Tag: Wine Tasting in Javea

Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch On-Air Wine Recommendations!

Salad:
A really mouth-watering list of ingredients which needs a similarly flavourful wine to accompany this Antipodean salad! I’m recommending Bodegas Dominio de la Vega’s Sauvignon Blanc 2010, although this is something of a misnomer as there are two other grape varieties used in the blend.
 
The grassy, herby Sauvignon which has some gooseberry, kiwi and faint passion fruit notes is joined by Chardonnay for added exotic fruit and finally Macabeo which can on occasions produce some very appropriate pear aromas and flavour.
 
The Sauvignon will be good with the chilli element, the Chardonnay will lift the bacon a touch and the Macabeo will compliment the salad leaves and of course the pear.
 
Chicken Risotto
Risotto is one of my favourite dishes – an Italian Sangiovese would be ideal here I think, but when in Spain don’t do as the Romans do! We’ll stick with red wine though and go to the more economic end of the wine price-scale. You can buy Bodegas Fariña’s Arco Iris in Mercadonna – in it’s litre bottle, which they claim is better for the environment.
 
It’s an every-day-drinking wine for enjoying without complication and one which will mix very happily with the risotto. However that’s not to say it is just a glugging wine. The Tempranillo grapes with which it is made have a faint strawberry aroma but darker bramble fruit on the palate – all adding to food/wine combined flavours.
 
Salud!

Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch Wine Recommendation!

Strange Bacon Boccy!
 
Strange is right, but I’d like to try it! And with this eclectic concoction I’d go for a rosado, the more so if the salsa used is the Greek Yoghurt and Apple one that Noelle enjoyed.
 
Rosado wines so often have that lovely fruit appeal. The wine needs to be dry but with bags of fruit to go along with the melon and pineapple. However it must also have some body to match the bacon.
 
A wine made from black grapes, but where the juice has been left for a short time with the skins will have some of the attributes of red wine to match the bacon but also the fruit necessary for this ‘unusual’ dish!
 
Enjoy! 

Presenters, Noelle and Bob, drinking on the job!

Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch Wine Recommendation!

Chilli Sausage and Sweet Potato

Bay Radio Presenters, Noelle and Bob, enjoy a glass of wine with Noelle's recipe!

There are a number of wines, grape varieties and wine styles that could match this dish I think. Navarra reds might be an answer but I sometimes find them a touch tannic – this would clash with the chilli making the dish doubly hot.

 
So I’ll consider the match by grape variety rather than area. I think a Syrah based wine or one made with Garnacha will do the trick. Perhaps at crianza level, but preferably a semi-crianza or even a joven (young wine) provided it is rich enough.
 
There are many areas in Spain where Garnacha is the preferred variety, DO Priorat would be super, though expensive. Syrah is becoming increasingly prevalent too, so there should be plenty of choice.
 
Salud!

Superb Wine Tasting with Indonesian Cuisine!

La Casa del Vino, Javea provides the wines for the new Indonesian Restaurant, Tapindo, between Javea Port and the Old Town and it was my job in June to present a selection of the wines to match a tantalising array of Indonesian Tapas. It was quite a challenge – but I think we all agreed it was one of the bests tastings ever!

Partners Glen and Martin have had the successful take-away Tapindo on Javea’s Cabo la Nao road for some time now but there has been an increasing demand for a restaurant with the same cuisine where people can enjoy the authentic feel of such an eatery. Restaurante Tapindo opens on 1st July – and judging by the response from the tasting they’ll be busy!

The wines were something special too, as you would expect coming from La Casa Del Vino whose owners have a bloodhoud detective’s nose for sniffing out top wines at good prices – two were new to me and I’ll be having some more, for sure!

The first, a wonderfully aromatic white wine made from Gewurztraminer from Somontano. It should be law that this wine is on all Indonesian restaurant’s wine list – it’s super and goes so well with the cuisine.

A rosado made from Merlot from Bodega Urbezo, DO Cariñena, has a touch of residual sugar making it an off dry rosado – super with the bold spices in the next tapa.

Reds have to be fruity and low in tannin to accompany this cuisine and both the Muñana 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and the Ribes Negre 2008 were just the job, the latter, the slightely more tannic of the two, being served with a wonderful beef dish cooked in coconut milk. The Cabernet is drinking perfectly with not a trace of harshness – a testimony to the climate in the mountains above Granada from whence it came!

Finally – and who thinks of Indonesian desserts, normally(?) – a lovely Brut Bohigas Cava with a layered sweetly spiced cake!

Watch this space for more such tastings!