After winning the best white wine in all of Spain by El Mundo last year for their 2009 Colleita Seleccionada, it seems Coto de Gomariz isn’t slowing down anytime soon. This year, Coto de Gomariz was honored by the Xunta de Galicia for producing the best white wine in all of D.O. Ribeiro in their annual “Best Wines of Galicia” report. Their Ribeiro blanco, which received the gold medal, is produced from the native varieties Treixadura (80%), Godello (10%) and Loureira (5%) and Albariño (5%). It’s a complex white wine with wonderful citrus aromas, green apple notes and herbs, and wonderful minerality. Its wonderful orchard fruit and bitter citrus flavors on the palate are powerful enough to pair with thick cream or butter sauces, but is also delicious on its own!  If you’d like to taste this wonderful wine, it is available for purchase online at Flickingerwines.com.

Congratulations to Sebio, Ricardo, Inma and the rest of the Coto de Gomariz team for another great nomination-keep up the good work!!

- Michael

I’m excited to announce that the wines from Coto de Gomariz will be available to taste on Tuesday June 21st in Chicago. I was just recently in Spain visiting with the Coto de Gomariz team and tasting the new vintages, which you will definitely not want to miss! 2010 was an excellent year in D.O. Ribeiro, and the wines show amazing freshness and crisp minerality which is perfect for the summer. Often overshadowed by its neighbor in Rias Baixes, the wines of D.O. Ribeiro bring a different style of elegance and character, primarily using the native Treixadura grape instead of Albariño. So, if you’ve never had the opportunity to try a wine from Ribeiro or the Treixadura variety, please come by and visit us to try some of the best wines from Spain!

If you live in Chicago but won’t be able to attend the event andare still interested in trying these amazing wines, they are for sale at several Chicago area wine stores including In Fine Spirits (5418 N. Clark)  and House Red (7403 W. Madison in Forest Park). Also, if you live outside of Illinois, the Coto de Gomariz Blanco is available online through Flickinger Wines.

If you have any questions about the event and to RSVP, please call 312-329-3910, or email RibeiroDO@ruderfinn.com

I’ll be attending the event to answer any questions you may have about the region, wines, or anything else- I look forward to seeing you!

Salud

- Michael

In conjunction with all the wonderful wine bloggers out there, this is my installment of Wine Blog Wednesday! As this Wednesday’s focus is all about Spain, I figured I would introduce you to one of my favorite producers we are fortunate enough to work with, Coto de Gomariz. While I’ve written about them quite a bit, it’s mostly for their amazing white wines that have garnered some knockout attention. However, today I want to introduce you to the relatively unknown and highly underrated red wines they are producing in D.O. Ribeiro.

D.O. Riberio is located in Galicia, northwestern Spain, where it sits on the border with Portugal. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful part of Spain, with lush green valleys and wideflowing rivers dominating the landscape. It seems more similar to images from Ireland than it does to the blazingly hot plains of central Spain that I’m sure many people imagine the entire country to be -The people are of Celtic origin so I guess the similarity to Ireland isn’t such a far off concept to grasp. However, once you get past the similarities in culture and landscape, you realize this is a world apart from Ireland, and interestingly enough, Spain. Fiercely independent, the people of Galicia speak their own language (Galego) and have maintained their way of life, isolated in the northwestern pocket of Spain for centuries. This isolation and pride of their Galego way of life is one of the major factors in why there are so many different grape varieties grown in this region.

Historically, when the Moors occupied Spain, they ripped up vines for religious purposes, but as the Galegos were so isolated, the Moors never managed to gain control of that part of Spain, saving the indigenous varieties. Unfortunately, when the dictator Francisco Franco took complete control of Spain in 1947, he made it his mission to stamp out any autonomous communities throughout Spain, including the Galegos. He made their languages, customs, and basically their entire way of life illegal. He also began ripping up native vines all over Spain to plant grains, cereals, and bulk producing grape varieties. Galicia’s native vines were hard hit during this period, and an undocumented amount of native vines have since vanished from the region. However, some vines managed to survive being ripped up, and today are seeing a resurgence as more and more producers in the region are making it their mission to restore and use their native grapes for both white and red wines.

On that note, the wine I chose for today’s Wine Blog Wednesday utilizes several of the regions indiginous red varieties; Sousón, Ferrón, Brancellao, Caiño, Mencia and Carabuñeira, to name a few red varieties. The wine, Coto de Gomariz’s VX Cuvée Caco, is a blend of Sousón, Caiño, Garnacha Tintorera and Carabuñeira, which is known as Touriga Nacional in Portugal. The wine is ruby red in color, with spicy red berry and cherry notes on the nose. The berry and cherry notes are also all over the palate, with a definite dollop of smoky oak, but it’s well integrated and dominated the other flavors.  The finish has wonderful mineral elements to it (due to the schist soil dominating the region I imagine) and a beautiful spiced quality rounding out this unique wine. Fans of oak probably won’t find this wine their cup of tea, but they definitely won’t dislike it either- it’s a very unique wine that will pair well with all types of cuisine, from a great steak or burger, to a thick cut pork chop. On my last visit to Galicia, we even had this slightly chilled  with some grilled pulpo (octopus) that was one of the more memorable pairings I’ve had. The charred taste from the pulpo went perfectly with the smoky oak hints in the wine!

Unfortunately, the red wines from Galicia are still a tough sell here in the US, with most wines imported from the region being Mencia based wines from Bierzo. However, if you are are lucky enough to live in Pennsylvania, the VX Cuvée Caco, as well as the entire line up of Coto de Gomariz wines are available through the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

Here’s to exploring new wines and regions!

Cheers,

Michael

El Mundo, Spain’s largest and most popular news source, has recently announced their top Spanish Wines of 2010 through their wine division, elmundovino.com. Since 1994, El Mundo and Elmundovino.com have tasted thousands of wines every year in search of the best wines in Spain- quite a daunting task if you ask me! On January 15th of this year, El Mundo and Elmundovino.com announced their selections for the top three Spanish wines of 2010, and on that list was none other than a wine from Coto de Gomariz, a producer we have been working with for several years now. Coto de Gomariz has been incredibly dynamic in pushing themselves every year to achieve the highest quality possible – something that we have seen year after year when we are fortunate to taste their latest vintage. It seems all this hard work and dedication has been recognized within Spain as well, as their 2008 Colleita Seleccionada was selected alongside the world famous producer Vega Sicilia, as one of the top three wines of 2010. Now, any of the Spanish wine geeks reading this right now will understand the importance of being on a list with Vega Sicilia, the winery that basically put Spanish wines on the map. To put in perspective, this would be similar to a small, young, unknown winery in an unknown region of the US being on a “best of” wine list right next to Opus I or Caymus Special Selection- quite a great honor and validation for a young producer!

It is huge honor for any Spanish producer to be selected as one of the top three wines from Spain. The wines were selected by Spanish wine drinkers (who understands Spanish wine better than a Spaniard?) and without a mention of a score, which I love. The wines were selected because, simply, they were the best wines and there isn’t any need to provide a number to justify why it was selected.

Here is the link to the article published on elmundovino.com in its entirety (sorry, Spanish only), but here are several important paragraphs which have been translated;

“Since 1994, El Mundo and elmundovino.com have selected the best wines tasted throughout the year and that were in the market that same year: therefore this time we will not reward two immense riojas of the legendary crop of 1947, Imperial and Marquis de Riscal, that we have had the privilege of trying again during the last several months. But the supreme elegance of those two wines that inspires, in great measure, the prizes to the best of 2010. These reflect a tendency increasingly more palpable among ours best producers, in all regions, to the refinement and also to the rediscovery of the soil, after years of wines of great power and concentration.  And particularly it is appropriated, in that context, to see the name of Vega Sicilia among the prizewinners.

In effect, our Wines of 2010 are Vega Sicilia Unico 2000, Coto de Gomariz Colleita Seleccionada 2008 and Turo d’en Mota de Recaredo Brut Nature 1999. The most historic bodega from Ribera del Duero, a young, small wine making property but in a region no less historic, and an atypical, family owned property in the world of Cava.

For their part, the Coto de Gomariz Colleita Seleccionada 2008 is one of the best best Gallego white’s that we have tried, with a depth born in the great soil, a complexity without a doubt favored by its multi-varietal character – treixadura, godello, albarino, loureiro and lado-, that is one of the great strengths from Ribeiro, and with the personality that Xose Lois Sebio instills in his wines. It is a white that arrives where we always thought Ribeiro wines could arrive, recovering the place that this region occupied during the Renaissance which was being lost throughout the centuries and –above all- with Phylloxera. Better late than never.”

We couldn’t be happy for Ricardo, Xose and the entire Coto de Gomariz team!! This is a great honor- keep up the good work.

Enbuenahora chicos!!

Michael

We’re excited to announce a P.R. Grisley Co. exclusive wine pairing dinner at Iron Chef Jose Garces‘ Chicago restaurant, Mercat. If you follow Food Network as much as I do, you are well aware of how Chef Garces has exploded onto the restaurant scene in the past few years, with seven different restaurants currently enjoying success. We are lucky enough to have eaten at several of Chef Garces’ restaurants in Philadelphia, as well as Mercat in Chicago, and each time the experience and food has been incredible. Needless to say, we’re VERY honored to be able to share the spotlight with Mercat’s chef de cuisine, Michael Fiorello, and feel he has put together an exciting menu that will surely pair well with the Spanish and Portuguese wines we will be featuring.

An Evening in Spain…

Presented by

Mercat’s Chef de Cuisine, Michael Fiorello & P.R. Grisley Company

Thursday, November 18^th, 2010

Reception 6pm-7pm

N/V Chozas Carrascal Cava – D.O. Cava, Utiel-Requena, Spain (Macabeo, Chardonnay)

2009 Quinta de Gomariz Espadeiro – DOC Vinho Verde, Portugal (100% Espadeiro)

Dinner 7pm

First Course

Fetge de Pollastre en una Olla

Potted Chicken Liver Mousse with Caraway-Onion Jam and Foie Gras

2008 Coto de Gomariz Blanco-  D.O. Riberio, Spain (Treixadura, Godello)

Second Course

Montadito de Atún

Sous Vide Blue Fin Tuna, Caper-Olive Oil Jam &  Spicy Red Cabbage

2006 Bodegas Ondalan Crianza – DOC Rioja, Spain (80% Tempranillo, 20% Graciano)

Third Course

Mar I Muntanya

24-Hour Pork Belly with Charred Baby Octopus,

Marcona Almonds & Smoked Green Olive Escabeche

2006 Bodegas Miguel Angel Muro Bujanda Cianza – DOC Rioja, Spain (100% Tempranillo)

Fourth Course

Pato con Peras

Grilled Muscovy Duck Breast, La Peral, Red Wine Seckel Pears & Confit leg Crêpe

2005 Bodegas Ondalan 100 Abades – DOC Rioja, Spain (100% Graciano)

Fifth Course

Butifarra con Judias

House Smoked Catalan Lamb Sausage with Ham Hock-Tomato Stew & Black Eyed Peas

2005 Bodegas Medrano Irazu Reserva – DOC Rioja, Spain (100% Tempranillo)

Dessert

Pastel de Calabaza

Pumpkin-Brown Butter Cake, Hazelnut Escabeche, Rosemary-Olive Oil Ice Cream

Porto Quevedo, N/V Special Reserve Tawny – DOC Oporto, Portugal (Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca)

$75 per person, non-inclusive of tax or gratuity

Reservations are Required

312.765.0524

www.mercatchicago.com

Please call or visit the Mercat website to reserve your seat today- We look forward to seeing you there and sharing a wonderful evening with amazing food, wine and friends!

Cheers,

Michael

We’re very excited to be attending this year’s Miami International Wine Fair, one of the largest wine tradeshows in the US. Approximately 500 producers from all over the world will be attending, and an estimated 1,500 wines will be available to taste through, so make sure your palate is trained if you’re planning on attending! We’ve never attended this event before, so we’re anxious to make it to Miami to take a look and present our wines at this amazing event. We’ll be pouring several wines from various producers- Quinta de Gomariz from Portugal, Domaine du Gros Pata from France, Bodegas Ondalan and Coto de Gomariz from Spain just to name a few. (We have to keep some surprises!)

If you are planning on attending, please make sure to stop by and taste the amazing wines we are fortunate to represent. We will be located at stand 400 and will be sharing the space with Bodegas Medrano Irazu from Rioja and J. Miquel Jané from Penedes region of Spain, so there will be a wide range of fantastic wines to try.

Hope to see many of you there, cheers!

- Michael

World renowned wine figure Jancis Robinson recently tasted several wines from one of our Spanish producers, Coto de Gomariz. She tasted both the 2008 Blanco and the 2008 “X” Albariño and seemed to enjoy them enough to feature them as her “wine of the week” picks on her website, www.jancisrobinson.com. While the region of Rias Baixas is still gaining popularity for it’s Albariño’s, Coto de Gomariz is located in nearby D.O. Ribeiro where treixadura is the grape of choice for producing crisp and complex white burgundy-esque wines. Wonderful acidity and mineralty due to the granite and schist soils make these wines a fantastic summer wine, especially when pairing alongside seafood and shellfish. I recently had a glass of the Blanco with the Bonito del Norte Salad from the Garces Trading Co. in Philadelphia and it was incredible. (Sorry Chef Garces, Cat Cora is still my favorite Iron Chef!)

While Jancis’ recent post mentioned that the Coto de Gomariz wines aren’t available in the US, I assure you they are, albeit in small quantities. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board carries both the 2008 Blanco and “X” Albariño, along with another one of their white wines, the 2007 Colleita Seleccionada.  They also carry three fascinating red wines from the same producer using other native varieties such as Mencia, Brancellao, Ferrol, Sousón and Caiño. The 2008 Coto de Gomariz Blanco will also be available very soon for order through Flickingerwines.com who is set up to ship to any state where direct shipping of alcohol is allowed. So, if you live in Pennsylvania or nearby bordering states, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding these amazing wines at your nearest PLCB wine store. If you’re not located near to any of these stores, I encourage you to visit Flickingerwines.com and see their entire listing of amazing wines from all over the world.

Cheers,

Michael

We’re excited to announce that two wineries we are fortunate to represent will be attending the 11th Annual Washington D.C. International Food & Wine Festival this February. Coto de Gomariz located in the D.O. Ribeiro region of Spain and Alana-Tokaj located in the Tokaji region of Hungary will be presenting their wines this year and we hope many of you will be able to attend and taste the amazing wines these two wineries are producing.  While the event will be featuring more Spanish wine than any other region (the Kingdon of Navarra is a major sponsor) there will be wineries from all over the word, including France, Africa, New Zealand and right here in the U.S. Many local restaurants will be holding cooking seminars and tastings as well, including local celebrity chef José Andrés who lives in the D.C. area. If you happen to live in or be visiting our nations capitol the weekend of February 12 through the 14th, I encourage you to attend the event and be sure to visit and taste the amazing wines Coto de Gomariz and Alana-Tokaj will be pouring- I can assure you they won’t disappoint!!

Cheers,

Michael

After wrapping up all our loose ends after nearly a month on the road, I finally found some time to sit down for a new post and edit the hours of footage to make a short video for everyone to enjoy. We had an absolutely incredible trip that began in Pittsburgh before moving on to Philadelphia for wine shows during the Pennsylvania Wine Week. The shows went well considering the current economic situation, and we were excited to show some new wines at both shows such as the recently available Alana-Tokaji Late harvest Furmint. This wine received wonderful responses in both cities and we were glad that everyone enjoyed it! We were also quite lucky to have Paul Sharp from Europvin join us in Philadelphia to help educate consumers about sherry, which also went over well with the crowds. I think with Paul’s amazing wealth of information we were able to change some opinions about sherry and hopefully expand some more palates.

After the Pennsylvania shows we headed to directly to Spain where we spent some time with friends in Madrid. They took us to some “secret” tapas bars around the city and introduced us to some new foods, which I’m sure we’ll try to recreate in our kitchens. I’m always amazed at the diversity of food Spain has, it seems every time I return I try at least 10 new items I’ve never had before.

We then bid farewell to our friends in Madrid, and met two purchasing agents from the PLCB at the Madrid airport and flew directly to Vigo where we stayed the evening in an amazing hotel right on the Spain/Portugal border as we all tried to recover from our jet lag. The next morning we spent an incredible day in Portugal where we visited Quinta de Gomariz in the northern Vinho Verde region of Portugal. Here we toured the winery and met the people behind these incredible white wines before heading south to the Douro region to visit Quinta de Carregosa, a small producer making excellent red wines. The Douro was an incredible region that was quite literally mountain after mountain completely terraced and covered with vines. The Douro was one of the most breathtaking places I have seen, I hope to return one day and spend some more time enjoying the region. We had an amazing dinner later that night courtesy of the hard work from the fine people  at Vinixa who had set up all of our visits to the various wineries. The family team at Vinixa has been an immense help to us since we began working together last February and we couldn’t have accomplished our tour of Portugal without them. Before and during the dinner, we met and tasted through the line of Quevedo Ports along with Oscar Quevedo. The ports were absolutely incredible with Portuguese dishes like grilled lamb chops, roasted veal, and an amazing chocolate dessert with an orange cream sauce paired with Quevedo’s LBV and Tawny 10 year- delicious! 

With our one day, one night whirlwind tour of Portugal over, we headed north back to Spain to the Galicia region in the northwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula. There we visited with our good friends and winemakers at Coto de Gomariz to try their new vintages of amazing red and white wines that really impressed all of us. Their red wines were quite a surprise as they are made with interesting local varieties rarely seen outside of Galicia, let alone Spain. Souson, Ferrol, and Brancellao are native red varieties that were almost lost to the region during many political upheavals that Spain has experienced throughout its history. Luckily, there are several producers such as Coto de Gomariz who have dedicated their work to restoring these native varieties and producing incredible wines with them.

After Coto de Gomariz we headed southeast to Ribera del Duero to visit the famous Vega Sicilia family of wines, which include Bodegas Alion and Bodegas Pintia (which is located in nearby DO Toro). We had an amazing tour of the facilities at both Alion and Vega Sicilia before sitting down to an incredible meal where we had the unbelievable opportunity to try wines such as the ’99 Unico, ’02 Valbuena, ’05 Alion and ’06 Pintia. This was the biggest lineup of wines I have ever had the chance to taste, surely one of those days I will never, ever forget for the rest of my life. After our tasting, we had the chance for some down time at the hotel, so we passed the time talking and enjoying a beer for a change on the patio with a cool river running right below us. The next morning it was on the road again, by this time we were getting good at the stop and go schedule we had lined up.

We then headed out to the Rioja region where most of the bodegas we represent are located. We had a few jam-packed days visiting the bodegas and sampling the new vintages and new wines that many of the winemakers have been working on. We first stopped at one of the most famous producers of classic Rioja wines, La Rioja Alta. We visited their amazing facility as well as tasted through their family of wines. I always love to try these wines as you are able to taste and feel the history of Rioja when drinking these delicate, delicious wines. We had fantastic meals at every bodega, and even had the classic Riojana dish “chuletillas a la parilla” (lamb chops grilled over last years dried vines) at both Bodegas Ondalan and Bodegas Medrano Irazu. We also had the opportunity to catch up with “Mr. Non-stop,” Miguel Angel from Bodegas Miguel Angel Muro. This man has more energy that anyone I have met and he has been busy creating a wonderful new reserva wine, which we were able to enjoy. We also caught up with the husband and wife duo of Charo and Julian from Bodegas Ruiz de Vinaspre, where we had the opportunity to try their new line of wines that didn’t disappoint. At Bodegas Santiago Ijalba we were able to try many of the new vintages, and I was most excited to try their new organic wine.  Even with all these visits in a short amount of time, we were also able to enjoy some free time in the village of La Guardia. This turned out to be absolutely chaotic as there was a huge soccer match between Barcelona and local favorites, Atletico Bilbao. People were partying in the street setting off what seemed like quarter sticks of dynamite based on the sound of the explosions- and this was even with their loss to FC Barcelona! Europeans are soccer crazy to say the least……There is always something new to experience in Rioja; I think that is what keeps us going back! 

Once our tour of Rioja had ended, we drove up north to one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, San Sebastian. This is still one of my favorite cities to visit as they have the most incredible gastronomy scenes in Europe, it’s unbelievable. From the hundreds of tapas bars and a visit to a traditional sideria, we experienced some amazing food and wine while finally being able to relax a bit as our non-stop schedule had finally come to an end. Our visit to San Sebastian was the perfect way to end our wine filled tour of Spain and Portugal and reflect on all the amazing sites and generous people we had seen and met.

With the month of April at its halfway point, I thought I would take the opportunity to fill our readers in with what we have scheduled in the upcoming days and months. At the end of this month is the Pennsylvania Wine Week, kicking off April 30th in Pittsburgh, before heading to Hershey and finishing in Philadelphia. We had an absolutely amazing time at these events last year and cant wait to head back to pour some amazing wines for everyone attending. Anyone living close to any of the three events should definitely attend if able, there are going to be some amazing producers, importers and distributors showing wines from all over the world- as well as the good old U-S of A!

After the final event wraps up in Philadelphia, my father and I will fly directly over to Spain and Portugal to visit several new bodegas we’re beginning to work with and to tour their facilities. We’re obviously very excited about the trip as our traveling adventures are the best part of our job! (well, drinking all this delicious wine isn’t too bad either). We’ll be visiting quite a range of wineries, from smaller Portuguese producers like Quinta da Carregosa to medium sized bodegas such as Coto de Gomariz in Galicia ,as well as the world renowned Vega Sicilia in Ribera del Duero. Also on the trip list is Rioja Alavesa and  Bodegas Ondalan, Medrano Irazu, Ruiz de Vinaspre and Miguel Angel Muro which I can’t wait to see as he has been totally remodeling his bodega. We will also visit the wonderful Basque country of Spain where, in my humble opinion, they have the most exciting food and dining experiences in Europe. We’ll be visiting many other bodegas and areas that I’ll include in upcoming posts, so grab a bottle or two (Spanish or Portuguese please as that’s where we’ll be!) and be patient as I publish bits and peices of our trip.

As the trip in Europe winds down, my father will fly home to attend the 21st Anuual Jackson Hole Wine Festival on May 22nd. While he is enjoying the wonderful scenery in Jackson, I will spend a few days in Barcelona catching up with friends, including Ryan and Gabriella from Catavino.net who never disappoint with their food and wine adventures. I’ll be trying to get new posts published as often as I can while traveling, so stay tuned for a TON of new posts!!

Cheers,

Michael