Thursday, February 25, 2021

Enjoying Tapas with Spanish Wines from Catalonia #WorldWineTravel

 We are still exploring the wines of Spain in our World Wine Travel Group.  This month we are traveling to Catalonia. 

Map of Catalonia
Image from wikitravel

Susannah of Avvinare  chose this area and invited us to join her in talking about the wines and foods of the region and to share any memories if we have been lucky enough to visit the area.  I haven't but Spain is definitely on my bucket list.  You can learn how to join us in Susannah's invitation post.

Susannah will also be hosting a twitter chat on Saturday at 11 AM ET.  Anyone who is interested in this topic is welcome to join us for the chat following #WorldWineTravel.  We hope to see you there.  Here are the topics we will be discussing.........



wine and charcuterie


Best known for the sparkling wine Cava, Catalonia borders Roussillon,France and also offers dry white and bold red  wines.  Along with Cava, Catalonia is home to Xarel·lo, Macabeo, Malvasia all three of which were blended in the white wine I am sharing today.  The red wine grapes grown in the area include Carignan, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot. I purchased a red blend to share with you today as well.

Charcuterie

Our Christmas gatherings were handled differently this past year.  Instead of large family gatherings, we broke our gatherings down to smaller groups and had more of them.  I served up these wines from Catalonia along with some Tapas at this gathering with our third eldest and second son, Tony, our fourth child, Nicole and her husband, Pierre both of whom were born of Frank's first marriage.  We also invited Frank's sister Roz and her husband, Ron and his brother, Dan and his wife, Rebecca. 

This is a bittersweet post. As I write this on February 23rd, we have just had the funeral Mass for Ron, who had been diagnosed with cancer just 2 short weeks ago. I am so glad that we had this last wonderful celebration with him before he got ill.

So let's talk about the wines.......I opened a bottle of Avaline White Blend and Celler Cal Pla Black Slate Porrera to serve to our guests that day.  I made a tapas tray containing Manchego Cheese, Tuna, Shrimp, Olives, Almonds, Cashews, Bread Sticks, Crackers, Fruit, Pickles and Olives.  

dinner plate with wine

I also served up some hot tapas including Lamb Meatballs and Patatas Bravas. The wine was opened the spread was laid out and folks just helped themselves as the gathering commenced.

The Avaline is from Penedes, Spain.  It is gluten free and made from organic grapes.  It is a light, golden yellow and very crisp and bright.  The white wine drinkers in the group gave it very high ratings.  At a moderate price point of $20 from Wine.com, it has gone onto the list to be purchased again.

The Black Slate from Porrera lives up to it's name.  It pours an inky black and is bold and smooth.  It is a blend of Garnatxa and Carinyena with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon.  I had never heard of Garnatxa so I rushed to look it up.  I giggled when I found that it is Grenache, a wine grape that I know and love.  Likewise with Carinyena which is known also as Carignan.  This wine is also organically grown.

I am very excited about this new wine group that started last month with a trip to Rioja.  You can read about the wine I chose and the food pairing I made in this post.  Next month we are heading to Castilla y Leon.....I have had a hard time locating a wine but I have a couple of tricks left up my sleeve so I look forward to seeing everyone there.

19 comments:

  1. My condolences, Wendy. This is bittersweet. Glad you were able to share time together.

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  2. So sorry to hear about your brother-in-law passing away. It has been a difficult year for your family. Take good care.

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  3. I am SO sorry to hear about Ron. Love and healing to you and yours. But I love that you were able to be with him for some good food, wine, and company before he passed.

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  4. How bittersweet indeed. Truly sorry for your loss but so glad you have such a wonderful memory of your brother-in-law to hold dear.

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  5. I'm so sorry for your loss. It must be a very bittersweet post indeed to write but it looked like you had a marvelous celebration with him and some wonderful memories.

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  6. Oh Wendy. I'm so sorry for your lost but so happy that this event is immortalized here on your blog. I missed you on the Twitter chat.

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  7. Loosing someone is difficult, my sincere condolences. Being an optimist, you were able to celebrate him with what sounds like a fantastic wine!

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    1. Yes we celebrated together not realizing it would be our last time.

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  8. So sorry for your loss, Wendy. This is a good reminder to celebrate family time as much as we can. These 2 wines sound like keepers to me - especially with those tapas. I also smiled when I found Garnacha was the main grape in the Cava I chose. Go, Garnacha!

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  9. Wendy, I'm so sorry for your loss. It's wonderful that you were able to spend some time with Ron at the holidays.
    Your wine sounds delicious. I did a double take at the Black Slate. I had a bottle of Black Slate Escaladei that was a blend of Garnatxa, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carinyena last year that caused me to fall in love with this region. It is amazing in this part of Spain, how many different spellings of grapes you will find, between Catalunya, the Basque regions and the rest of Spain.

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    1. There sure is a lot to learn about this country and their wines. Thanks Robin.

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  10. I am so very sorry for your loss, but I'm so glad you had the chance to create this lovely memory with Ron before his passing.
    It's looks like a delicious spread.

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    1. Thanks Nicole. We are very grateful for the time we had with him.

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  11. So sorry for your loss Wendy. I hope the memories of sharing this meal with Ron sustain you in this time of grief.

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