is a huge variety of wine vinegars available now….choosing a vinegar is just as complicated as choosing an olive oil. Besides the usual line-up of aged balsamic vinegars and herb-infused wine vinegars, my new favourite is one I discovered recently at a wine store. This is a company that is known for its excellent olive oil…and it’s latest release is an unusual and delicious wine vinegar. It’s not just a regular wine vinegar it also has sweet Pedro Ximenez dessert wine and some fresh grape must. It is certainly the most unique vinegar I have tried.

Another great tasting to give this weekend: Matching wine and cheese. A classic, but a difficult classic as they can actually be quite challenging to match! I picked five wines from different categories and five very different cheeses. The wines were as follows:1. DO Cava – Bodega Raventos i Blanc – Elisabet Raventos – Reserva – Brut – 2000 – 60% Xarel.lo, 30% Chardonnay, 10% Monastrell – 4 years aging on lees, 6,5g/l residual sugar – 12% – 18 euros