Friday, October 22, 2021

A Friday Night Cocktail that starts with Alvear Tres Miradas Vino de Pueblo 2018 and the Weekly Menu #WorldWineTravel

 When Martin of Enofylz Wine Blog invited us to join him in discovering the wines of Anadalucia I was anxious to read his invitation post and learn more.  I discovered that the main wines of this region are sherry.  

Sherry

This reminded me that I had a bottle of  Pedro Ximenez from Alvear Tres Miradas that is considered to be the village blend from Riofrío Alto and Cerro Macho from Andalucia.

I had ordered this up after reading Around the World in 80 Cocktails intending to use it in a recipe.  When the wine arrived, I put it in my wine fridge and then completely forgot about it until Martin chose the theme for this World Wine Travel event.

While my husband looked up the recipe for the cocktail, I opened the wine and noted that it was a clear, golden yellow.  It smelled of yeast and reminded me of Fall.  I took a sip and was very pleasantly surprised with the dryness of the wine.  I don't know why I expected it to be sweet, perhaps because the area is best known for sweet, red sherry.

cocktail

I enjoyed the wine as Frank made some simple syrup.  That's all this cocktail is.....3 oz. of sherry and 1/2 oz of simple syrup, shaken over ice and served chilled with a slice of orange.  I guess the fact that it called for simple syrup should have been another clue to me that this was not the typical sherry that I was expecting.

So I went back to my wine list on Wine.com and discovered that while this wine is, in fact, made from Pedro Ximenez, the white wine grape made to use red sherry, this bottle is not sherry at all but a still white wine that is aged in traditional amphora.

From the winemaker comes this description:

"The Tres Miradas project is the latest collaboration between Bodegas Alvear & Envinate. It represents a goal of the Alvear family and Envinate to express the terroir that has been historically known as the Sierra de Montilla, with a winemaking approach that focuses more on the vineyard and less on the ageing process in the cellar. The Tres Miradas Vino de Pueblo, classified as a village wine in the Burgundian classification, is a selection of grapes a variety of plots that are directly pressed without maceration and fermented in tinajas, traditional concrete amphora of 4800L."

This information was found on the Jorge Ordonez Selections website that is a group of eight wineries from Spain that seek out and preserve Spain's wine history.  

So while I didn't have the wine called for in the recipe, I did have the right wine for this event.  As for the cocktail?  It was wonderful....I enjoyed it completely as I sat and worked on my Weekly Menu that I am sharing with you today.

We are all getting together tomorrow morning at 11 AM ET as Martin leads us in Twitter chat and we talk about the wines that we discovered in this area of Spain.  You will find us by following #WorldWineTravel.  

Here is a preview of the wines we will be discussing. Salud!

Weekly Menu
Tomorrow evening we are going to a Tribute for Frankie Valli performed by the cast of the Jersey Boys.  We will be having dinner at the venue prior to the show.  The rest of the week is pretty quiet, some errands and doc appointments during the day but all the other evenings should be dinner at home this week.

Saturday
Dinner out before Show

Sunday Supper 
Short Ribs with a Chile Zinfandel Glaze
Mashed Potatoes
Chayote Squash au Gratin

Meatless Monday
Pumpkin Pasta Bake

Taco Tuesday
Short Rib Tacos (using leftovers from Sunday)

Wednesday
Sloppy Joes
Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday
Popcorn Chicken Salad

Fish Friday
Sheet Pan Paella 

12 comments:

  1. Salud! That cocktail looks delicious. I definitely need to explore more wines from Andalucia.

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  2. Hey if the wine is from Jorge Ordonez, I'm all for it! It's great to see PX (as it is known in Sherry) used as a still dry wine. And I love a good Sherry cocktail! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. What an unexpected yet great surprise for you Wendy! I’ve heard these Ordonez collaboration wines are really something.

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  4. The cocktail sounds delicious! And its cool to see PX used in a still, dry style. I hope you don't mind if I make one quick note though - all sherry is made from white grapes, and the dark color of some comes from how they're aged.

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    1. Thanks Nicole. One of the reasons I love belonging to these wine groups is that I am always learning something new.

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  5. So much fun to see what a still (normal) PX wine looks like. Amazing how it changes when made into PX sherry!

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    1. Yes...I learned a lot this event and also learned I have a lot more to learn LOL.

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