An Iberian Peninsula Wine Night
come be my guest
Wine, food and friends
A few weeks ago I had a chance to put together a wine and food night for a friend. The wines were from the Iberian peninsula, Spain and Portugal. I had been studying this area through Cornell University and their eLearning certificate programs.1
The directive was pretty open, include wines from regions we studied in Spain and Portugal. Plan an event, food pairings and educational material for your guests. Obviously I decided to go all out. This involved all the things I love in life in one. Cooking, baking, pairing wines and a little wine education thrown in, plus a friend. You are all my friends, so I am going to take you along on the journey of our night, with hopes that you get inspired to try one of these wines or even one of the pairings.
Let’s head to Vinho Verde
To start off the evening we traveled to the Vinho Verde wine region. This region is in the north of Portugal and broken into 9 sub-regions.
Map by Kate
The first wine we had was from Casa Santa Eulália, which is a family owned small vineyard in the Basto sub-region of Vinho Verde. The family has been working on the same land since 1822. The Basto sub-region is the furthest region in Vinho Verde from the Atlantic. This gives it more of a continental climate, which just means it is warmer and drier than the sub-regions closer to the Atlantic.
I chose this wine because it was not what people associate a typical Vinho Verde wine to be. It is more complex, not effervescent, has more body and has slightly higher alcohol content. It is made from the alvarinho and trajaduro grapes. When these two grapes are blended, you get a dry, refreshingly acidic wine full of citrus, floral, green apple and peach aromas, you may even get some tropical fruit aromas coming through. This is a wine that is wonderful on its own, but it pairs well with many dishes.
I paired it with burrata cheese and pink Himalayan sea salt. I also had a baguette, nut crackers, mango orange jam and strawberries to go along with it. The cheese interacts differently with each of the other foods when paired with the wine. The favorite was the burrata cheese on a baguette. The creaminess of the cheese and the sea salt lifted up the fruit characteristics and mellowed out the acidity. I personally loved it with the mango orange jam on top of the cheese and baguette. The nut and fruit crackers we both decided did not do well with the wine.
Moving east into Spain
A hop, skip and a jump away, we headed into Spain for the main course. The Rioja region to be exact, which is in the northern part of Spain.
Map by Kate
Our next wine was Muriel Fincas de la Villa Reserva. The wine is made from the tempranillo grape. Bodegas Muriel started in 1926 in Elciego, which is part of the Rioja Alavesa sub-region by José Murúa. In the late 1980’s his son created what is todays Bodegas Muriel. We enjoyed the 2016 vintage, which is still quite young for a Rioja. A Rioja wine has to age for a minimum of 36 months and 12 of those months need to be in oak. This wine was not released to the public until 2021.
I love a young fruit forward tempranillo for wine events. I have found not as many people enjoy the aromas and flavors in aged red wines. So, my rule of thumb is, if you don’t know your guests palates, stick to younger reds. As the wine ages, the fresh fruit aromas and flavors turn into what we call tertiary aromas and flavors. The wines can start smelling and tasting like dried fruits, nuts, chocolate, coffee, earthy and vegetal.
My friend is a vegetarian, so I made a two bean chili packed with flavor and lots of vegetables to pair with this wine. I also had aged cheddar and avocado slices to go along with the chili. I had us try the wine alone, then with the chili and then with each addition to see what worked best. The chili made the berry aromas and flavors in this wine really pop. Then the cheese and avocado smoothed out the tannins in the wine, which made it a really enjoyable experience. I chose a tempranillo wine as it is probably the most well known Spanish grape. But also to highlight the fact that this wine does not need to be paired with meat dishes. Exploring with food and wine is half the fun when it comes to learning about wine. And sometimes you have to break those “rules” about food and wine pairings to truly find the best ones.
Dessert course, my favorite course, back to Portugal we go
For dessert we traveled back to Portugal, to the Douro Valley region to enjoy a port wine.
Map by Kate
The wine was from Kopke, which happens to be the oldest port wine house. It started in 1638 when Nicolau Kopkë moved to Portugal from Hamburg to become the Consul General of the Hanseatic League. It started as a wine buying company and transitioned to become a major producer in 1781.
We had their 2015 L.B.V. (Late Bottled Vintage) port. This style of port is a ruby port from a specific vintage that shows a high quality. In this case, a 2015. The wine is aged in oak for a minimum of 4 years and up to 6 years. Unlike a true vintage port, this style is meant to be drunk young, however, some can age beautifully.
Did you know that a lot of the ports have aging warehouses in Vila Nova de Gaia across the Douro river from Porto? Port wines traditionally aged down river from where the grapes are picked due to the climate being better suited (cooler) to slowly age wine. The Douro Valley can get very hot, this speeds up the aging process. This tradition still stands with most of the old port houses although some now have air conditioned warehouses in their vineyards.
This wine is made from a traditional blend of Douro grapes, including touriga nacional, touriga franca, tinta roriz and sousão. With this port, you are able to pick up on dark fruit aromas right away. I wanted to use this bottle to pair with dessert, because in my opinion, an L.B.V. port pairs amazingly with desserts and they are easy to come by.
I made traditional Portuguese custard tarts and a bittersweet chocolate sorbet to pair with the port. Dessert is my favorite meal, probably because I can be found baking most days of the week and recipe testing my own creations to then share with you. My friend even commented on how much I must love dessert as it seemed it was the best pairing and I put a lot of effort into it. This is completely true. That is why this final pairing I wanted to be perfect for my friend and to end the evening on a high note.
Port is an acquired taste. Not everyone enjoys it as first, heck, I didn’t. Until you try it with a perfectly paired dish, I think that it can be overlooked as a go to wine to enjoy. So, the port and the custard tart was a match made in heaven. The cream and hint of lemon rind in the custard smoothed out the tannins of the port wine and brought so many fruit flavors forward on the palate. That was by far the best pairing for both of us of the night. Now, if you like bittersweet chocolate like I do, you will also love the sorbet with the port. It offers a completely different experience and tasted like dark chocolate covered berries together, so good. Then if you take a bite of both, then a sip of the port, that is what wine and food pairings should be about. Explore, have options, combine things, taste, taste, taste. Not everything will work, but the things that work well you’ll remember for a long time.
I hope you enjoyed learning a little about the wine and food evening I had and are inspired to try some of these pairings or create your own for a friend.
Cornell’s online classroom platform is wonderful I highly recommend taking some certificate programs through them if you have been curious to further your education in a subject area.
What a fabulous evening Kate!! A big fan of the wines selected! I enjoy how you dive into the history of the region and wines. Going in depth on your pairings and the “why” behind them is fabulous!