Running Around, 9th May 2015

Running Around, 9th May 2015

This is the second of three related posts that I’m uploading. The first went up yesterday and the third will be up tomorrow.

So, on the Saturday 9th May, I had another early start.

I picked up Carlos Scholderle (#winelover ambassador to Spain) at 9:00 in Madrid and we headed straight for El Escorial, to Restaurante Montia. I met Carlos back in March in Zaragoza, when I was at a Slow Food event, pouring my Slow Wines.

The reason for going to Montía was

a) to drop off some Garnacha, Sauvignon Blanc and Malvar, and

b) to taste all my other wines with chef Dani with a view to future orders.

This was very happily convenient, as I just took along all the opened bottled that I had tasted the night before in the bodega with Ariana Rolich (see this post). Here’s the line-up:

Some of my white wines

This restaurant is one of the few places in Spain where I distribute my wines, along with Enoteca Barolo, and Le Petit Bistrot (now called Solodeuva) in Madrid, and Monvinic in Barcelona. I would really like to expand to more places, but again, I have so little time available for the sales and distribution task! It’s a full-time job really, so what can I do?

By happy chance we bumped into producer Charlotte Allan (Bodega Almaroja), from Arribes de Duero, who was also doing a tasting at Montia. She makes a really nice white wine called Pirita which I like a lot, from a field blend of lots of strange local varieties that I can’t remember the names of right now. After the tasting we went to a bar next door for some beers – to recalibrate our palates after all that wine! :)

Next stop - my bodega in El Tiemblo, but as we were running late and it was way past lunchtime, we went for lunch! After lunch we went straight to the vineyards, as that was the reason Carlos had come, ie to take photos and ask me questions for a publication he's working on.

The high altitude Garnacha vineyard in El Tiemblo:

Lying on my back looking downhill

Standing up looking downhill

The low altitude Garnacha vineyard in El Tiemblo:

Carlos taking photos

Does the neighbour use herbicide in his vineyard?

Close-up of herbicide use and non-herbicide use

Nice olive tree in the vineyard

Then, back to Madrid for an early night. Because the next day would be tough – see next post tomorrow (the third of three).

So ended another interesting and productive day. If only they were all like that :)