Tapas

The bon voyage festivities with Tawney and Sommelier and unspecified guest (but note, not date for Corked) involved Tapas and Rioja. Also note these are not the names of other contributor to The Bottle, but actual Tapas and Rioja. The hosting pair are off to the UK and Bordeaux this weekend hope primarily to find material for your reading pleasure.

I would look upon their adventure with envy had I not done a similar tour in May (the first day of which you might have read, the remaining time seemingly difficult to recall). Actually, who am I kidding, I still look upon it with envy.

Anyway, back to T & R. Food was, as ever, a culinary spectacle involving chorizo, shrimp, smoked ham, tortilla, cheese and quince, greek salad and more.

We got down to the business of wine, after Tawney grilled me about the prices of the Barolo from the first night in Piedmont. I don't want to take away any of Screwtop's thunder, so I will leave that for still another day. It is nice to know that my writing about wine (also known as fiction) has some dramatic appeal.

We started out with some white rioja, which the person at the wine store said it was the same rioja but with the skins removed. They recommended a bottle of 2000 Cyrano. It was around $23 in the wine store.

It actually was pretty good right out of the bottle, without much breathing. The taste linger further as it got some oxygen. It had a strong nose, which I am sure why a Spanish name resorted to a French name like Cyrano, for it is indeed a long way from Bergerac.

In any case, we polished off a few bottles of that, capping the evening with a bit of Kirsh of some sort (my attention to detail in the food and wine is spectacular, as I am sure you have noticed, in my postings. It seems I tend to focus on other details, like the cherries on the tablecloth, which I think might make the topic of another posting).

In the absence of any further interesting tablecloths, and subsequent postings, I wish our intrepid explorers bon voyage into the French sun. I hope they take lots of time for tannin.