Sanlúcar de Barrameda, The Incredible Horse Racing on Bajo de Guía Beach in August Gerry Dawes's Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí) Five Melting Watch Awards.

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 Gerry Dawes's Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí)  Melting Watch Awards.

Horse racing during the annual thoroughbred horse races on Bajo de Guía Beach at Sanlúcar de Barrameda in August. All photos by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

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A glass of La Gitana manzanilla at sunset on the beach at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Javier Hidalgo, producer of La Gitana manzanilla, once told me, “If you ever have a glass of manzanilla at sunset on Bajo de Guía beach, you will never have another glass of manzanilla anywhere in the world without seeing the Sanlúcar sunset in the glass.” 

All photos by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com

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About Gerry Dawes  

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

 In 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

 

Trailer for a proposed reality television series on wine, 
gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

 Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Arròs a la marinera (seafood rice) with Bomba rice, sofrito with green pepper (not bell pepper), squid, shrimp, clams, saffron.

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Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com

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About Gerry Dawes  

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

 In 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

 

Trailer for a proposed reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

 Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Spanish Rosados: Among Spain's Most Delightful Wines

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Spanish rosados, which I have been recommending to readers for years as some of the best roses in the world, are wonderful food wines. I particularly enjoy the great Garnacha-based rosados of Navarra. Saveur can talk about Hemingway downing them in one gulp, but he actually carried Las Campanas rosados around Spain with him in a cooling bag during the Dangerous Summer, when he was following Antonio Ordoñez and Dominguin.

During San Fermin, we drink them with meals every day. Some of the best are: Chivite Gran Feudo (excellent and cheap; 100% Garnacha), Señorio de Sarria (100% Garnacha), Malon de Echaide (100% Garnacha; very good, dry); Ochoa (100% Garnacha); and Las Campanas, which makes two 100% Garnacha rosados, the regular Las Campanas, which is quite good, and the superlative Castillo de Javier.

Castillo de Monjardin makes a very attractive rose from 100% Merlot, one of the best I have ever tasted from this varietal. Don't be put off by a Navarra Garnacha-based rosado that is a year or two old. They usually drink better in the second year than the first. I actually have had Rosado Reservas, including the memorable Las Campanas 1961, which I took to a wine expert in Bordeaux in 1978 - - he was floored by the wine. It was elegant, silky, complex, just delicious. It had been aged in used oak and had held up beautifully.

Viña Aliaga (Bodegas Camino del Villar; http://www.vinaaliaga.com/), a family-owned, vineyard-driven winery in southern Navarra makes an excellent garnacha rosado called Lagrima (tears) de Garnacha, from free-run juice.

Aliaga Lagrima de Garnacha Rosado.

From Rioja, Muga's rosado is first-rate. If you want to try something exotic but one of the great, great rosados, try Lopez de Heredia Rosado crianza (the current vintage is 1993! The 1988, which I am still drinking, was terrific. Then, of course, there are those wonderful, lovely pale rosados from the southeastern Rioja (from the villages of San Asensio, Cordovin and Badaran).  Called ojo de gallo (eye of the cock, known in other places as partridge eye roses) or claros, they are a pale, salmon-rust color, reminiscent of Billecart-Salmon rose Champagne.

Few of these wines reach the Amercian markets, but David Moreno, Florentino Martinez, Señorio de Villarica, and Bodegas Perica's Mi Villa are good ones to try. Muga's rosado (60% Garnacha, 30% Viura, 10% Tempranillo is somewhat in this style. Herencia Remondo (Alvaro Palacios's family bodega, where he consults) makes a good 100% Garnacha rosado. The reliable Sonsierra cooperative makes a 100% Tempranillo rosado. CUNE's 100% Garnacha is also good (sometimes in off years, when wines are normally more acidic, rosados are even better than in the good tinto vintages; CUNE's 1997 rosado, for instance.) Marques de Caceres makes one of the better Tempranillo-based rosados (80% Tempranillo; 20% Garnacha), a fresh pie cherry-red wine with good balance, good fruit, and a dry finish. There are others but I am sure neither the readers nor I have all day for this great category.

Garnacha rosado with alubias con chorizo, Cariñena.

Gerry Dawes copyright 2004

Think of rosados as "cold wines with character." You still drink chilled white wines in winter, no?

Gerry Dawes Copyright 2012

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes - Spanish Travel Consulting, Planning, Hosting

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(Double click on the poster to enlarge.)