Spain Gourmetour 85 (2012)

Spanish Breakfast

Rice and Shine

DOCa Priorat. Nature’s Mosaic

DO Rueda. Reviving Verdejo

Food, Wine & Travel Magazine

May-August2012. 6 E

85

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Editor-in-chiefCathy Boirac

Publication CoordinatorsAlmudena Martín RuedaAlmudena Muyo

Photographic ArchiveMabel Manso

Editorial SecretaryÁngela Castilla

Design and Art DirectionManuel Estrada Design

LayaoutChema Bermejo

MapsJavier Belloso

Color SeparationsRastercolor

Printed in SpainArtes Gráficas Palermo

[email protected]

D.L.: M-45307-1990

ISSN: 0214-2937

NIPO: 726-12-008-5

CoverToya Legido/©ICEX

Information and PublisherICEXState Secretary for Trade,Ministry of Economy andCompetitiveness

www.icex.es

EDIT

Subscription:Spain Gourmetour is a publicationof the Spanish Institute for ForeignTrade (ICEX) of the State Secretaryfor Trade and Tourism, Ministry ofIndustry, Tourism and Trade.The magazine is issued three timesa year in English, French, Germanand Spanish, and is distributed freeof charge to trade professionals. If you want to subscribe to SpainGourmetour, please contact theEconomic and Commercial Offices at the Embassies of Spain(see list on page 92).

The opinions expressed by the authors of the articles are not necessarily shared by the Spanish Institute for ForeignTrade (ICEX), which cannot be held responsible for anyomissions or errors in the text.

New times, new approaches… And here at Spain Gourmetour we can’t—and won’t—get left behind. After 26 years of publishing the paper version of our magazine, we’removing with the times and preparing to channel our energies into reaching ourreaders more nimbly, quickly and comprehensively online via thewww.foodsfromspain.com portal (page 4).In this, our final printed issue, we look at products that are notable for theirenduringly deep attachment to their origins and tradition, products such as breadand rice, which have undergone a clever process of renovation with end results thatwill appeal to our readers all over the globe. This issue serves as a link between thepresent and the future, specifically the dynamism of content thatwww.foodsfromspain.com represents. Our aim is for it to be readily accessible to allour readers and use this online platform to extend our catchment even further. In-depth reports on products and chefs, up-to-the-minute news and items of Spanishrelevance from all over the world, and the gastronomic gen, hot from Spain, that willgive your visits there that extra edge… All in all, quite a menu: it’s accessible fromwherever you are and designed to cater to your appetite for knowledge. So let’s raise our glasses to the future, with a true Verdejo or a rich Priorat red to markthe occasion in style. We look forward to your visits to the portal where, more thanever, your comments and input to www.foodfromspain.com will be most welcome.It’s a resource that is as much yours as ours.

Spain [email protected]@icex.es

AwardsGold Ladle in the Best FoodMagazine category, at the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards.

Communications Award “Best Journalistic Work”from Alimentos de España, 2006, Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs.

Marqués de Busianos Awardfrom the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy.

“La Gula y Bachiller en Fogones 1998” Award from El Nuevo Lunes, a Spanish weekly economic publication.

Design Award from the SpanishAssociation of Design Professionals (AEDP),1995.

Spanish Food Journalism Award,1990, Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs.

Special Gastronomy Awardfrom the Fine Cuisine Association and the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy,1988.

Printed on PEFC-certifiedpaper to promote the responsible management of our forests.

2 MAY-AUGUST 2012 SPAIN GOURMETOUR

CONT

ENTS

SPAIN GOURMETOUR May-August 2012 No. 85

MAY-AUGUST 2012 SPAIN GOURMETOUR 3

Food BasicsRice. Rice and Shine .........42Recipes .............................52

Bread. Upper Crust...........58Recipes .............................68

Close-upJosé Luis Ungidos. Julio Restaurant ................72

Business WatchSalinas de Fuencaliente. A Harvest of Salt from the Canarias......................80

ColophonHave a Spanish Break! Rodolfo Gerschman from Mexico City ......................84

Regular FeaturesLasting Impressions ..........86Ad Index ..........................88Exporters..........................90Spain Overseas .................92Credits..............................96

Editorial ............................1

www.foodsfromspain.comClick to Taste .....................4

ColorsBreakfast. Wakey Wakey! ...8

WinesDOCa Priorat. Nature’s Mosaic.................20

DO Rueda. Reviving Verdejo...............32

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Sin título-1 1 25/04/12 15:44


WAKEYSpain’s day begins when dawnbreaks over Mahón, capital of the Balearic Island of Menorca(situated in the Mediterranean,just off the mainland’s eastcoast), and ends when the sunsets behind Cape Finisterre


WAKEY!in Galicia (northwestern Spain). Its daily trajectory embraces a culinary repertoire whose wealthof flavors, textures and aromasreflects the traditions and culture—ancient and ongoing—of thiscountry of diverse regions.

TEXTSARA CUCALA/©ICEX

TRANSLATIONHAWYS PRITCHARD/©ICEX

PHOTOSTOYA LEGIDO/©ICEX

Spain is generously endowed with fertileland where fruit and vegetables thrive, anextensive coastline and a good deal ofhighland terrain, and it is to theseattributes that much of the credit mustgo for the quality of its produce. Theevidence is there for the tasting at anytime of day, but it seems particularlyobvious in the early morning, when oneis only just awake and one’s palate stillunclouded, and therefore so muchmore responsive to the finer points thanlater in the day. Breakfast is, in some regards, the mostimportant meal of all, taking place as itdoes just after we have emerged from aprolonged period of sleep and need tobreak our fast, to assuage a hunger andthirst that are both physical and spiritual. Early morning food preparation offers noscope for camouflage: there are no saucesbeneath which to conceal things thathaven’t turned out quite right, no creamfor softening the effect of the franklyboring. Breakfast food is generally exemptfrom the modern trend for artypresentation, and has so far mostlyavoided being reinvented viaspherification or other cutting-edgetechniques… and that’s surely because, aswe’re still half asleep, we need to engagewith reality to become well and trulyawake. For breakfast, we eat what comesto hand: a cup of coffee or tea

accompanied by something sweet orsavory. Yet how many of us could bearto eat the same thing for lunch everyday? Not many of us would willinglysubject ourselves to an unwaveringlyrepetitive daily diet. But breakfast (andonly breakfast) positively embracesuniformity, providing the exception thatproves the rule. We find ourselveshaving the same things morning aftermorning: scalding hot coffee andsome kind of bun to put an end to longhours of fasting. In present-day Spain, especially in thelarger towns and cities, the day starts ina rush: we gulp down a coffee while it’sstill too hot and, time permitting, a sliceof toast drizzled with olive oil, or somekind of sweet cake, like a little spongeor madeleine. We then bide our timefor a while, about as long as it takes toget to work, before coming fully awakeand realizing that we are hungry. It’saround 11:00 by the time the secondcoffee of the day is drunk, this timeaccompanied by a little savory snack: achunk of Spanish omelet, a sandwichmixto (grilled ham and cheesesandwich), a few churros (or theirfatter relatives, porras) for dunking inthe coffee.Having said that, however, there is adefinite shift of attitude towards“breakfast cuisine” in the air: the

customary basic snacks are beingrevamped, seasonal fruits attractivelypresented, and more and more placesare putting on a special brunch menu atweekends, at once an invitation toovereat and an example of the tenets ofthe Slow Food Movement (SpainGourmetour No. 82). On days off, onecan now devote time to reading themorning papers while tucking into awell-deserved calorie-packed breakfastas a reward for having completedanother working week.

What do the Spanishhave for breakfast?North or south, east or west, inland orby sea… what the Spanish have forbreakfast varies according to the partof the country in which they live. Forexample, farmers and seafarers leadphysically demanding lives and,therefore, need to pack in many morecalories at the start of their day thancity dwellers do. What they actuallyhave for breakfast will vary dependingon place, time of year and occupation.Meanwhile, the current trend of havinga breakfast of bread and (extra virgin)olive oil seems to be catching onnationwide.One could easily devise an olive oilroute that crisscrosses Spain, tasting as

BREAKFAST

10

one goes and detecting thecharacteristics contributed by the olivevarieties grown in different parts of thecountry: Arbequina, Blanqueta,Cornicabra, Lechín, Hojiblanca,Manzanilla, Morisca and Picual, toname just a few.Indeed, many places offer an “oil list”from which the customer can choosewhich variety to have with breakfast.Among Spaniards, Arbequina,Hojiblanca and, to a lesser degree,Picual, are the favorite varieties fordribbling over hot toast first thing inthe morning. The luxurious liquid isdrizzled over some form of bread, half amollete (soft roll) for example, which isfreshly toasted. In central-southern andeastern parts of the Iberian Peninsula,the bread is rubbed first with a cut, rawtomato and then seasoned with a goodsprinkling of flor de sal (SpainGourmetour No. 76). Known as pantumaca, this is becoming one of themost popular breakfast snacks, oftenserved with a little Ibérico or Serranocured ham. Coffee, bread, tomato, extravirgin olive oil, salt and Ibérico ham: itcouldn’t be less complicated. Thisemerging taste for the simpler things—appreciation of good bread, forexample—is another recent trend inSpanish gastronomy as a whole (seeUpper Crust, p. 58).

Mapping themorningThere are as many equivalents of thisstart to the day as there are places inSpain. The geography of Spanishbreakfast could, in broad terms, beexpressed as follows: As the sun risesover the Balearic Islands, one canchoose to start the day reinforced by abig cup of milky coffee and anensaimada. The dough for this coiledpastry (one of several local specialties)is made with flour, water, sugar, eggs,mother dough, and pork lard.Ensaimadas come in two types: plainand unadorned (except, perhaps, for asprinkling of icing sugar) or filled withcabello de ángel (candied pumpkin). An alternative is another Balearicclassic: sobrasada. This raw, curedsausage is made from specific cuts ofpork seasoned with salt, pimentón(Spanish paprika) and black pepper tocreate a paste, which is delicious spreadon hot toast. Some minutes later, in Catalonia, theday begins with pan tumaca(mentioned earlier). In certain parts ofthe region, such as along the CostaBrava, the standard accompaniment ofIbérico cured ham is replaced byanchovies. An attractive feature ofCatalan anchovies is that they can be

eaten bones and all. They are soaked inmilk before frying, and this simpleprocess gives them the specialMediterranean taste and texture thatmakes them such an excellent snack. Unsurprisingly for such an importantfruit and vegetable-producing region,the people of Murcia have a sweetertooth. The region’s famous jams, spreadon bread or various types of buns, arean integral part of breakfast, precededor accompanied by local orange juice,which Murcians love as much as theirneighbors in Valencia do. In Valencia,famous for its citrus fruits, any breakfastworth the name will certainly includeorange juice and quite possibly horchatade chufa (earth almond, or tiger nut,milk) and fartons (sweet, elongated,spongy bread rolls made with flour,milk, sugar, oil, yeast and eggs). In the heart of Valencia’s city center aretwo deeply traditional establishmentsfor which local people head when theyneed to shrug off the effects of a latenight: both are horchaterías (bars thatspecialize in earth almond milk), onecalled Horchatería El Siglo and theother Horchatería Santa Catalina. Forlate breakfasters with a hearty appetite,they offer the opportunity to sample along-established classic combinationconsisting of coffee, bread and blanco ynegro (white and black, referring to two

COLORS

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BREAKFAST

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types of sausage: pale beige butifarraand almost black morcilla). Still following the sun as it rises overSpain, we now enter Andalusia, whosetypical flavors encompass sea, desertand orchard. In Almería, all three maketheir contribution to the idiosyncratic“breakfast sandwich” that is somethingof a local specialty, variously known asserigá, cherigá, seridá or cherigán. Thisinitially baffling word turns out to be abowdlerized version of the Englishsurname Sheridan and to date back tothe early years of the 20th century. Thevillage of Rodalquilar, in Almería(which today lies within the Cabo deGata Natural Park) was once the site ofone of the biggest gold mines inEurope. Such was the importance ofthis tiny Almerian enclave that itboasted a population of national andforeign inhabitants that was enormouslylarge for the period. Among them wasMr. Sheridan, who was, for a time, bossof the mine. A characteristic feature ofhis was that he liked to eat his breakfaststanding at the counter in Almería’svarious bars, and that he always ate thesame thing: a slice of bread topped withcharcuterie, cheese or somethingsimilar. The Englishman’s name andbreakfast preferences live on in the littlesandwich-like cherigás (or seridás orserigás) that are still very much afeature of the local morning menu. In western Almería, the ambient smellsare underscored by the aromasemanating from the olive groves of Jaén.Meanwhile, in the more built-up areasthere is a whiff in the air of dressedolives (Spain Gourmetour No. 70) and ofthe extra virgin olive oil that is anessential ingredient in any decentbreakfast in Jaén. Spreading up from the south, dawn is

less predictable by the time it reachesthe Basque Country, on thenortheastern tip of the IberianPeninsula. In some cafés hereabouts,one can still enjoy homemade junket,with the inimitable delicate flavorimparted by the griddle-heated stonesor iron implements immersed in thefreshly extracted milk from which thisdelicacy is made. Heading southwest, it becomes clearthat a heady smell of olives in the air isnot limited to Andalusia, but is also afeature of Extremadura, where itcoexists with the essence of the dehesa(Spain Gourmetour No. 83), the woodedscrubland for which this region isfamous and whose species includeholm oak, French lavender, cistus,broom… This is Ibérico pig-raisingterritory, a fount of top-quality porkand cured hams which, unsurprisingly,feature locally in the first meal of theday, as they also do in Upper Aragónand Castile. All these regions are largelyrural and for country folk the day startsearly and cold. The traditionalshepherds’ way of coping with this wasto cook up a warming dish of migas

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(stale bread torn up and soaked inwater and then fried with streakybacon/pancetta, chorizo, peppers…). Extremadura is a land of contrasts:anyone waking up in the north of theprovince, in the Las Hurdes area, willnot only discover a thrilling,unexpected landscape, but will also beserved a treat at breakfast in the form ofexcellent local jams made with cherriesfrom the Jerte Valley. Up in the hills,haunt of hunting and shooting

enthusiasts, the day may well be given akick-start with a helping of sopa delimones (literally “lemon soup”). It is, infact, a mixture of lemon and orangejuices, with slices of both fruits floatingin it and, surprisingly, is served withchorizo and cured ham. It is consideredexcellent protection against colds andviral illnesses.The Basque Country (where, as weknow, day dawns early) is connected toGalicia by the breathtaking Cantabrian

coast, which is not only beautiful butalso a privileged source of seafood, fruitand vegetables. In the inland areas ofCantabria and Asturias, cold weatherbreakfasts feature local cheeses such asquesucos de Liébana (little softish cheesesmade primarily with cow’s milk) andAsturias’ famous Cabrales (SpainGourmetour Nos. 73, 74 and 75), eggslaid by local hens, and chorizo sausagescooked on a grill over an open fire. Juston the border between the two

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provinces, at the foot of the Picos deEuropa mountains, are the Pas Valleys,source of individual sponge cakesknown as sobaos pasiegos (SpainGourmetour No. 82). These popularfavorites are prepared with a beatendough made of wheat flour, eggs,lemon rind, star anise and honey, whichis poured into individual molds forbaking, then allowed to cool beforepacking for sale. After eating a sobaopasiego, one is left with a lingering

aftertaste of butter obtained from thecows grazing in the valley and a zing ofstar anise, which helps get one’s systemgoing when gradually coming to after anight’s sleep. With the sun well and truly risen allover Spain, the prize for the mostunusual breakfast goes to the little townof Tui (Pontevedra province, Galicia)where, on market days (usuallyThursdays, in the Paseo da Corredoira),in the center of town right next to the

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Almería. La Ola, in the little town of LaIsleta del Moro. This is a simple seafarers'restaurant with an outside terrace at whoseplastic tables one can have breakfastlooking out at the sea. Local specialtiessuch as cherigás (savory morselssandwiched in bread), and tomato-rubbedbread dressed with olive oil predominate.

Barcelona. El Pinotxo in La BoqueriaMarket (La Rambla, 91) is a not-to-be-missed classic. My advice is to explore themarket first and then stop here, where theyprepare delicious savory snacks withingredients obtained from the surroundingstalls.

Cádiz. Bar Las Nieves (Plaza Mendizábal).Mollete con aceite de oliva y jamón (softbread roll with olive oil and cured ham) asserved in this unpretentious Cádiz bar givesmorning a whole new look: this is the waythe locals start their day. Excellent bread.Breakfast on the little terrace gets the dayoff to a charming start.

Madrid. Chocolatería San Ginés (PasadizoSan Ginés) is one of Madrid’s legendaryestablishments. It would be worth havingbreakfast here for the atmosphere alone,but be sure to pay homage to the Spanishtradition of eating churros dipped inchocolate while you’re at it.

Brunch at Café Oliver (C/ Almirante, 12) isan enduring favorite of mine. It serves awide choice of breakfasts in very attractivepremises right in the heart of Madrid. TheParisian décor is aimed at a youngclientele, and the menu is notable for itsbreakfast-time salads and the famous eggsbenedict.

Majorca. The Residencia Hotel inpicturesque Deià (Calle de los Son Canals)is reputed to do the best breakfast inSpain, and in certain respects this is true: itis a sort of banquet staged in a stunninglybeautiful natural setting.

Restaurante Senzone, the in-houserestaurant of the Hotel Hospes Maricel inCas Català (Ctra. de Andratx, 11), has a

reputation for being the crème de laSpanish crème in the breakfastdepartment. It takes the form of an opulentbuffet using strictly seasonal marketproduce, and there is always a wide rangeof juices, fruit, homemade flavored butters(leek and bacon, raspberry…), savorydishes (always including sobrasada, a rawcured sausage paste), and sweet ones,with ensaimadas (a coiled pastry) beinggiven pride of place.

Valencia. El Siglo (Plaza Santa Catalina,11). Founded in 1836, this café still retainsthe bohemian, intellectual atmosphere ofthe coffee houses of that period. Gildedmirrors, decoratively tiled floors, lampssuspended at various heights from theimmensely high ceilings: this is a marvelousplace to withdraw from the outside worldand relish the authenticity of this Valencianexperience, accentuated by the availabilityof horchata (earth almond milk) and fartons(elongated spongy textured sweet breadrolls).

My favorite breakfast haunts

Cathedral is a little hostal (modestboarding house) known as Vello doCabalo Furado, which serves anunforgettably hearty breakfast of beeftripe cooked with chick peas and boiledlangoustines.

Churros and porrasChurros (Spain Gourmetour No. 82)consist of the simplest ingredients—flour, water and salt—cleverly

fiestas all over the country. The sight

and smell of freshly-fried churros

trigger Proustian responses that are

hard to resist.

Churros are part of a family known as

frutas de sartén (fruits of the frying pan),

namely, fritters made using a flour-

based batter and given various different

shapes. Another prime example are

buñuelos (little ladlefuls of well beaten

flour-based dough fried in hot olive oil

so that they are crisp on the outside and

spongy on the inside); pestiños (flour-

based batter containing beaten eggs,

BREAKFAST

16

transformed into a Spanish classic bydeft frying. Wherever you are inSpain, you will have the option ofstarting the day with a large cup ofhot chocolate served with half adozen of these fluted crunchy stripsof fried dough. We have masterchurreros (churro-makers) in Spain,anonymous craftsmen who are out ofbed before sunrise preparing the day’ssupply of one of the nation’s favoritebreakfasts in modest churrerías allover the country, though Madrid andits province lead the field in terms ofquantities consumed.Madrid’s appetite for churros is said todate back to the 19th century, a periodwhen the city was a magnet fortraveling showmen and marketvendors, and it is they who arebelieved to have introduced thisdelicious snack, cleverly contrived outof the cheapest ingredients. What wasoriginally invented as an accessible,filling food for the masses somehowbecame a luxury enjoyed by thearistocracy before again returning to itspopular origins. Nowadays, busesconverted into mobile churro-and-chocolate stalls are a common sight inmany Spanish towns and cities (thereis one beside Madrid’s Atocha RailwayStation, for example) and at fairs and

fried in hot oil until crisp and then

dipped in honey); rosquillas (dough

made with flour, eggs, olive oil and

milk and shaped into rings before

frying and sprinkling with sugar)… all

of these would be considered suitable

breakfast fare.

The fashionfor brunchThough there are still some cafés inSpain that retain echoes of theatmosphere, charm and social functionthey enjoyed in their heyday, the

passage of time has wroughtirrevocable changes. Today, Spain isopen to the cultures of the widerworld. Its principal provinces havebecome destinations for foreign settlerswho bring their inbuilt culture withthem, with the result that the Spanishlarder has been enlarged by newaromas, flavors and textures.Nowadays, in theory, one could startthe day with the foreign breakfast ofone’s choice without having to movefrom Madrid. Each of Madrid’sconstituent barrios, or neighborhoods,accommodates people from other partsof the world. In Usera, for example,you would have no problem findingbreakfast as eaten in south China.Lavapiés is the place to go for theMoroccan and Indian equivalents,Barrio de Salamanca and Chamberílean more towards the British style,and Las Letras even offersScandinavian-style breakfast. Madrid’spopulation represents a rich mix:nowhere else in the whole of Spain canmatch it for the plurality, variety andfusion exemplified by its breakfasts.Our readiness to welcome othercultures perhaps explains why we wereso ready to adopt the fashion forbrunch and why it has become the

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unchallenged favorite model forweekend breakfast.No one seems to know how theconcept of brunch came into being:some believe it to have been a Britishinvention, while others attribute it toNew York, more specifically Harlem.Wherever it originated, the fact is thatthese days you can choose to start yourday with brunch almost anywhere inthe world. Here in Spain, one of thefirst places to adopt brunch wasMadrid’s Ritz Hotel, whose huge tableswere laden with sweet and savory bite-

sized morsels for guests to choosefrom. The concept spread from hotelsto restaurants: one pioneer was theHispano, which has been providingbuffet-style brunch at weekends formany years now. Today, no descriptionof Spain’s breakfast habits would becomplete without a mention ofbrunch. And similarly, no Spanishbrunch can be considered completeunless it includes a particular dish—Spain’s version of eggs benedict (huevosbenedictine), consisting of a slice ofsweet bread topped with smoked porkbelly or bacon and poached eggs), anda particular drink—the Bloody Mary. Agood Spanish brunch will also featurea table devoted to different types ofbread, several types of butter, assortedjams, virgin olive oil, and natural fruitjuices. In Spain, Sunday morningscould be said to start in earnest ataround 11:30, which is when brunchbecomes available. The Hotel Palaceand the Intercontinental Hotel, both inMadrid, are excellent Sunday brunchdestinations where one can eat anddrink at a leisurely pace to theaccompaniment of live chamber musicand operatic highlights. There aretimes when the expression “Goodmorning” takes on a whole newdimension!

Author and journalist SSara Cucala is agastronomic coordinator at TVE, founderof the gastronomic cultural center EspañaA Punto, and author of two books,Desayunar en Madrid. Del churro albrunch (2008. RBA) and Los templos dela tapa (2009. RBA).

Visit our website,www.foodsfromspain.com,for detailed information aboutSpanish food and wine.

BREAKFAST

COLORS

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Mosaic

NATU

RE'S

In Priorat you have to be patient. I drivealong the narrow,winding roads, in low gear, enjoyingthe view: pines, holm oaks, theoccasional olive tree and thoseimpossiblevineyards. And it is the same for the wine that is bornhere—it cannot be hurried. Open it, let it breathe and

wait for it to talk to you. First inwhispers, thengradually gettinglouder as its aromaticcomplexity tells you a thousandstories—about its life,its slow productionprocess, the aging in the bottle thatrounds up all itsvirtues. Finally, in the glass, it needs time toexpress itself fully.

22

DOCa PRIORAT

The DOCa Priorat is located betweenthe sea and the mountains, in easternSpain in the province of Tarragona, inCatalonia. The Mediterranean Sea isjust 30 km (18.6 mi) away, but themountains that frame Priorat keep outthe sea’s influence, which only justsqueezes in through the area ofPorrera and some of the southernparts. It is this single opening that letsin most of the climatic influences,allowing the damp sea air to mix withthe Ebro Valley winds. The landscapeis mostly low mountains, with pines,holm oaks, olive, hazelnut andalmond trees and, of course, grapevines. Rock rose, thyme, rosemaryand many other small aromatic plantscomplete this truly Mediterraneanenvironment. And all this life growsout of a soil that is sometimes black,bluish or even purplish, from theslate, known in Catalan as licorella,the key distinguishing trait of theDOCa Priorat.

Not just rock “The terroir is not just the soil. It’s notall up to the licorella,” says RenéBarbier, owner of one of the mythicalwineries in the DOCa Priorat. Whenhe bought Clos Mogador in 1978, the22 ha (54 acres) were already a farm.His philosophy is total respect forbiodiversity. It is not unusual to findolive trees, holm oaks and the oddalmond tree in the middle of thevineyards, which he has plantedalongside the original vines. This landis home to small wildlife and evensome animals that are not so small, aswe can see from the tracks of wildboars in the vineyard that produces

the white Nelin. “And,” he assuresme, “There are over 900 flowerspecies.” His wines reflect the character of theirsurroundings, including markedmineral flavors which stem from theslate soils that are the keycharacteristic of DOCa Priorat. Thearoma of Clos Mogador 2009, madefrom local Garnacha and Cariñenaand completed with CabernetSauvignon and Syrah, is very floweryand transports me to the nearbyMediterranean woodland, with itsthyme and rosemary. As it opens up,it releases notes of berries and thenspices. Nelin, a white made mostlyfrom Garnacha Blanca and Viognier,is equally surprising. My firstimpression takes me back to thealmond blossom I saw in the middleof the vineyard that it comes from.This passion for vineyards and theirenvironment is explained withvivacity by Sara Pérez, daughter ofone of the “reinventors” of Priorat(Josep Lluis Pérez, DOCa Priorat in anutshell, page 26) and currently incharge of Mas Martinet. “Prioratcomes from here,” she says, pointingwith vigor to her heart. Sara formspart of the second generation ofproducers in Priorat who are evenmore convinced than theirpredecessors about the value of theterroir and about the native varieties,Garnacha Tinta and Cariñena. In herthree wines, Sara aims to show theproduction methods used in the threeperiods of Priorat’s wine history: pre-phylloxera, up until the arrival of themuch-feared plague in 1893, in ElsEscurçons; the 20th century after

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TRANSLATIONJENNY MCDONALD/©ICEX

PHOTOSMATÍAS COSTA/©ICEX

JUAN MANUEL SANZ/©ICEX

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DOCa PRIORAT

Salvador Burgos, Celler Burgos Porta

phylloxera in Camí Pesseroles; andmodernity in Clos Martinet. Els Escurçons comes from a high-altitude Garnacha vineyard on anestate that she recovered after findingand contacting its former owners bysearching through family trees in thenearby villages. After years watchingthe behavior of vineyards and wines,she became convinced about howimportant it is to maintain a naturalbalance in the field. She started toadopt organic principles in 2000. Bythe third year, she felt that life wasreturning to the vineyards, with thebuzz of insects, the wild flowers, etc.“And that was when I decided thatwas how I wanted to work, that Iwasn’t going to worry if I had toforego a harvest. An ecosystemmanages itself. You don’t needchemicals because the soil and theenvironment find their own balance.”The Els Escurçons wine offers notesof red currant, and in the mouth itstirs up images of the land it comesfrom—herbs, menthol, pine and a

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tremendous freshness from itstartness and mineral flavors.Camí Pesseroles is the wine that Saradescribes as “post-phylloxera”, and isbased on Cariñena grapes. From herexperience, this variety has almost novarietal characteristics of its own. “Ifthe soil is good, it absorbs it.Cariñena is the best detector of goodsoils, whereas Garnacha can deceiveyou with its varietal features.” Thewine comes mostly from grapesgrown on slatey soil and the mineralsmake their presence felt over thefruit, giving it a freshness and alasting sensation in the mouth. ClosMartinet reflects the third Prioratperiod, when her father came hereand planted varieties such asCabernet Sauvignon and Syrah withthe idea of combining them with the

local varieties. But in fact thepercentage of imported grapes hasbeen reduced in Clos Martinet to givegreater presence to the local ones.Clos Martinet 2008 affords ripe fruiton the nose but is very spicy, withclear accents of clove and hints ofmenthol. It too reflects the mineralsoil and the pleasant coldness typicalof slate. A love of Cariñena was also inheritedby her brother, Adrià Pérez, now incharge of the family project at Cimsde Porrera. Adrià, with the support ofhis cousin Marc (both of them firmadvocates of the local varieties) offerstwo different lines in his winery. Onthe one hand, he is continuing theproject set up by his father and sisterin the 1990s by maintaining not onlySolanes but also the classic Cims de

Porrera, based on Cariñena grapesfrom very old vines grown locally.This is a serious, elegant wine with along finish and full of minerals,reminiscent of charcoal and chalk. Hetells me, “Cariñena is the best catalystfor the minerals in the soil.”Alongside these classics, Adrià andMarc have launched a personalproject, Les Cousins, a more light-hearted wine with a fresher image.Adrià cannot help smiling when herefers to his childhood, theinspiration behind these wines. Inthem, he works with the two leadinglocal varieties, recognizing theminerals that are the expression ofPriorat but searching for more fruitand a simpler, rounder result.

Stay-at-homeadventurers In spite of hard times in the 20th

century (DOCa Priorat in a nutshell,page 26), there were some localgrowers and winemakers that decided

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1194: Carthusian monks arrive fromProvence (France), establishing thePriorato de Scala Dei and bringingwinemaking culture with them. This wasto become the foundation for the district’seconomic life for centuries.

1865: Phylloxera attacks in France lead toa boom in the Priorat wine trade.

1893: Phylloxera arrives in Priorat, puttingan end to its prosperity. Over the followingdecades, the district becomesimpoverished and depopulated.

1950: The DO Priorato is established.

Late 1980s. The “Priorat magníficos”arrive: René Barbier, Carles Pastrana (Closde l’Obac), Josep Lluis Pérez, ÁlvaroPalacios (L’Ermita) and Daphne Glorian(Clos Erasmus). They make their first wine,together, in 1992. Their shared philosophy

DOCa Priorat in a nutshell

century, endured the collapse at thestart of the 20th, and had noalternative but to produce bulk winesuntil, in 1995, they decided to startbottling their own wines. That initialexperiment, an unaged wine, was thefirst time a wine was actually bottled

in Porrera. In 1997, they started touse oak barrels to age their wine thatcame from 80-year-old vines growingon the slopes around this traditionalwinemaking town. With the 2000 vintage, they receivedthe backing they needed to moveforward. English wine writer JohnRadford described their Clos Monlleóas the best Spanish wine in his bookThe New Spain. Great advocates ofGarnacha Tinta and Cariñena, PereSangenís and his daughter Maríatogether with Conxita Vaqué and heryounger daughter manage the wineryand acknowledge that you need to waitwith these wines. “It’s very importantto give them time in the bottle so thatthe tannins become more finished andall the aromas are released.” Today the2004 and 2005 vintages are on themarket, but I am especially curiousabout 2000. And I’m in luck becausethey have been tasting one with animporter and there’s a bottle open. Arich aroma of plain chocolate leads onto a subtle succession of very ripe fruit,menthol, toast. In the mouth it is veryelegant, fine, fresh, very complex,again with notes of toast, black pepper

to stick it out and continue workingthe land they had inherited. Oneexample is the Sangenís i Vaquéwinery, the coming together of twofamilies with a history of over 300years making wine. They enjoyed thegood years at the end of the 19th

is based on profound respect for thelandscape and the local people, and thehope that they will be able to restore aterritory in which quality wines can bemade. This principle became thebackbone of the DOCa Priorat. In fact,the Designation enforces a rule coveringthe planting of vineyards to ensure thesurroundings are taken into account.

Today the DOCa Priorat has 94 wineriesand 1,928 ha (4,763 acres) of vineyard(of which only 81 grow white varieties). In2011 about 5,500 tons of grapes wereharvested. The latest project, named Vide Vila, aims to differentiate between theproducts of each of the villages thatbelong to the Designation.

www.doqpriorat.org: RegulatoryCouncil, DOCa Priorat (Catalan, English,French, Spanish)

Cristian Francès, Trio Infernal

and perhaps dewy autumn leaves, withdelicate minerals reminiscent ofgraphite. Undoubtedly a great wine.The story is similar with SalvadorBurgos, who was born in Poboleda.He stayed on in the country and, withthe Priorat revival, was able togradually build up a position thatallowed him, in the early 1990s, topurchase his own estate, Mas Sinén.Salvador is another great fan oforganic principles in farming (andecological principles in his life). Thefirst thing we did was to taste thewater from the spring that suppliesthe winery. “Tasting this water is thebest way of understanding what wemean by minerals in wine.” Theoriginal estate grew almond trees, buthe was determined to focus on vinesso he planted Garnacha and Cariñenaas well as some Cabernet Sauvignon,Syrah and Merlot. From thesevineyards, now 15 to 20 years old, heproduces Mas Sinén Negre, a brightred wine with excellent structure andherbal aromas, reminiscent of thethyme that grows freely on the estate.From the plots he inherited from hisfather, which are now 60 years old, he

makes Mas Sinén Costers, a verycharacteristic Priorat in which themineral notes stand out over the ripefruit and spices, creating thatimpression of coldness that stemsfrom the licorella. As we taste thewines, Leonard Cohen sings in thebackground. The seriousness andgentle complexity of Cohen createsexactly the right atmosphere for thiswine.

So how did these winemakers, havingbeen held back throughout the 20th

century, manage to reach a position inwhich they could invest in their ownsmall projects? The answer lies ininvestments made in the late 1980s.The origin and philosophy of the VallLlach winery, created by Cataloniansongwriter Lluís Llach, helps explainhow the recovery happened. In 1985,Lluís Llach inherited farmland fromhis mother, who was from Porrera.This village was where he had spentcarefree summer holidays as a child.The land had been all but abandonedbut, after floods in 1994, heconverted it into vineyards. At thesame time, he decided to collaboratewith local growers in the recovery ofthe oldest hillside vineyards known ascosters, a task that was already beingcarried out by Josep Lluis Pérez withthe Porrera cooperative farmers. Theyboth felt that the local growers had toreap the benefits of the old Cariñenaand Garnacha vineyards, so theystarted to pay for the grapes at pricesthat previously would have beenunthinkable.These characteristic costers are vase-

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Pedro Rovira and his daughter Marta, enologist,of Viticultors Mas d’en Gil

notes of black licorice. Its markedacidity, in combination with the coldsensation that comes from the slateand obvious tannins, makes this avery fresh but powerful wine with aslightly bitter aftertaste. At the start ofthe interview, Salustià had promisedthat I would find Priorat “seductive”,and this wine could certainly winover any lover of wines withpersonality.

Whites make theirappearanceSlightly to the north of Porrera, at thefoothills of the Montsant mountainrange, is Conreria de Scala Dei,founded in 1997. Jordi Huguetexplained that they are determinednot only to sell wine, but also to sellPriorat by encouraging people to visitthe area, so they are planning on

involved in the project. “This, too,helps make it an honest project,” saysSalustià. Mas de la Rosa is one ofthose impressive vineyards. Theplants are mostly very old Cariñena,growing on hard, slatey soil on steepslopes, on which I would havethought it was impossible to work.Mechanization is out of the question.Everything has to be done by hand inorder to pick just half a kilo (1.1 lb)per plant. “To make one bottle of VallLlach, we need seven plants,” heexplains, giving a clear idea of thevineyard’s yield. The 2006 vintage ofVall Llach is a very personal, complexwine. On the nose it is very mineral,with hints of graphite and charcoal,and behind them comes ripe fruit,prunes. This is a wine that opens upas it breathes. In the mouth, it isrounded, with a touch of spice, and itgradually releases some fantastic

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shaped vineyards planted on hillsides,some of which have as much as a70% slope. They are described as“heroic vine-growing” by SalustiàAlvarez, who is now the manager atVall Llach, after having worked with itsince 2002, and President of theDOCa Priorat Regulatory Counciluntil late 2011. He has an almostendless supply of information aboutthe area. Originally from Porrera, heremembers how, in the 1960s and70s, the village square was full ofpeople at 7 am as they gathered totravel to work outside the area. ThenPriorat took off at the end of the1980s, when a number of“worldwise” producers started toproduce high-quality wines. And,especially important for him, “Theirprojects were honest, with wines fromhere and owned by them, that is,wines with identity. This meant thatproductions were small because of theregion’s rugged landscape and the ageof its vineyards.” In the company ofSalustià I visited a hillside vineyardthat is now owned 50% by the wineryand 50% by the grower, who was thus

Adrià Pérez of Cims de Porrera, and Sara Pérez of Mas Martinet

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setting up a small hotel next to thewinery. Today, they are producing25% of the DO’s whites, mostly fromGarnacha Blanca, a variety which, as Iwas able to see for myself, clearly hasa great aromatic capacity and plentyof body with just the right amount ofacidity. In reds, Iugiter SelecciónViñas Viejas, their top-range winemade from 80-year-old vines, is veryintense on the nose, where toast andwood take precedence over the fruitynotes which appear later in themouth. The southern part of Priorat lookseasier to work, with gentler slopesand some small low-lying areas. Butthis is only the first impression of anoutsider, and a wrong one. The slaterock is just 20 cm (7.8 in) down andis “the hardest and oldest of thedistrict’s licorella.” These are thewords of Marta Rovira, manager of

the Mas d’en Gil estate in Bellmunt dePriorat. The Rovira-Carbonell familycomes from the Penedès winemakingregion close to Barcelona. “In Priorat,we wanted an estate that had bothhistory and represented the localbiodiversity.” And they found it sixyears ago at Mas d’en Gil, which hasbeen growing vines for over 300years, and where vines cover 30% ofthe land. There are also areas ofwoodland, as well as almond,hazelnut and ancient olive trees inproduction. Because of its location,close to the sea and on a plain, it isone of the few spots that receives theMediterranean breezes, which bringcoolness and ventilation to thevineyards. One of this winery’s best-known wines is a white, unusual forPriorat, from a vineyard soil thatcombines slate and sand withpebbles, and Macabeo vines over 60

years old, as well as Garnacha Blanca.The Coma Alta wine expresses ripefruit and spice and is very flavorsome,fresh and long in the mouth. In reds,they are working on a blend ofvarieties including Garnacha Negra,Garnacha Peluda, Cariñena andCabernet Sauvignon (even in somecases Syrah and Merlot). Clos Fontá,the red they make from the oldestplots, is a wine with mature,flavorsome tannins that is veryreminiscent of ripe black fruit andfigs and offers a sweet chocolatearoma complemented unexpectedlyby touches of menthol.

Definite identityAt the end of the 1990s, anotherperson to set up operations in thesouthern part of Priorat was MiguelPérez, a doctor and researcher in theworld of wine, who explains “I camebecause the land was not easy, whichwas precisely what I liked. Whenthings are tough, great progress ispossible.” The local vine-growers, inthis case in Bellmunt del Priorat,helped him until he was able to make

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the vines on his estate productive.Today, it is enologist Toni Coca whohelps him make his fantastic ClosGalena from Garnacha and Cariñenawith additional Syrah and Cabernet.Alongside the richness of theGarnacha is the local distinguishingmark of minerals plus some pleasanttouches of menthol in the mouth. Asimpler but still generous wine,Formiga, has recently been launched,targeting younger buyers and offeringslightly greater warmth on the palate. But in Priorat, you inevitably end upagain at the sloping vineyards, ofwhich there are many in the Torrojaarea. Here I visited two small wineriesset up by foreign investors who camein the early 21st century. Trio Infernalwas a gamble by three French wineproducers from the Rhône area whowere keen to share a project in Spain.It was René Barbier who pointedthem to Priorat, and they took his

advice in 2002. Cristian Francés, whowas born in Torroja and who isresponsible for the day-to-dayrunning of things, drove me up to thevineyards in his 4x4, the only way ofgetting around here, and he does itwith astonishing sang-froid.Meanwhile, I hardly dare look outover the steep drop that our narrowtrack borders. From these plots, inwhich there is a combination ofdifferent orientations, they obtain theGarnacha, Cariñena and Syrah thatmake up their wines. Together withPep Aguilar and Patri Morillo(Spanish collaborators on thisproject), we tasted several samples ofaged wines which bring together allthe characteristics of this district.While the Cariñena is fresher andopenly reminiscent of thyme andscrub, the Garnacha is much richer,with greater fruitiness. The Syrah,with floral touches and more

sharpness, will be used to make anexclusive monovarietal wine, mainlyfor restaurant use.Another of the small, foreign-ownedwineries in Torroja is Terroir al Límit.It was set up in 2003 by DominikHuber, from Germany, who formed apartnership with a South African anda Catalonian. He is a great proponentof ecological balance, probably as aresult of his prior experience at MasMartinet and Cims de Porrera. Heworks biodynamically, trusting natureand the countryside, andfermentation of his musts is alwaysstarted with native yeasts. Clearly heneither needs nor wants anythingfrom outside his own terroir. Hiswines are a pure reflection of theirenvironment. We tasted directly fromthe olds vats in which the wine ismade. The Garnacha is glorious, witha warm aroma of strawberry jam,followed by a very fresh palate, with

DOCa PRIORAT

The Sangenís i Vaqué family

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acidity and flowery touches. And theCariñena is very mineral and spicy,with the typical coldness of thisvariety when grown on the Prioratslate.These wineries with a moretraditional structure contrast with thenext two on my tour. Both Trossos delPriorat in the south and Ferrer Bobetin Porrera have invested more invisual aspects, with more modernwineries that aim to attract attention.At Ferrer Bobet, set up by SergiFerrer-Salat and Raúl Bobet (the latteris technical manager at BodegasTorres), the tasting room isimpressive, with a huge windowoverlooking the surrounding peaks.Having started operation in 2002, forthe time being they are usingCariñena and Garnacha grapes fromvines 30- to 100-years-old andbought from small local growersbecause their own vineyard, planted

on small terraces and followingorganic principles, is not yetproducing top-quality grapes. Thetwo wines they have on the market,Ferrer Bobet Vinyes Velles andSelección Especial, are based on theseold Cariñena stocks, although theformer also contains 30% Garnacha.Though oak is clearly present, theyare characterized by acidity, whichmakes them very fresh wines. Theformer reveals plenty of red fruit onthe nose, and Selección receives itsfreshness more from its mineralcontent than from its tartness, whichis better integrated in the wine. This simpler line has also beenadopted at Trossos del Priorat, whichfollows the same strategy as FerrerBobet of buying grapes while waitingfor their own vineyards, planted in2004, to grow. Their consultantenologist Toni Coca (who alsocollaborates with Mas Sinén and

Domini de la Cartoixa) is basically

searching for elegance and very mature

tannins. The result can be tasted in

Lomon 2011 (tasted from the barrel),

with its outstanding fruitiness and

richness.

So, altogether, the DOCa Priorat is a

joy for the senses. The perseverance of

the local producers (both winemakers

and vine-growers) has enabled them to

preserve their ancient winemaking

culture, their varieties and their

landscapes, and this results in very

personal wines. Tasting them

transports us to their place of origin

even if we have never been there. But,

as most of these winemakers insisted,

and as I saw for myself, “Priorat is a

place that deserves to be visited.”

Almudena Martín Rueda is an editorial

co-coordinator of Spain Gourmetour.

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Albert Costa and Salustià Álvarez ofCeller Vall Llach


VERDEJOAsk any wine-lover about the Verdejo whites and they will talk about a fresh,light wine with fragrant, sometimes surprising aromas. But today the mostambitious winemakers of the Rueda Designation of Origin, in the northern halfof the Castilian plain along the banks of the Duero River, are working on moreconcentrated wines that bear witness to their terroir. And some of their creationshave already joined the ranks of Spain’s best whites.

Reviving

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Didier Belondrade from Francetasted his first Verdejo wine back in1993. “I found it an elegant,interesting wine, with finesse. Iliked that slight touch of bitternessin the mouth without anysweetness.” A few months later hetraveled to the region it came fromand discovered the stony soils inthe DO Rueda. “It reminded me ofthe Rhône,” he admits. “And it wasa relatively cheap area because backthen no-one was talking aboutSpanish whites.” Today, Belondradeis one of the most widely-respectedwineries in the DO and produces80,000 bottles of a fermented, cask-aged white wine that is deep, has apersistent elegance and ages well inthe bottle. About 30% is exported.No-one else in Rueda achieves suchvolumes in the top-quality league. The DO Rueda was created in 1980and was the first Designation ofOrigin in Castile-Leon. Its vineyardsspan the alluvial terraces formed bythe Duero and its tributaries wherethree provinces come together:Valladolid, Segovia and Ávila. In

fact, it is sandwiched between twofamous regions for red wines: DORibera del Duero and DO Toro(Spain Gourmetour No. 84). And itshares with them the ruggedCastilian landscape characterizedby harsh winters, with frost alwayson the prowl, and beneficialdifferences between day andnighttime temperatures during theperiod when the grapes areripening. Although since 2008 theDO has officially covered red androsé wines, what makes it stand outfrom its neighbors and otherwinemaking regions in the samepart of Spain (such as DO Cigalesand Tierra del Vino de Zamora) isits unmistakable characteristic as aproducer of whites.The very suitable climate,appropriate soils and a variety thatis well-adapted to the land makethis area an excellent source of greatwhite wines. The Verdejo varietyhas been grown here for centuries,but it was overtaken by easier-to-grow, more productive varietiessuch as Palomino and Viura. Its

rebirth began in the 1960s and itreached its prime in the first decadeof the 21st century.Eulogio Calleja, enologist atBodegas Naia, one of the DO’sleading firms and exporters, talksabout a “golden triangle” extendingfrom Tordesillas on the Duerotowards Rueda and the towns ofSerrada and La Seca, all of them inthe province of Valladolid. This isan area of characteristically stonyand sandy ground, with shallowsoils on top of a layer of compact,water-retaining clay, providing theterroir that is home to some of thegreatest Verdejo wines from the DORueda.La Seca, for example, grows morethan 30% of the Verdejo vineyardsand is one of the main locations ofold stocks, with over 500 ha (1,235acres) still planted in vase shape.One of the most famous vineyardsin the area is Martinsancho, datingfrom before the phylloxera invasion,which served as the source forrecovering Verdejo. Its owner, ÁngelRodriguez Vidal, is clear about the

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PHOTOSJUAN MANUEL SANZ/©ICEX

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La Mancha, in the south of theCastilian plain), launched BlancoNieva Pie Franco, the DO’s firstVerdejo, which gave voice in thebottle to these vines growing fromtheir own roots.Many of the grapes from oldvineyards, which often end updiluted in fairly large-scaleproductions, have been rescued inrecent years to stand on their ownin white wines with a markedpersonality. The great cooperativeof La Seca, Agrícola Castellana, hascreated Cuatro Rayas ViñedosCentenarios from grapes grown onthe oldest of its Segovian vineyards.This is an unaged white wine thatis worked on its lees in stainlesssteel for several months. It offersfine notes of aniseed and fennel onthe nose and is lively and smoothin the mouth.Much more ambitious and focusingalmost exclusively on pre-phylloxera vineyards growingungrafted Verdejo vines is OssianVides y Vinos, also located in Nievaand under the guidance of localvine-grower Ismael Gozalo, togetherwith Javier Zaccagnini, formermanager of the DO Ribera delDuero and partner of MarianoGarcía (Spain Gourmetour No. 75) inthe outstanding Aalto winery in theDO Ribera del Duero. Theirexcellent whites take the characterof the local terroir to the extreme,achieving plenty of volume in themouth and a marked mineral flavor,sometimes with saline touches. Intheir most spectacular products,Ossian and the very small-scale

priorities: “What matters most is theterroir and the amount of grapes.”Back in the 1970s, he used cuttingsfrom the old vineyard to plant anew Martinsancho, and he nowtransfers its grapes to bottlesbearing this name on their labels.This is a young white, mostly soldoutside Spain, that is made likemost Verdejo wines from this areatoday (cold maceration, low-temperature fermentation and sometime on the lees in stainless steel). Itis a pretty representative Verdejo,with aromas of fennel and whitefruit; it is balanced and fresh, andhas sufficient volume and thatcharacteristic touch of bitterness.

Pre-phylloxeravines still in useAnother historical spot for Verdejothat is especially relevant lies awayfrom the river, to the southeast ofthe Designation, within theprovince of Segovia. This area,which includes, among others, thetown of Nieva, is at a higheraltitude (above 800 m / 2,624 ft)and is characterized by very sandysoil, which helped it escape theattack by phylloxera (here between1909 and 1922). In fact, one of thejewels of the DO are the almost 200ha (494 acres) of ungrafted Verdejovines, some of them pre-phylloxeraand some planted later, thisplanting method having beencommon practice up to the 1940s.In the 1990s, Viñedos de Nieva,today under the control of theMartúe group from Toledo (Castile-

Camino Ventosa, Belondrade

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Capitel, in which grapes from twoslatey vineyards are used, they workwith large-format wood and alwayswith native yeasts. Both are verydifferent in style to wines from therest of the region, especiallyconsidering that, at the request oftheir authors, they are sold with theback label of Vino de la Tierra deCastilla y León.Bodegas y Viñedos Shaya, a morerecent creation, also uses old vines,in this case from the nearby town ofAldeanueva del Codonal (the namecomes from codón, a local term forpebble). The winery belongs to theGil family’s group from the DOJumilla (Murcia, southeast Spain)and makes two whites, Shaya andShaya Habis, the latter with wood.Its philosophy follows this sameprinciple of carefully-containedaromas and super smoothness inthe mouth, which seems to bethe distinguishing features ofwines from this remote corner ofthe DO Rueda.But these are not the only producersto see Verdejo from this point ofview. Eulogio Calleja focuses on thestructure offered by this variety, as ifit were “a red grape without thecolor”, and considers it morecharacteristic in the mouth than onthe nose. So, in his vineyards, hesearches for the origin of the“Segovian clone”, which he believesis the key to this variety’s profile.His spectacular Naiades, of which10,000 to 25,000 bottles are madedepending on the vintage, comesfrom grapes grown on very old,vase-shaped vines in different parts

of the Designation, aroundTordesillas and Matapozuelos(Valladolid), in Segovia, and insome pre-phylloxera sandy lands inMadrigal de las Altas Torres (Ávila),birthplace of Isabel the CatholicMonarch (Queen of Castile, 1451-1504) and the main growing areafor Verdejo in the early 16th century.

Beyond technologyMost of today’s Rueda wines followa similar pattern of light, aromaticwines at very affordable pricesproduced with refrigeration andtechnology. They start out as veryclear must and ferment at a verylow temperature prior toclarification. According to CésarMuñoz, one of the best-knownexperts on the Castile-Leon reds,“Verdejo is a very malleable varietythat can be used in more ways thanyou might expect and takes verywell to the wood.” In his work atMontebaco, one of the many labelswithin the DO Ribera del Duero,which has now expanded its rangeof reds to include a Rueda, hefavors more mature grapes andleaves them longer on the lees. Aspart of his personal project,Selección César Muñoz, he ismaking Alter Enos with grapes froma 75-year-old vineyard beyond thelimits of the DO Rueda. In this case,the emphasis is on the barrel toachieve structure and volume in themouth, and the label is sold as aVino de la Tierra de Castilla y León.The best Ruedas are undoubtedlyhighlighting concentration. So,although most of the leading

A church in Rueda

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VERDEJO

wineries are working with bothtraditional vase-shaped andespaliered vineyards (and insist thatboth can produce quality grapes),there is a group of enthusiasts ofvase-shaped cultivation. Accordingto Luis Hurtado de Amézaga,technical manager at Vinos de losHerederos del Marqués de Riscal,“The creeping nature of Verdejomeans that the bunches areprotected from sunlight, the plantretains moisture better and the mustis more aromatic and holds itsacidity well. The bunches may bepractically on the ground, but thetough skin prevents the grapes fromrotting.” Eulogio Calleja adds,“Most of the old vase-shaped vinesare planted on very suitable, dry-farmed land so they are used to nothaving much water, and theirtendency to delay the cycle meansthat less acidity is lost, making theresulting wines better-balanced andmore structured.” With espalieredvines, on the other hand, manygrowers prefer to harvest by handso that selection is more rigorous atthe actual plant.Something they all agree on is thatvineyard yield is a key determinantfor quality. The limit allowed forVerdejo by the Regulatory Councilis 8,000 kilos per ha (2.47 acres) invase-shaped plantations and 10,000for espaliers. In the opinion of JesúsYuste, a researcher at theAgricultural Technology Institute ofCastile-Leon who led the work onclonal selection in Verdejo and haspublished a book on how to prune

Over the last few years, the DO Rueda hasseemed to be immune to the crisis. Theoutstanding success of its fragrant, veryaffordable Verdejo whites has led tounprecedented growth in this area. While, atthe start of the decade, the variety was grownon about 3,000 ha (7,413 acres), in 2011 itwas harvested from 10,000 ha (24,710 acres).So it is no surprise that practically all the largeSpanish wine groups have decided to includea Rueda in their product ranges. It is the mostpopular white wine for Spanish consumers,with only DOCa Rioja, DO Ribera del Dueroand DO Valdepeñas exceeding it in popularity.

But Verdejo is also crossing frontiers. Theneighboring regions in which it was grown insmall amounts are now showing interest in itand launching Verdejo wines on the market—cases in point are DO Tierra de León andTierra del Vino de Zamora. The variety hasalso been authorized in the Cigales, Arribesand Toro DOs, and of course also under thebroader scope of Vino de la Tierra de Castillay León. With the 2011 vintage, the DOCigales, which is especially well-known for itsrosés and recently also for its reds, has nowauthorized whites and has started out with aVerdejo wine, although to date it has only 40ha (98.8 acres) registered under this variety.

Verdejo is also grown in the southern part ofthe Castilian plain, in the DO La Mancha, thelargest wine-growing region on the planetwhere the variety was authorized in the early2000s, and in DO Valdepeñas, DO Almansaand DO Manchuela. In this huge area thereare already over 3,200 ha (7,907 acres) underVerdejo, 1,700 (4,200) of them in the DO LaMancha alone.

Even the DOCa Rioja included Verdejo in thelist of new white varieties authorized forplanting within its production area in 2007.Clearly this white grape is setting trends. Butwill these areas find the right combination ofclimate, soils and terroir that nature providesin the DO Rueda?

Verdejo, a successful grapevariety that istaking off

Belondrade vineyard

it, “In well-managed vineyards,with good pruning of the greenshoots, you can get 8,000 kilosof high quality, but in the top-range wines the yield limitationshould be greater becauseconcentration is essential.”The example of Protos, one ofthe most interesting projects bya firm based in the DO Riberadel Duero and one of the fewfrom there to have built awinery in the DO Rueda, fallssomewhere in the middle. Forits young Verdejo of which750,000 bottles are produced,they work with vineyards withan average age of 18 years andyields of less than 8,000 kilosper hectare. But for ProtosVerdejo Fermentado en Barrica,of which only 5,000 bottles aremade, they harvest the grapesby hand, then select only thebest, achieving a yield of 5,500to 7,000 kilos per hectare.Belondrade works below 5,000kilos per hectare, José Parienteand Bodegas Naia at an averageof 6,000 kilos for their youngVerdejo wines. This is also thefigure for Palacio de Bornos,the first in this area to producea barrel-fermented wine. Butthey set especially demandingstandards for their Palacio deBornos Vendimia Seleccionada,a more concentrated winewhich comes from a vineyardabout 70 years old and isonly made in the best years.Production from the really old

vineyards that remain in the area istruly low. And in the universe of theOssian pre-phylloxera vines, to talkabout yields is absurd consideringthe impoverished soils in the Nievaarea and the solemn centenarianvines growing there. Moreover, Ossian is one of the fewwineries that has been workingfrom the start with native yeasts.Belondrade joined it a few yearsago, although Didier acknowledgesthat this method makes thingscomplicated because constantlaboratory monitoring is required,and the yeasts may vary from yearto year. At Marqués de Riscal, theyuse natural yeasts in their two top-range whites, Finca Montico (madein stainless steel with plenty of timeon the lees) and Limousin (cask-aged). Luis Hurtado de Amézagastresses that “The varietal profile ispurer and more original, butfermentation is more difficultbecause the native yeast populationdoes not always survive the lowtemperatures.” They have beenworking on selecting a native yeastthat would withstand coldfermentation and the result was firstapplied with the 2011 vintage.

Yeasts, barrels,vats, eggs…Yeasts are a matter of importance inthe DO Rueda. In recent years, ithas become clear that they have agreat influence on the aromatic styleof wines, leading to especiallypowerful, exotic wines that come

39

WINES

Vineyards in La Seca

40

VERDEJO

At the Marqués de Riscal winery,the aging period for Limousin hasbeen cut back to about six monthsin 600 and 800 liter barrels. Clearlythe classic Bordeaux 225 liter barrelis being ousted by larger sizes.Today Belondrade uses only 300liter barrels, and firms such asOssian and José Pariente combineseveral sizes, going to up 500 liters.“In the future, quality won’tnecessarily by given by the barrels,but I like a touch of wood inVerdejo wines,” says EulogioCalleja. He remembers that whiteshere used to be fermented inwooden tanks and he is currentlyworking with large woodencontainers. Naia, his youngestwhite, which always contained asmall percentage of barrel wine,today contains 20% of Verdejo fromwooden barrels. And the story goes on. José Parienteand Ossian are experimenting withfermentation in egg-shaped,concrete tanks holding up to 1,600liters. The sample I was invited totaste at Ossian seemed to me tooffer great purity and to be veryrespectful of the terroir and thevariety. Mariví Pariente, owner ofthe José Pariente winery, will begoing even further and this year isto launch a new wine made usingthis method. It is to be called JoséPariente Cuvée Especial, and only3,000 bottles will be produced. Oneof her favorite vineyards has beenchosen for the occasion, a vase-shaped vineyard planted 35 years

closer to the character of SauvignonBlanc. Didier Belondrade claimsthat straw and bitter notes arecharacteristic of the variety, whileLuis Hurtado de Amézaga believes“The Verdejo aroma should bereminiscent of fennel and whiteblossom and should have a grassytouch to it.”Telmo Rodríguez, one of Spain’smost internationally-renownedenologists who has projects in manydifferent parts of the world, goeseven further and claims: “Thevariety profile is an absurdity. Thegreat wines do not smell of theirvariety. Our idea is to focus on theground, on the places that allowVerdejo to best express the terroir.”After a little more than ten yearssince his arrival in the area to makea white with a good price/qualityratio (Basa, annual production of50,000 crates, 80% for export), hehas now launched his first top-range Verdejo. El Transistor reflectsa patchwork of vineyards having avery specific profile with grapes thatare vinified in a multitude ofcontainers: barrels of different agesand formats, vats (large woodentanks), stainless steel, even concreteeggs. The result in the glass isharmonious, complex and elegant.And the concept undoubtedly givesfood for thought.The Verdejo wines that are mosthighly appreciated today use thebarrel fermentation formula, butalmost all of them are now lookingfor a more subtle presence of oak.

Old vine in DO Rueda

ago in La Seca. So clearly there arestill plenty of options for workingwith the Verdejo variety and at leasta handful of wineries with drive andenergy.The real test will be to see how suchwines mature in the bottle. TelmoRodríguez says, “A wine onlybecomes good when it matures andloses its varietal character. It shouldbe able to age in the bottle for five toseven years.” Many of the Verdejowines mentioned in this article passthe test with flying colors three andeven four years later, but for mostof them it is too early to tell.I have had some excellentexperiences with six- and seven-year-old bottles of Palacio de BornosVendimia Seleccionada. DidierBelondrade, who can pride himselfwith a longer history than his

colleagues in the DO, does notmince his words, “I insist that aBelondrade can last for up to eightyears, especially in a large format.”The vertical tasting held in Madridthree years ago to commemorate hiswinery’s 15th anniversary provedhim right, affording a verypromising credential for the best ofthe Spanish Verdejo wines.

Amaya Cervera is a journalistspecializing in Spanish wines. She isformer editor-in-chief of Sibaritasmagazine and member of the GuíaPeñín’s tasting panel. She has workedfor publications such as the RobbReport and is currently a memberof the editorial staff of Todovino andof the tasting panel of La GuíaTodovino.

41

WINES

Belondrade vineyard

42 JANUARY-APRIL 2012 SPAIN GOURMETOUR


RICEand Shine

Spain has cultivated rice for well over a thousand years—in fact, ever sinceit was introduced by the Arabs (711-1492). It naturally follows that rice, moreversatile than any other staple, has been a constant in traditional Spanishcuisine. Use some garlic, tomatoes and any vegetable or legume available,and the result is a delightful poor man’s dish; use lobster or shrimp and itcan rival anything on a king’s table. Paella! many a reader will immediatelyvolunteer. Paella is still Spain’s best-known dish, yet rice and chefs havecome a long way over the past two decades. In its traditional and newlyexperimented applications, rice has been and continues to be a great sourceof inspiration. Rice makes chefs shine… and vice versa!

AuthorAnke van Wijck Adán/©ICEX

PhotosAmador Toril/©ICEX

Close to 900,000 tons of rice aregrown per year in Spain in someeight areas. Our focus here,however, will be on the three areasholding a certificate of origin,namely Protected Designation ofOrigin (PDO): Calasparra (Murcia),Valencia, and Delta del Ebro(Tarragona-Catalonia), all in easternSpain, in order from south to north.Although there is no substantialdifference, each of these areas growsthe varieties best adapted to soil

and climate. Yet less than 20% of allrice produced has PDO protection,as this covers only the traditionalvarieties and implies fullyguaranteed homogeneity andquality of each PDO-numberedpackage. Rice is deeply steeped intradition, but it is also a source ofnew inspiration. When it comes topreparation, a traditional rice dishin any of its versions is necessarilybased on local, seasonal and readilyavailable ingredients, from both apractical and gastronomicstandpoint. This also applies to amore innovative approach, asingredients and culinary procedureshave taken on an increasinglycreative edge. In Spain, rice is rarelyserved as an accompaniment but,rather, constitutes an integral partof the dish and has an importantrole in the organoleptic quality ofthe end result.

Pioneering qualityAs early as 1986, Calasparra ricewas the first cereal grain to obtain

PDO certification in Spain.Calasparra is situated inland in thenorthwestern part of Murcia, insoutheast Spain. The landscape isrugged, with haphazardly strewnpine-covered rock outcroppings,which at dusk and dawn becomeshrouded in a bluish veil meltingtogether into an almost orientalpicture. Who would ever expectthis place to also be home to a vastexpanse of rice fields? Yet the fieldsof the valley watered by the Seguraand Mundo Rivers (for manycenturies and as a result of the cool,pure mountain water and naturalcirculation system) produce widelyrecognized top-quality rice. “Onlyharvesting is becoming mechanized.The watering system and otheragricultural methods have remainedpractically unchanged since theArab era,” explains Nati Aznar, awell-known food historian, whosecomprehensive study Rice in Spain:History, Agriculture and Gastronomyis about to be published. While all rice produced in the PDO

RICE

44

PDO Calasparra

www.docalasparra.com (English, Spanish)

PDO Arroz de Valencia

www.arrozdevalencia.org (English, Spanish)

PDO Arroz del Delta del Ebro

www.do-deltadelebre.com (Catalan, Spanish)

Websites

Bahía Balilla x Sollana

areas is of the species Oryza sativaL. and subspecies Japonica, theygrow a number of differentcultivars, although the prizedBomba is common to all three.There is little doubt that Bomba isthe star of Spanish rice. Its pearlycore denotes a considerable contentof starch, which confers it a highlyabsorptive quality; however, as aresult of its hardness and specialstructure, it does not break easilyand, thus, does not become mushy.Bomba is also a more delicatevariety with a smaller yield and amore brittle plant structurerequiring careful handling. This iswhy it costs twice as much or morethan other types of round rice. Andthis is also a reason for the frequentuse of Balilla x Sollana, the otherPDO Calasparra variety selectedespecially to render a stronger plantwith a higher yield. Its grains looksimilar to Bomba and also offerexcellent absorption, but are lessresistant to stickiness and require awatchful or experienced eye so as

not to be overcooked. While Bombais only produced as white rice, JoséRuiz, director of the maincooperative Virgen de la Esperanza,explains that, in response to marketdemands, they are increasinglycommercializing biological lightbrown and whole grain Balilla xSollana, mostly for export. “Exportsof all types of Calasparra rice haveincreased considerably over the pastyear and a half,” says Ruiz, and thatincludes all five continents (imagineJapanese makis made withCalasparra Bomba!). Invited byDutch delicatessen wholesalerVanilla Venture, Ruiz and a smallteam of cooks recently gave threedays of demonstrations in TheNetherlands, attended by over 90chefs. The Murcian Institute forAgricultural and Food Research andDevelopment (IMIDA) and theUniversity of Murcia are conductingstudies to produce a crianza, oraged rice, intended to improvesome of its culinary properties. In Calasparra, at the end of the

pretty Calle Mayor, you will findHospedería Constitución, wherechef Manuela de Paco delightsclients with Murcia’s mosttraditional rice dishes (never calledpaella here, but simply rice, orarroz): arroz con pollo, arroz conconejo y caracoles, and arroz viudo. Inthis historically poor area, rice witha bit of chicken was the mostubiquitous, rabbit and snails wasreserved for Sundays, and thesimplest, “widowed rice”, wasactually made with only garlic,dried round ñora peppers, pimentón(a type of Spanish paprika) andwhite beans. They are all equallydelicious, meaning that they are fullof flavor yet light, not in the leastbecause the layer of rice isdelightfully thin and the rice isdone to perfection. For a more innovative take on ricein this area, a visit to El Olivarrestaurant in nearby Moratalla is amust. Firo Vázquez, chef-owner andone of Murcia’s few food gurus, isan expert in (among other things)

FOOD BASICS

45

Semi-whole grain Balilla x Sollana Whole grain Balilla x Sollana

creatively reinterpreting traditionalrice dishes: slightly nutty lightbrown rice and vegetables toppedwith thinly-grated broiled slivers ofcured Murcia cheese, or his savoryrice with rabbit and wildmushrooms. Whatever dish youfancy, save some room for dessert.Vázquez serves Spain’s archetypicalarroz con leche, a very light ricepudding, stuffed into tiny friedhoney-drizzled pastries. For a fewminutes you’ll be transported intoOne Thousand and One Nights.

In view of the overall success, localfirm Probicasa has jumped on thebandwagon and launched a handyproduct consisting of two cans, onecontaining the basic ingredients andbroth and a smaller one with thecorresponding 150 g (5.29 oz) ofCalasparra rice. It only requires aflat pan, additional water, some saltto taste, and 20 minutes of yourtime. You can fool anyone!

Paella Valencianaand much moreWe are now heading some 250 km(155 mi) northeast of theMediterranean shore. As opposed toCalasparra, here, after miles andmiles of the eminent Valenciaorange orchards, the landscapeflows naturally into the wetlands ofL’Albufera, a nature reserve justsouth of the capital city of Valencia,where the famous rice from Valenciais grown and which is widelyrecognized as the cradle of paella. There is little doubt that paellaValenciana is the paradigmaticSpanish dish. The fact that it hasoften been misused both here andabroad and has not always lived upto expectations is no secret. This iswhy a group of concerned chefsand restaurant owners from theregion of Valencia, headed by

RICE

46

Look for the Paella ValencianaTradicional con DOP Arroz de Valenciaseal. Ingredients for this regulatedpaella may vary with location andseason, yet ten ingredients should becommon to all of them: olive oil,chicken, rabbit, fresh ripe tomatoes,ferraura and garrafó (local flat greenbeans and large flat white beans,respectively), water, salt, saffron and, ofcourse, PDO Valencia rice. There are anumber of accepted regional andseasonal variations, such as duck inL’Albufera area, PDO artichokes fromBenicarló, tavella (another typical beanvariety), vaquetas (mountain snails),pimentón (a type of paprika fromSpain), garlic, and fresh rosemary. Youwill most likely not have access to citruswood to build a fire, but that shouldn’tkeep you from trying.

And the realpaella is ….

Bahía

Balilla x Sollana

Semi-whole grain Balilla x Sollana

Whole grain Balilla x Sollana

Bomba

Rafael Vidal, owner of thelegendary Restaurante Levante (inBenisanó) and backed by suchgastronomic celebrities as Adrià,Arzak, Ruscalleda and Subijana,took the initiative to regulate thisemblematic dish and to apply forthe corresponding qualitycertificate to be registered underthe auspices of PDO Arroz deValencia. It is expected to begranted in 2012. Now anyone whowants to put paella Valenciana ontheir menu will have to complywith a number of requisites (seeinsert, p. 46). Santos Ruiz, manager of the PDOArroz de Valencia RegulatoryCouncil in Sueca (home to theannual International PaellaContest), is clear: “We only growtradition-related varieties.” BesidesBomba, PDO Arroz de Valenciaprotects two other prevalentvarieties: the very similar Bahía andSenia, which also offer a higheryield and are thus less expensive,but are also less resistant toovercooking. However, thanks toongoing research, a newly varietycalled Albufera was recentlyincorporated. It offers thecreaminess of the Bahia and Senia,but with a resistance similar to thatof Bomba. It has already createdaddiction among a number of chefs.

Yet, according to Ruiz, the increasein the use of Bomba has beenphenomenal in both the domesticand restaurant channels. “There aremore and more foodies who, unlikemany home cooks, are lessconcerned about price,” heexplains, and “Chefs, especially inlarger-scale operations, are even lessconcerned about price, so Bomba istheir best bet for a good result.”This also applies to exports. Theproduction of whole grain rice hereis anecdotal. Says Ruiz: “It’s just notpart of the tradition.”What is a tradition is to have paellaat Malvarosa, the gorgeous beach inValencia’s port area, which is lined

47

Gleva

Montsianell

Senia

Tebre

Tebre Senia

with some 20 lively beachrestaurants, perhaps after a visit tothe nearby rice museum. Next to theposh Las Arenas Hotel is La Rosa,one of the original eateries, datingback to 1925. In an open kitchen ona huge charcoal-fuelled cast-ironstove, Julio Saura prepares hiswidely-varying paellas, which arefinished off with a two-minute flashin the oven, and several versions ofhearty arroz caldoso (soupy rice)and arroz meloso (brothy rice). Ofcourse, here the emphasis is entirelyon fish, which comes in directlyfrom the auction (lonja), just astone’s throw away and well worth avisit at 5 in the afternoon, when

boats enter the harbor to drop offtheir precious loads. Today Valencia is an exciting eclecticcity that should be on any Spain-lover’s itinerary. It successfullycombines tradition with up-to-datetechnology, architecture, andculture, and a delightful and variedgastronomy. A place not to bemissed is Riff, a small and pleasantone-Michelin-star restaurant, run bychef Bernd Knöller. You guessed it,Knöller is German. Trained in theBlack Forest and Italy, he came toValencia almost 20 years ago for avisit and decided to stay. “I don’thave Valencian roots, so I had towork especially hard,” he explains.

“But this cuisine has grown on me;95% of my ingredients are fromhere.” Rice has a strong presence onthe menu. After crispy Bomba andseaweed chips, Knöller seduces youwith seemingly simple but clearlycomplex dishes such as brothyAlbufera rice with Delta oysters; thetraditional arroz “brut” (dirty rice)done his way, with a gradualincorporation of extra virgin oliveoil from Gaudiel and dusted withpowder of dehydrated cuttlefishintestine; rice and vegetables withtransparent fresh Ibérico bacon; andfowl rice with shavings of blacktruffle from Sarrión. As said, not tobe missed!

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48

Belongingto the landSome 200 km (124 mi) further upnorth, in the province of Tarragona,where Spain’s largest river, the Ebro,releases its generous flow into theMediterranean, we find the Deltadel Ebro and its homonymousnature reserve, yet anotherecosystem surviving thanks torice culture. “Rice fields areessential to the conservation andsurvival of these wetlands,” saysIgnasi Ripoll, who heads anexperimental ecological rice farmfor SEO/Birdlife (the Spanishassociation for ornithology) named

Riet Vell, partly financed with thesale of organic rice.PDO Arroz del Delta del Ebro alsoprotects a number of varieties(Bahia, Bomba, Fonsa, Gleva,Montsianell, Senia and Tebre).Teresa Moya, secretary of the PDO’sRegulatory Council, says thatbesides the cherished Bomba, onthe market we will find theexcellent yet lower priced 100%Gleva Extra, mainly produced onthe left bank of the Ebro River andcommercialized by Arrossaires delDelta, and 100% Montsianell Extra,produced on the right bank andcommercialized by Cámara Arroceradel Montsiá. As regards the growing

consumption of rice and itsderivatives, Moya stresses one of itsrelevant characteristics: As opposedto other cereals, rice is gluten-free.Angelina Sancho, the young andhighly motivated export managerof Arrossaires, notes that some 17%of their production is exported,primarily to Eastern Europe andthe Middle East. And Spanish riceis going even more global: she ispreparing for a trade mission toWest Africa. Just a few kilometers from here liesMas Prades, a typical whitewashedbuilding recently refurbished into asmall hotel and restaurant, wherechef Marc Curto is in charge of the

FOOD BASICS

49

Gleva Montsianell

Right where the rice fields meet theMediterranean lies L’Ampolla, the so-called “Door to the Delta”. Althoughit is very popular with tourists, it isstill a fishing village and daily freshcatches supply the local restaurants,like Restaurante Sol. Here, on thefirst floor, overlooking the silvery seawith the Delta shoreline in thedistance, Mari Tere runs the frontroom and her daughter Teima, as hermother and grandmother did before,has taken over the kitchen. Amongtheir traditional dishes such as thefabulous arroz negro (black rice madewith fish ink), she prepares arrossejatto perfection, a typical fisherman’sdish made onboard. It consists of

RICE

50

kitchen. He is especially interestedin retrieving old recipes and givingthem new life through differenttextures and presentations. Proof ofthis is his delicious brothy rice withgaleras (a local type of crayfish) andlocally-grown artichokes, and histimbale of baldana (rice-stuffedblood sausage). Obviously Curto is astaunch believer in the relevance ofthe Slow Food concept and has, ofcourse, applied for membership.“We have the sea, the river,mountains, orchards and vegetablegardens right here, so why lookanywhere else?” he says. Ana andher brother Luis run GranjaLuisiana, a duck farm supplying

Marc with duck and foie; one ofMarc’s associates supplies fish andshellfish, especially the famousDelta ostrón (a gnarly-shaped butdelicious local oyster); he getsfreshly-smoked local eel from thefirm Roset; and the traditionalbaldana, made fresh every Thursday,comes from Del Paulo, the family’sbutcher. They are the newgeneration which continues tobelong to the land, yet theirpossibilities to stay in business andgrow have increased considerablythanks to the internet. Facebook,Twitter, blogs, you name it: theyare all proficiently using socialmedia to boost business.

The challenge for probably any home orprofessional cook is to use the correctproportion of rice/liquid. Whatever theintended end result: dry (like paella), brothy(meloso), soupy (caldoso), oven-baked (alhorno), or crusty (con costra), its qualitydepends on the right equation between thedesired absorption of flavors and finalconsistency. Not an easy task, especiallywhen Santos Ruiz, an accomplished cookand consultant himself, points out (orrather, warns) that water reacts differentlyaccording to geological height, climate,

atmospheric pressure, the specific heatsource (wood, gas, oven, etc.) andintensity used, the type of recipient, itsseparation from the heat source, and thetype of rice. Some of these factors youcannot control and others you can, even toyour benefit.

Here are some basic indications:

- Bomba: approx. 3 parts warm liquid(water or broth) to one part rice, with acooking time of approximately 20 minutes

- All other varieties mentioned: approx.

2.5 parts warm liquid to one part rice, witha cooking time of 17/18 minutes

- It is generally recommended that onceremoved from its heat source, rice shouldbe allowed to stand for 2 to 5 minutes,depending on its final consistency.

- Needless to say that rice kernels,especially of the Japonica varieties, swellto twice and even thrice their original sizeduring the process, so the initial layer ofrice should be very thin. “Each kernelneeds its space to soak up the flavors,”says Teima from Restaurante Sol.

Facts and figures

first boiling a piece of any type offish together with potatoes, whichis then drizzled with a subtle picadaof roasted almonds, garlic, olive oil,pimentón and a drop of vinegar;meanwhile, the broth is used toprepare the rice. The term arrossejatmeans lightly frying the rice in asimple sofrito of onion, garlic andsaffron until it takes on a goldencolor. Then the broth is added.You will hardly be able to wait forthat golden paella to be put onyour table.

Your turn nowOwing to the fact that Spain, overthe past two decades, has gained and

consolidated a leading position onthe world’s gastronomic hit list,wholesalers and retailers specializedin Spanish food products can nowbe found in most majormetropolitan areas worldwide,generally with their businessesonline and with a wide range ofspecialties, including differentvarieties of Spanish rice (oftenpresented in pretty cloth sacks). Butas much as you may “shine” in yourpreparation of an excellent arroz,nothing is quite the same as comingto Spain to see and taste for yourself.There’s no better time to come thanin May, when the flooded fieldsmirror the bright blue skies, and in

June, when markets are chockfullwith tender greens and other freshproducts. So from now onwhenever you think “paella”, alsothink “arroz”.

Anke van Wijck Adán is a sociologistand has a Master’s degree ingastronomy from Boston University.Her articles have appeared in TheBoston Globe.

Visit our websitewww.foodsfromspain.com, in whoseProducts & Recipes section you’llfind comprehensive informationabout Spanish products and routesabout Spanish rice.

51

Bomba

53

FOOD BASICS*For a more in-depth look at the chef, see Close-up

BAKED RICEIn old farmhouses in this part ofSpain, the oven used to be lit justonce a week and used non-stop tomake bread, roasts, rice, and cakes,and even preserves, using the latentheat as the oven cooled down. Thereis no single recipe for baked rice.Recipes vary depending on where inthe Valencia province they comefrom. In some places, a beaten egg isadded towards the end of thecooking process to make what isknown as arroz en costra, rice with acrust.

SERVES 10For the stock: 1.5 kg / 3 lb 5 oz pork ribs;

4 pigs’ trotters; 2 pig’s ears; 400 g / 14 oz

turnips; 300 g / 10 1/2 oz chickpeas (soaked

overnight).

For the garnish: 3 onion-flavored butifarra

sausages; 700 g / 1 1/2 lb pork ribs; 10 pigs’

trotters; bay leaf; pepper; salt.

For the rice: 2 l / 8 1/2 cup olive oil; 1 head

garlic; 250 g / 9 oz potatoes, sliced; 200 g /

7 oz tomatoes, sliced; 250 g / 9 oz turnips,

cut in pieces; 900 g / 2 lb Balilla x Sollana rice,

from PDO Calasparra.

StockTie the chickpeas in a net, thenplace in a pan with all theingredients. Cover with water, bringto a boil and simmer gently for 90minutes. Strain and set aside. Alsoset aside the chickpeas.

GarnishCut the butifarra sausage into slicesand set aside. Pack the pork ribs invacuum packs and cook at 65ºC /149ºF for 14 hours. Remove fromthe pack, bone and set aside. Cookthe pigs’ trotters with the bay leaf,pepper and salt. Bone, and transferto a rectangular mold.

Rice sofritoPour the olive oil into anearthenware dish and it in fry thegarlic, potato, turnip and tomato.Remove the ingredients, then gentlyfry the rice. When well coated withoil, return the other ingredients tothe pan, including the cookedchickpeas. Then add twice theamount of stock as rice and bake in

the oven at 185ºC / 365ºF for 23minutes. After 15 minutes in theoven, add the pork ribs, trotters andlightly grilled butifarra sausageslices.

To serveServe the baked rice in theearthenware dish in which it wascooked. For individual servings orsmall portions, small cast iron panscan be used.

Cooking time15 hours 20 minutes

Preparation time20 minutes

Recommended wineFinca Terrerazo 2009, by BodegaMustiguillo (Vino de la Tierra ElTerrerazo). The winemaker, ToniSarrión, brings out the great qualitiesof the Bobal variety in this wine. Theresult is powerful and structured.After 18 months in French oak, itoffers fleshy, smooth tannins and anelegant, balanced finish.

The wines were chosen byJulio Biosca, maitre d’ andsommelier at JulioRestaurant

Photos recipesToya Legido/©ICEXand Tomás Zarza/©ICEX

TraslationJenny McDonald/©ICEX

José LuisUngidos*

(Arroz al horno)

55

FOOD BASICS

In inland Valencia, farmhouse diets inwinter were based on the products ofthe pig slaughter and homegrownvegetables. This typical recipe forsoupy rice combines pork withartichoke stalks.

SERVES 10For the stock: 150 g / 2/3 cups extra virgin

olive oil; 150 g / 5 1/2 oz pork fillet or rib;

125 g / 4 1/2 oz peppery milk-cap (Lactarius

piperatus) mushrooms; 15 saffron threads;

25 g / 1 oz tomato flour; 75 g / 3 oz dried

tomato; 300 g / 10 1/2 oz turnip; 600 g / 1 lb

5 oz artichoke stalks; 225 g / 8 oz pigs’

trotters; 550 g / 1 lb 4 oz white beans (soaked

overnight). This makes about 7 l / 29 1/2 cups

of stock.

Others: 700 g / 1 1/2 lb pork ribs; 700 g / 1

1/2 lb pork dewlap; 10 pigs’ trotters; Maldon

salt; 700 g / 1 1/2 lb Senia rice, from PDO

Arroz de Valencia; bay leaf; pepper; salt.

When serving: 70 g / 2 1/2 oz red pine

(Lactarius deliosus) mushrooms; 20 g / 1 oz

dried tomato; 4 saffron threads; 75 g / 3 oz

turnip, diced; 125 g / 4 1/2 oz artichoke

stalks, diced; salt.

Tomato flourBlanch tomatoes, peel and dry theskin at 70ºC / 158ºF. Whencompletely dehydrated, crush to apowder.

Dried tomatoTake the peeled tomatoes used tomake the tomato flour. Cut the fleshinto quarters and dehydrate at 70ºC /158ºF on non-stick paper.

StockFry the pork fillet or ribs in the oliveoil until golden brown, then removefrom the heat. Place the pork in apan and add the mushrooms,saffron, tomato flour, dried tomato,turnip, artichoke stems, pigs’ trottersand beans (in a net). Cover withwater, bring to a boil and simmerover low heat to make sure the stockremains clear. Strain and set aside.

Pre-cooked riceFor each l / 4 1/4 cups of stock, add125 g / 4 1/2 oz of rice and precookfor 8 minutes. Strain and cool therice as fast as possible. Transfer therice to an airtight container and setaside for a maximum of 48 hours.

Pigs’ trottersCook the pigs’ trotters with the bayleaf, pepper and salt. Bone andplace in a rectangular mold. Cutinto 10 pieces and set aside.

Pork ribs and dewlapPlace the ribs and dewlap invacuum packs and cook at 65ºC /149ºF for 14 hours. Remove, boneand cut the rind off the dewlap.Cut 10 pieces of rib and 10 ofdewlap. Set aside.

RiceSauté the mushrooms, driedtomato and saffron threads, thenadd some of the stock and bring toa boil. Add the turnip and pieces ofartichoke stalk and bring to a boilagain. Add the rice and boil for 4

Rice with artichoke stalks or

minutes, adding boiling stockoccasionally (as with risotto) tomake a soupy rice. Salt to taste.

To serveServe the rice in a soup dish andtop each dish with a piece oftrotter, dewlap and rib andsprinkle with a little Maldon salt.

Cooking time17 hours


Recommended wineUno 2009 (DO Valencia), by theRafael Cambra winery. This redwine, made from Monastrell grapesand aged for 14 months, combinesto perfection the characteristics ofthe grapes, the terroir and theMediterranean climate. Its color,structure and flavor result in bothstrength and fruitiness, making itthe ideal companion for this soupyrice.

SOUPY RICE(Arròz amb penques o arroz caldoso)

56

RICE

Two classic dishes from the Valencia

region are arròs del senyoret (rice

cooked with boned and shelled fish

and shellfish) and arroz a banda (rice

cooked with a medley of fish). We

have taken our inspiration from

these two traditional recipes to create

a dish with a modern touch, such as

squid ink ice cream.

SERVES 10 For the stock: extra virgin olive oil; 2 onions;

4 carrots; 2 leeks; 3 kg / 6 1/2 lb mixed fish;

4 l / 17 cup water.

For the sofrito: 1.5 l / 6 1/2 cup olive oil;

3 cloves garlic, grated; 75 g / 3 oz ñora

pepper; 50 g / 2 oz red pimentón (a type of

Spanish paprika); 10 saffron threads; 350 g /

12 oz grated tomato.

For the squid and cuttlefish ink ice cream:

1 onion; 1 green pepper; 1 clove garlic;

300 g / 10 1/2 oz squid and cuttlefish

trimmings; squid and cuttlefish ink to taste

(the ice cream should be totally black); 1.5 l /

6 1/2 cup red wine; 1.5 l / 6 1/2 cup cuttlefish

and squid stock.

For the rice: 250 g / 9 oz extra virgin olive oil;

250 g / 9 oz fresh cuttlefish, diced; 250 g /

9 oz fresh squid tentacles, diced; 150 g /

5 1/2 oz shrimp tails, peeled; 150 g / 5 1/2 oz

Mediterranean mussels, shelled; 900 g / 2 lb

Bomba rice, from PDO Arroz del Delta del

Ebro.

Others: 250 g / 9 oz fresh squid rolled up to

be cut into thin strips like tagliarini; 10 red

shrimp; rock salt.

StockSauté the vegetables until golden.Add the mixed fish and cover withwater. Simmer lightly for about 20minutes. Strain and set aside.

Sofrito Heat the oil and gently fry the garlic,then add the chopped ñora pepper,pimentón and threads of saffron.Cook for 2 minutes over very gentleheat and add the grated tomato.Cook for 15 minutes over low heat.

Cuttlefish and squid inkice creamBrunoise the onion and greenpepper. Gently sauté the onion,pepper and garlic, add the cuttlefishand squid trimmings, deglaze withred wine and reduce to boil off asmuch alcohol as possible. Addcuttlefish and squid stock to cover.Simmer gently for about 20 minutes,then add the ink, skimmingconstantly. Salt to taste and transferto Pacojet containers. When frozen,blend until creamy.

RiceSauté the fresh cuttlefish and squidtentacles. Add the rice and cook overmedium heat. Add the sofrito andthe boiling stock (1 part rice to 2parts stock), stir for the first 5minutes, then leave to cook foranother 15 minutes without stirring.At minute 18 add the shrimp tailsand mussels.

To cook the red shrimp, place on thehot grill on a layer of rock salt. (Amedium-sized shrimp will take about4 minutes on each side to cook).

To serveTransfer the rice to a rectangularmold, leaving it loose, withoutpressing. Top with squid strips andthe shrimp and, just before serving,the ink ice cream. Decorate with alittle tomato flour.

Preparation time1 hour 15 minutes

Recommended wineTrio Infernal Nº 0/3 2010 (DOCaPriorat), by Combier Fischer Gerin.This interesting white wine, madefrom Garnacha Blanca and Macabeograpes grown on vines over 40 yearsold, is intensely aromatic. In themouth, it indicates a perfectcombination of ageing—12 monthsin French oak—with mineral touchesfrom a slatey soil. This warm,Mediterranean wine makes a greatpartner for this fish dish.

DRY RICE with fish and shellfish

(Arroz seco de pescado y mariscos)

CRUSTUpper

Bread may be the staff of life in Spain, but it hasn’t always been valued as a finefood—until now. Really good bread is on the rise, says Paul Richardson.

The Welcome Return of Traditional Spanish Bread

TEXTPAUL RICHARDSON/©ICEX

PHOTOSAMADOR TORIL/©ICEX

BREAD

61

Bread is the cornerstone of theWestern diet. For centuries, in thepopular consciousness, “bread” hasmeant practically the same thing as“food”. Hardly surprising, sincebread, plus a little of somethingelse, was essentially what thepopulation lived on. Bread’s centrality in Spanish cultureis evident even in the Spanishlanguage. Dozens of sayings,expressions, and rhymes featurebread in some way or other,revealing its privileged place inpopular culture. More than 150bread-based sayings have beencounted, throwing a fascinatinglight on the idiosyncrasies ofSpanish food and life. The importance of bread in thehistory of Spanish eating is alsoreflected in its use as an ingredientin the national cuisine. Cookingwith bread represents almost aculinary subgenre in itself: considerthe hearty soups and stewsemploying day-old bread (gazpacho,a cold soup made with tomato,sweet bell pepper, cucumber andbread, and flavored with garlic andvinegar, is the most obviousexample, with sopes mallorquines, avegetable soup poured over thinlysliced dry bread, and the pan-Spanish sopa de ajo, garlic soup, notfar behind); migas (crumbling day-old bread, moistened with waterand then gently simmered with oilor lard and a variety of sweet orsavory accompaniments), which arehugely popular in much of ruralSpain; and the use of bread as a

thickener for sauces, especially inCatalan cuisine, to say nothing ofbread-based desserts like torrijas(bread soaked in milk, dipped inegg and fried in olive oil, thensweetened with sugar or honey andoften spiced with cinnamon).Visitors often comment on thevisibility of bread on Spanish tablesand bar-tops and the common sightof diners clutching a piece of breadin one hand while eating with theother. In this, as in other aspects ofSpanish food, however, appearancescan be deceiving. Spain has had anawkward relationship with bread.Once upon a time Spain was one ofEurope’s greediest consumers: in1964, annual consumption was 134kg (295.4 lb) per head ofpopulation. By 2009, that figurehad fallen to 40 kg (88 lb) perperson per year, making Spain theleast enthusiastic bread consumer inthe EU. The reasoning behind thisis a complex question having to dowith changing lifestyles and thecommon (if erroneous) perceptionthat bread is fattening. Where forcenturies, eating large quantities ofbread was, in part, a dietarycompensation for the lack of otherfoodstuffs, nowadays bread is moreoften seen simply as a vehicle forother, more appetizing andluxurious ingredients. Bread has, then, lost its poleposition in the national foodculture. At the same time, thegastronomic quality of the producthas tended to decline. Much of thebread consumed today is an

industrial product, highlyprocessed, with little interest interms of flavor or texture. (Theadvent of pre-cooked bread, soldfrozen, has enabled “fresh baked”bread to be sold in establishmentswith no experience of baking, likeconvenience stores and gasstations). At the same time,however, traditional varieties haveclung to life and the number of“speciality breads” in a myriadshapes and sizes has grownexponentially. Bread in Spain haslost its humble status: it has movedup in the world, and seemsdetermined to make a success ofitself in the privileged world ofgourmet food.

Use your loafAttitudes are changing. Afterdecades in which it was generallyundervalued, bread is at last makinga comeback, this time as a gourmetproduct with rich gastronomicpotential. To give one example ofthis trend at its highest level, theinfluential food conference MadridFusión has for the last two years(2011 and 2012) reserved a sectionof its program for bread—notably asa basic element of the restaurantexperience. The consensus at thisyear’s event seemed to be thatrestaurants in Spain are at lastwaking up to the possibilitiesoffered by artisan bread, and chefsincreasingly choose either to maketheir own bread or depend on theservices of a trusted master baker.

FOOD BASICS

Bread from Neda (previous page).Pa moreno de blat xeixa (right).

Pages 58-59, from top to bottom and leftto right: bread from Alfacar, bread fromValladolid (lechuguino), bread from Neda,bread from Alfacar (rosca, barra pequeñaand hogaza), bread from Cea, pa de pagès català (peasant bread) and pa moreno de blat xeixa (brown breadmade with xeixa flour).

Chefs Oriol Rovira of Els Casals(1 Michelin star), Jordi Roca of ElCeller de Can Roca (3 Michelinstars) and star baker Anna Bellsolà(Baluard Barceloneta Bakery), allagreed that breads offered inrestaurants could and should bemuch more carefully matched withthe menu in question, for everydish has its corresponding breadvariety. A year earlier, theconference hosted a fascinatingworkshop held by Daniel Jordà,who belongs to the third generationof a family of bakers based inBarcelona since 1927. Jordà, aleading light in Spain’s incipientbread revolution, says his mission isto “bring about a new focus in thebaking sector, getting rid of thetedious, boring and irrelevant imagethat bread has acquired in the lastfew years and giving back itsdignity and quality.” At his bakery,La Trinidad, Jordà is bringing backtraditional recipes for long-fermented sourdough breads as wellas introducing innovations likeolive breads and original panes deautor (signature breads) featuringunusual combinations like whitechocolate and strawberry, wasabi,melon, and Ibérico products.Before we look to the future,however, we need to rediscover theroots. In terms of traditional breads,there is no doubt that Spainpossesses a wide variety. Andregional characteristics in bread canstill be discerned, if we look hardenough. Castile (central Spain) is,historically, the heartland of candeal

bread. The term refers to the varietyof wheat also called candeal, whichhas a low moisture content and lessgluten than usual. The dough forcandeal bread was commonlystretched and folded (a techniquecalled refinado in Spanish) insteadof kneaded and only allowed to riseonce, producing a dense, compactloaf with a thick, golden crust.Candeal bread was, and is, highlyappreciated above all in theprovinces of Zamora and Valladolid,where it originated, but is also foundin Extremadura, Andalusia andCastile-La Mancha.(Madridtienemiga, a fascinatingbreadmakers’ blog, recommends thetraditional pan candeal still made byLa Mari at her bakery in the town ofRuidera, in central-southern Spain,close to the beautiful freshwaterlagoons of Ruidera.) Other traditional breads of thecandeal type are the bollo sevillano,the telera of Córdoba, and thefamous panes de Valladolid (breadsfrom Valladolid). The latter have adistinguished history. Made sincethe 9th century, they were muchenjoyed by the Emperor Charles Iof Spain and V of Germany (1500-1558), who took the recipe withhim from Valladolid (northwestSpain) to his monastic retreat inLa Vera (southwest Spain). The bestknown of these classic Valladolidcandeal breads is the lechuguino, socalled in reference to the concentriccircles sometimes traced on itscrust, giving it the appearance of aflower or lettuce. The loaf is round,

flat, with four or five raised edgesforming a square or pentagonaround its surface, and has a matte,smooth, golden crust. Lechuguino has, as yet, no officialprotection as a traditional product,which is not true of anotherimportant Spanish candeal bread,the Pan de Cruz de Ciudad Real.This exceptional bread was only thesecond in Spain to receive (in 2009)the coveted Protected GeographicalIndication (PGI) Pan de Cruz deCiudad Real. Its roots lie in the 13th

century, when the area aroundAlmagro and Manzanares (bothcities in central-southern Spain)was dominated by the religious andmilitary order of Calatrava (foundedin 1158). In those days, and untilrelatively recently, the province ofCiudad Real was a major producerof cereals including candeal wheat,and the Pan de Cruz has a closehistorical relationship withManchego cuisine.The migas, tostas (a single slice ofbread with one or more food itemson top) and picatostes (slices ofbread from loaves fried with lard orolive oil and usually sweetened withgranules of refined sugar on theoutside) are all ideally made with it,and the Guiso de las Bodas deCamacho, a dish inspired by thewedding scene in Cervantes’ DonQuixote (the novel written byMiguel de Cervantes in the early17th century), classically includesrounds of fried Pan de Cruz as partof its rich melange of chicken,onion, egg yolks and white wine.

BREAD

62

Bread from Valladolid (lechuguino) Peasant bread Bread from Cea

Shaped in a compact, rounded loaf,

the Pan de Cruz de Ciudad Real is

immediately recognizable by the

cross-shaped incision across its

rounded exterior and the mark of a

C (deriving from the Order of

Calatrava) pricked onto its base.

Cut into the chestnut-colored crust,

and the crumb is dense, soft and

consistent, with no holes, this

compactness of texture being

explained in part by the low

humidity of the air in this part of

La Mancha. According to the

Regulatory Council of the PGI, an

unopened loaf of Pan de Cruz

should keep in good condition for

up to a week.

Francisco Tejero, a bakery

consultant based in Madrid (and

crowned world champion of artisan

bread in Paris in 1992) says this

bread variety was once hugely

popular, then declined during the

20th century, and is now once

again highly valued by the gourmets

of Ciudad Real.

Against the grainRaising one’s appreciation oftraditional breads often follows aparticular personal learning curve. Imyself have a clear memory of thefirst time I realized there was moreto Spanish bread than theubiquitous barra de pan (thestandard long white loaf found inshops and supermarkets). I wasdriving through Galicia, in thenorthwest of the country, when Istumbled on a place with areputation for some of the mostdelicious “craft” breads in Spain. Iscreeched to a halt at the firstbakery I came to in the municipalityof San Cristóbal de Cea andsnapped up a loaf, nibbling almosthalf of it before I got to Orense. Thefame of the pan de Cea (which hasbeen made in something like itscurrent form for the last 700 yearsin Carballiño county) precedes itsdistinction as the first Spanish breadto receive the PGI, five years beforethe Pan de Cruz de Ciudad Real. Inshape, Cea bread is bulbous and

slightly elongated, with a thick,dark, chewy crust, often bearing adeep cut which opens wide in theoven giving the loaf acharacteristically disjointed aspect.Like many of the world’s bestbreads, pan de Cea is made usingmother dough (masa madre),implying that fermentation is set inmotion not by fresh yeast but byusing dough from a previous batch,creating a continuum that stretchesback for years, if not generations. Some other good breads, it mightbe argued, are easier to find inGalicia than in any other part ofSpain, and Galician people arefussier than most about thestandard of their daily loaf. Notablebreads found in this region includethe bola (Santiago de Compostelaand La Coruña), bola de Porriño(Pontevedra), cornecho (Santiago deCompostela), pan de Ousá (Lugo)and pan de Carballo (La Coruña),not forgetting the extraordinaryborona or broa, a dense maize breadof great antiquity and an object of

63

Bread from Valladolid (lechuguino)

great affection among olderGalicians. Even among thisgenerally promising panorama,however, there are especially highpoints. A close relative of Cea,though distant as the crow flies, isNeda. This small town in thenorthern province of La Coruña is,like Cea, an unabashed flag-waverfor the culture of good bread. Though Neda bread cannot boastPGI status, it has long been thefocus of an exaltation, the Galicianterm for a gastronomic fiesta inhomage to a valued local product.Since 1989 the Festa do Pan takesplace on the first Sunday inSeptember, with feasts and tastingsof the famous bread as well as thelocal empanadas (dough filled withmeat, fish or vegetables and ovenbaked) and panes de huevo (sponge

mixture of strong flour and flourmade from varieties of local cereals(wheat and/or rye, though theaddition of rye is preferable for itsdeep, toasty flavor), with plenty ofhumidity in the dough to ensure itsopen, chewy texture and deliciouslycrisp, crunchy crust. Regional specialties in traditionalbaking can provide some of thenicest surprises in any gastronomictour of Spain, especially in thesouth, in Andalusia. The mollete,a soft, flat wheat flour bun fromthe town of Antequera (Málaga) isnow found over a wide area ofAndalusia and beyond, making ita popular choice for everythingfrom breakfast pan tumaca (toastedcountry bread rubbed with garlicand ripe tomato and dressed witha pinch of salt and extra virgin olive

BREAD

64

Pan de Alfacarwww.pandealfacar.es (Spanish)

Pan de Ceawww.pandecea.org (Galician, Spanish)

Pan de Cruz de Ciudad Realwww.turismocastillalamancha.com/restaurantes/denominaciones-de-ori-gen/igp-pan-de-cruz/ (Chinese, English, French, Spanish)

Pa de Pagès Català (peasant bread)www20.gencat.cat/docs/DAR/DE_De-partament/DE03_Normativa/DE03_05_Informacio_publica/2010/Documents/Fitxers_estatics/2010_plec_condicions_igp_pa_pages_cas.pdf (Spanish)

Pan de Valladolidwww.pandevalladolid.es (English, Spanish)

Websites

Bread from Neda

cake). The town recentlyinaugurated the Ruta del Pan deNeda (Neda Bread Route), anitinerary taking in the old flourmills on the Belelle River (historicalfocus of bread production in thetown), a guided visit to one of thetown’s 20 bakeries, and a tasting oflocal breads and empanadas. Animportant stop on the tour is theCentro de Actividades Motus,located in a restored stone-grindingwatermill on the banks of the river,one of 20-odd mills, some of whichwere still functioning until 1950.This old stone building is now aninteractive museum where visitorslearn about the arts of maize andwheat cultivation, flour milling andtraditional breadmaking. As for thebread itself, like all proper Galicianbreads, this one is made from a

FOOD BASICS

oil) to the best of all possible hambocadillos (sub sandwiches). The Andalusians love their typicalbreads, and none more so than Pande Alfacar, hailing from the smalltown of Alfacar, outside Granada.For centuries, at least since the Arabera (711-1492) and possibly earlier,the town has been a byword in theprovince of Granada for theexceptional quality of its bread,which is a mother dough type usingwheat flour and local water fromthe springs in the village (this waterbeing often cited as the key factor).With no less than 60 bakeries inAlfacar and neighboring Víznar,local bread is very much a goingconcern—especially since Alfacarbread was singled out last year as

the latest Spanish bread to be a

candidate for PGI. The Pan de

Alfacar logo now appears in the

windows of all good bakeries in

Granada and the bread is offered on

the tables of the city’s most

prestigious restaurants and tapas

bars. But the best place to buy

Alfacar bread, many Granadinos

will tell you, is the little kiosk in

Granada’s Plaza Mariana Pineda.

Join the queue of locals eager for

their Alfacar loaves, crisp regañás

(very thin, flat, crunchy rectangular

crackers) and saladillas, an oil-rich

flatbread reminiscent of Italian

focaccia, sprinkled with salt flakes

and practically addictive, and also

one of Granada’s best inventions.

Dark andhandsome?Spanish attitudes to bread arelargely determined by the recenthistory of the country. Historically,white bread, made from fine wheatflour from which the bran had beenremoved, was the food of the well-off urban classes. The bread of therural poor was generally darker,denser, and sometimes made fromrye, especially in non-wheat-growing areas. The result was thateaters of dark bread came to despiseit and long for the fine texture andmild flavor of white bread. As soonas white bread became widelyavailable, the chewy and strong-flavored dark breads of the pastnaturally fell out of favor. In myadopted village in Extremadura,anything other than the soft-centered modern-style white breads(often made with Canadian flourtreated with whitening agents, anti-caking agents and other“improvers”) is disparaged by myneighbors as “bread only goodenough for dogs”.Meanwhile a sea change isunderway. The organic movementin Spain champions local grainvarieties, whole meal flours and thereturn to cereals like rye, spelt andbuckwheat. City-dwellers movinginto the country, constituting whatis known as the “neo-rural”movement, have begun to demanddenser, darker breads, rejecting thepappy white barras popular withrural locals. The wheel has therefore

65

Bread from Cea

come full circle. Artisanbreadmakers are springing up bothin the major cities and in the ruralcontext, providing mother dough,sourdough and rye breads to a newgeneration of Spanish breadconsumers. Real-bread initiativesare popping up in the mostsurprising places: I recentlydiscovered the fabulous Pa Morenode Blat Xeixa (a product of the Arkof Taste of the Slow Foodmovement, Spain Gourmetour No.82), a bread from Majorca madewith the ancient local wheat varietyxeixa by Tomeu Morro andBiancamaria Riso in their artisanbakery outside Pollença (Majorca,in the Mediterranean Sea). Among the cities, Barcelona(Catalonia, northeast Spain) leadsthe way. Barcelona-Reykjavik,founded by an Icelander and aCatalan, has built up a loyalfollowing in the trendyneighborhoods of the city centerwith its fabulous sourdough breadsin the Scandinavian style, whilebaker Anna Bellsolà has foundsuccess with the wood-fired ovenand stone-ground organic flours sheuses in her new-wave BaluardBarceloneta Bakery. Meantime, old-fashioned Barcelona flequers(bakeries, in Catalan) like Turris(presided over by star baker XavierBarriga), Fortino, Forn Boix andthe aforementioned La Trinidadhave consolidated their range of

rustic and multigrain breads,adding such novelties like olive andmaize bread, organic and wholemeal breads, cocas and muffins tokeep up with increasing demand.While on the subject of Catalonia, itwould be a shame to conclude thisbrief overview of traditional Spanishbreads without mentioning Pa dePagès Català. The name, meaning“peasant bread” sounds vague, butthe bread in question is highlydistinctive: it’s a big brown wheel ofa loaf, of the shape generally knownin Spain as hogaza (mass of breadwhich is shaped into a roundedform and baked in one piece). Theflour used is wheat, the crust ishard and crunchy, the interiorcompact yet relatively moist, with apronounced toasty flavor and anagreeable acidity on the palate. Foryears it seemed an anomaly thatsuch a well-loved and keenly-consumed bread as Pa de Pagès(toasted over a wood fire andrubbed with olive oil and tomato itis nothing short of sensational) wasnot recognized as a traditionalbread variety worth protecting.Bakers all over Catalonia have beenpressing for such recognition foryears. And last year, finally, thegood news was announced: it hadapplied for the PGI on behalf of thePa de Pagès Català. All being well,this classic bread will soon enjoythe protection it deserves, putting itup there with Cea, Pan de Cruz de

Ciudad Real and surely Alfacar. The message is clear: dull Spanishbread has had an easy ride for muchtoo long. Fine traditional breads areback, and they’re looking for a sliceof the action.

Paul Richardson lives on a farm innorthern Extremadura. A freelancetravel and food writer, he is the authorof A Late Dinner: Discovering theFood of Spain (Bloomsbury, UK, andScribner, USA).

We would like to thank thefollowing groups for theircontribution of photos to thearticle: Bakers’ Guild of Alfacar, PGIPan de Cea Regulatory Council, PGIPan de Cruz de Ciudad RealRegulatory Council, Forn de Pa-Pastisseria Vilamala bakery (Catalanpeasant bread), Pan de Valladolidgroup, La Nueva de Neda bakery(bread from Neda), and Arc al Celbakery (brown bread made withxeixa flour).

Visit our websitewww.foodsfromspain.com, in whoseProducts & Recipes and Shop,Travel & Dine sections you’ll findcomprehensive information aboutSpanish products.

FOOD BASICS

67

Cruz de Ciudad Real bread

69

The wines were chosen byJulio Biosca, maitre d’ andsommelier at JulioRestaurant

Photos recipesToya Legido/©ICEXand Tomás Zarza/©ICEX

TraslationJenny McDonald/©ICEX

José LuisUngidos*

*For a more in-depth look at the chef, see Close-up

CEA BREAD TORRIJA

Bread from Cea (Galicia, in northwestSpain) is the rustic bread that manySpanish children remember from theirinfancy. That includes me. Quite a fewkilometers eastwards, in Cantabria,where I grew up, we received breadfrom Cea, and when any was left over,it was made into torrijas (sweet milk-soaked bread fritters), as in many otherparts of the country. Considering thatthe north of Spain in general was atraditional source of dairy products,such fritters were a commonoccurrence. I have updated thistraditional recipe by sweetening thebread with white chocolate andaccompanying it with meringue-flavored ice cream. The cocoa soupadds a refreshing touch.

SERVES 10For the torrija: 1 loaf of Cea bread (0.5 kg /

1 lb 2 oz); 400 g / 14 oz white chocolate; 1/2 l /

2 1/6 cups mineral water; 8 g / 1/4 oz gelatin

sheets; 100 g / 3 1/2 oz sugar to caramelize.

For the cocoa soup: 125 g / 4 1/2 oz sugar;

75 g / 3 oz cocoa; 3.5 l / 15 cups water;

1.5 l / 6 1/2 cup milk.

For the meringue ice cream:

1 l / 4 1/4 cup milk; 150 g / 5 1/2 oz egg yolks;

150 g / 5 1/2 oz egg whites; 150 g / 5 1/2 oz

sugar; 50 g / 2 oz glucose; 40 g / 1 1/2 oz

stabilizer; 2 lemon rinds; 2 cinnamon sticks;

ground cinnamon.

TorrijaCut the bread into slices 4 cm / 1 1/2in thick and remove the crusts. Heatthe water together with thechocolate. When it comes to a boil,remove from the heat and add thepreviously soaked sheets of gelatin.Strain, pour onto the bread and leaveto soak. The torrija can becaramelized in two ways: the first isby covering the top with sugar andheating with a blowtorch until itturns golden, and the second is bymaking a light caramel in a fryingpan and dipping the torrija into it. Ineither case, the caramel should notbe dark brown.

Cocoa soup Mix the sugar with the cocoa. Heatthe milk and water and when themixture reaches boiling point, addthe sugar and cocoa. Reduce until itstarts to become denser, then strainand set aside.

and white chocolate with meringueice cream and cocoa soup

Meringue ice creamBoil the milk with the glucose,cinnamon and lemon rinds andleave to infuse. Mix the sugar withthe stabilizer and the egg yolks, thenadd this mixture to the milk. Heat to85ºC / 185ºF, then strain and leaveto cool. When the milk is almostcold (about 30ºC / 86ºF), mix withthe beaten egg whites. Transfer tothe ice cream maker.

To serveServe a little cocoa soup over thebottom of the dish, place the torrijain the center and serve with themeringue ice cream. Sprinkle with alittle ground cinnamon.


Recommended wineCasta Diva Reserva Real, by BodegasGutiérrez de la Vega. Moscatel deAlejandria is the variety in this sweetbut fresh tasting wine. Themagnificent intensity of the aromasblend to perfection with thisupdated torrija.

FOOD BASICS

(Torrija de Pan de Cea y chocolate blanco con helado de lechemerengada y sopa de cacao)

71

FOOD BASICSCRUZ BREADMILLEFEUILLE,

The Pan de Cruz from the province ofCiudad Real has a compact texture,can be sliced thinly and is excellenttoasted. It is ideal for upgrading one ofour restaurant’s recipes from 2006,twice-cooked octopus with bakedpotato and Pimentón de la Vera oil,giving it a new look with differenttextures, aromas and flavors. Served inmini-portions, it takes on a new life asfinger food.

SERVES 101 octopus weighing 2.5 kg / 5 lb 10 oz; 1 Pan

de Cruz de Ciudad Real weighing 115-135 g /

4-4 1/2 oz; 100 g / 3 1/2 oz kataifi pasta.

For the Pimentón de la Vera oil:

1.5 l / 6 1/2 cup olive oil; 3 cloves garlic,

grated; 75 g / 3 oz sweet Pimentón de la Vera

(a type of Spanish paprika).

For the baked potato purée:

1.5 kg / 3 lb 5 oz potatoes; Pimentón de la

Vera oil.

For the crisp snacks:

potato; purple potato; cassava; beetroot;

plantain; lotus flower root; olive oil.

For the aromatic snacks:

beetroot leaf; pansies; common ice plant;

calendula petals.

Place the octopus on a perforated trayand bake in a steam oven at 100ºC /212ºF for about 80 minutes (thetiming will depend on the oven, sotest with a needle). Cut off the tips ofthe tentacles and set aside. Using anelectric slicer, cut the Pan de Cruz deCiudad Real into half-centimeter(0.19 in) slices and toast in the ovenat 185ºC / 365ºF. Just before serving,wrap the tentacle tips in kataifi pastaand fry at 185ºC / 365ºF until thepasta is golden brown.

Pimentón de la Vera oilGently fry the garlic in oil ensuringthe temperature does not go beyond150ºC / 302ºF, then lower to 60ºC /140ºF and add the sweet Pimentónde la Vera. Mix to dilute as much aspossible, then leave to stand anddecant the oil into a container, leavingbehind any undissolved pimentón.

Baked potato puréeWrap the potatoes in foil and bake ina dry oven at 185ºC / 365ºF untilwell-cooked (the timing will dependon size). Peel and mash in a bowl.Add the Pimentón de la Vera oil tocolor the potato and season with salt.

octopus, baked potato with Pimentón dela Vera oil and crisp and aromatic snacks

Crisp and aromatic snacksUse the different vegetables to addcontrasting color and texture. For thecrisp snacks, slice the vegetables verythin using an electric slicer, then fryin oil at 185ºC / 365ºF.

To serveStart with a slice of toasted Pan deCruz and cover with a layer of bakedpotato purée. Add another slice oftoast, then a slice of octopus and topwith a final slice of toast. Decoratethe top with the crisp and aromaticsnacks. Place the deep-fried tentaclesin kataifi pasta to one side andsprinkle with a little pimentón.

Cooking time80 minutes


Recommended wineSanclodio 2010 (DO Ribeiro), byBodegas Sanclodio. This verypleasant wine, made fromTreixadura, Godello and other localgrape varieties, is the creation of JoséLuis Cuerda, a well-known Spanishfilm director and producer. Incombination with this dish, itssimple yet varied aromas and flavorsafford a complex result.

(Milhojas de pan de cruz, pulpo, patata asada con aceite dePimentón de la Vera y snacks crujientes y aromáticos)

Julio Restaurant originated as a personal project of Julio Biosca’s. That was what persuadedJosé Luis Ungidos to take on the role of chef de cuisine when he was offered it. Less than fiveyears of steady, unostentatious achievement later, it boasts a Michelin star. Julio Restaurantowes its success to a style of cuisine that is rooted in local tradition, that showcases qualityproduce, and uses such simple, traditional approaches as long, slow cooking in its ongoingquest for textures and flavors. Unconventional juxtapositions of these sometimes verge on risky,yet the sincerity, directness and depth of commitment that underlie this whole venture haveearned the little town of Fontanars dels Alforins (Valencia, eastern Spain) a place on thegastronomic map.


TextAlmudena Muyo/©ICEX

TranslationHawys Pritchard/©ICEX

José Luis Ungidos

PhotosTomás Zarza/©ICEX and Toya Legido/©ICEX

A TA

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INALfor the

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JOSÉ LUIS UNGIDOS – JULIO RESTAURANT

It’s so quiet! On arriving in Fontanarsdels Alforins, all you can hear is asoughing of pine branches and arattling of poplar leaves, and eventhese seem muffled. There’s certainlogic to a whispered conversationbetween trees and breeze, but I can’tquite fathom the whistling that seemsto punctuate the rustling of leaves andbranches. I have the distinct feeling ofhaving arrived at an oasis of peace andcalm. An oasis whose population (ofabout a thousand) witnessed thetransformation back in 2005 of thelocal bar, Casa Julio, which had beenrun by the Biosca Llin family since the1950s: the business was effectivelyreinvented and divided into two. Theprime mover behind this scheme wasJulio Biosca (of the third generation ofthe family) with his sister, Pilar, andchef, José Luis Ungidos, as hisprincipal allies. Under their guidance,

Julio Restaurant rose from the long-established Casa Julio site like ayounger, innovative and moreemancipated relative, going on to wina Michelin star yet coexisting inperfect harmony with the conventionallocal color approach adhered to inthe bar beside it. There is just onewall between them—a physicaldivision that differentiates oneenterprise from the other—and bothshare the common purpose ofcelebrating Mediterranean cuisine,each in its own way.You need to have plenty of self-beliefand courage, and to have thoughtthings through thoroughly if you areplanning to change and restructure asegment of your family’s business—“abar that’s been there forever”, as thelocals put it—even though it’s doingvery nicely, thank you, to make roomfor a high-end restaurant in a small

town that isn’t even near anywhereimportant. To carry this schemeforward while still remaining involvedwith what was there before is not aneasy feat. Evolving, advancing withoutsevering connections and respectingone’s roots is always tricky: it calls fordetermination and, especially,boundless common sense.Julio seems to have managed it: he hascreated a very spacious, comfortableand welcoming restaurant, opting fora minimalist decor with lots of wood(the floors and part of the walls).Paintwork is white and cream, andwindows are large, with blinds that letin the light but filter out the sun. Thetables—kept to a few, about six orseven—are generously sized andplaced with enough space betweenthem to allow diners a degree ofprivacy while they eat.

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TeamworkHe then had to find the personnel tomatch. Julio persuaded José LuisUngidos to take command of thekitchen. “We had met in Bilbao(northern Spain) when I was workingas chef in Zortziko (one Michelinstar),” explains Ungido. “Julio wasthere for about three months’ training,and we got on well. He told me eventhen that he had a scheme to turnpart of the family business into a top-flight restaurant. A few months later,when he heard that I was intending toleave Zortziko, he called me up rightaway; we talked and talked, and heconvinced me.” A decision to seek fresh experiencehad led him first of all to considerreturning to his native Cantabria or,if that were to prove impossible, tohead for one of the big cities and try

his luck. “I realized that family ties andfriendships could not be allowed toprevail over professional connections.That’s why I opted to come toFontanars, a town that I wasconstantly having to ask Julio topinpoint for me on the map, and jointhis very personal project—Julio’sproject. Basically, it was so that I couldwork with him. In the course of themany conversations we’d had, Irealized that he liked the same thingsthat I liked and that he understoodmy cooking completely. I came to theconclusion that Julio, who has sincebecome the restaurant’s sommelier andmaitre d’, would be able tocommunicate the point of my cookingwith complete accuracy, and that mademe feel very much at ease. I knew that,as well as fulfilling his front-of-houserole, he could help me improve myskills. And so it has turned out.”

José Luis arrived about six monthsafter the transformation and I gatherfrom clues that he, too, was affectedby the pervasive silence that struckme so forcibly on my arrival. Hisexperience had clearly been tingedwith melancholy: “Although Icouldn’t have been made to feel morewelcome, and although I wasthoroughly involved in things rightfrom the start, I still remember feelingdreadfully lonely at night.” Hegradually got used to it. Meanwhile,he was enjoying completely freecreative rein: “From the very first day,Julio made it clear that the kitchenwas my responsibility and that thedecisions to be made were mine. Andhe has stuck to that punctiliously.However, I personally like to discussa new dish before adding it to themenu, so decisions aren’t alwaysmade solely by me.” This familiar

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approach, combined with a need toknow that those around him arecomfortable, has surely been a keyelement in building a team that makeseverything run like clockwork.

First stepsJosé Luis Ungidos was born inCantabria and he also did his trainingthere and in Navarre, San Sebastiánand Bilbao (all in northern Spain). Itis astonishing, therefore, that he hasfound a way of expressing his culinarytalent while adjusting to the tastesand traditions of an area so distantfrom his home patch and, even so,producing dishes in his ownidentifiable style. The fact that CasaJulio has always been known forserving good fish, despite its locationin inland Valencia, must have workedin his favor. José Luis relates that“Julio’s father used to set off for thenearby town of Fuente la Higuera,which was a stopping place for trucksen route to Madrid (central Spain)laden with fish bought at quaysideauctions. He used to stock up on freshfish bought from them. When thatcouldn’t be done, he’d go to themarket in Valencia or the quaysideauction at Santa Pola to buy it; thoughnot a long journey in terms ofdistance, it took a very long timebecause transport links were so poorin those days.” This also explains theparadox that Ungidos discoveredwhen he arrived at Fontanars:“People from Valencia and Alicanteused to come here to eat prawnsfrom Santa Pola!”With this precedent as an example,José Luis set about identifying thetraits that characterize the localcuisine, going back to its roots with aview to devising a menu that was acomposite of his ideas and the local

repertoire, with a nod in the directionof the traditional reputationestablished by the family business.“When I arrived, I said to myself‘We’re in Valencia, so part of themenu must be devoted to rice dishes.’I duly put a rice dish on the menuand cooked it in my usual way… Ithink it lasted four or five days.Everyone assured me that it wasdelicious, but when I tasted the ricedishes made by Pilar, Julio’s mother, itwas blindingly obvious that mine justwouldn’t do. There were no two waysabout it: I told them that either weremoved my rice dish from the menuor I simply wouldn’t cook. I justcouldn’t countenance a situationwhere the bar next door was servingup excellent rice dishes while the oneon the restaurant menu didn’t tasteanywhere as good!”Guided by Julio’s mother, hedeterminedly set about masteringrice. One of the dishes he created inthe process is Arròs amb penques (Ricewith artichoke stalks, see recipe page55), which has won itself a place onthe restaurant’s Menú Clásico. This

“soupy” (caldoso in Spanish) rice dish,very much in the local style, is madewith artichoke stalks and othervegetables and served with crispychunks of pig’s trotter, pork cheekand ribs in the center of the plate.This accentuates the overall flavor ofthe dish and to some extentdetermines how you eat it: the meatycentral element pulls together theother ingredients so that, in effect, thedish becomes a sticky rice experiencerather than a soupy one. It is a goodexample of his overall modus operandi:he takes a classic dish and studies itwith a view to developing it further,in both presentation and flavor.

Up-to-the-minuteand market-ledAdmitting that he finds his owncooking very difficult to define, JoséLuis declares it to be “traditionalcookery that is market- and product-led and given modern touches by theuse of certain techniques.” The aim isobvious: “We want people to come to

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the restaurant, eat the food and retaina memory of its flavors.” Products andraw materials are prepared and puttogether in ways that make the most oftheir flavor. And how is that done? Bysourcing their supplies from localfarms. “We watch the produce growingand being harvested,” Ungidos assuresme, and they’re also willing to gowherever necessary to get the verybest, whether it’s to the quaysideauction at Santa Pola (a regularpilgrimage destination) or to Granada(southern Spain) for sturgeon.Our meal arrives and we see thetheory in action from the first courseon. The delicious crema de calabaza(creamed pumpkin/squash soup)—smooth, very subtly flavored andlovely on the palate—is made withpumpkin grown on unirrigated landby a farmer in the village, transformedby the chef’s skill and furtherenhanced by Julio’s resumé of the dish(which heightens anticipation),delivered at the table.Special mention must also go to theHamburguesa de sepia con chips deverdura (Cuttlefish burger withvegetable chips). Part of the repertoirefor the past seven years (plenty of timefor fine-tuning), this dish is by nowone of the restaurant’s establishedclassics. Impeccably crunchy intexture and with a mild cuttlefishflavor, the “burger” is sandwichedbetween two buns that incorporate thecuttlefish ink, and served with freshly-made beetroot, purple potato, plantainand potato chips. This dish looksstunning and tastes as good as it looks.As one would hope in a part of the

country such as this, fresh fruit andvegetables of all kinds are suppliedby the region’s farmers. The Hervidode verduras al dente con caldoemulsionado con aceite de oliva virgenextra y citronela (Melissa officinalis)(Al dente boiled vegetables in brothemulsified with extra virgin olive oiland lemon balm) is fabulous. Thevegetables are cooked to perfectionand the basic broth is mild, gainingin flavor in the mouth. This aromaticdish starts off modestly in the flavorstakes, builds up gradually andopens up on the palate where all itsingredients are identifiable, beforebeing replaced by a pleasant, fresh,citrus aftertaste.The restaurant buys its fish andseafood at quayside auction sales. Itsversion of fideuá (a traditionalSpanish dish, similar to paella butmade with noodles rather than rice)has become a classic: Fideuá decalamares y marisco con gamba roja, yhelado de calamar (Squid and seafoodfideuá with red prawns and squid inkice cream) is made using fine noodles,and tastes intensely of the sea (thanksto the Santa Pola red prawns). The icecream, used judiciously, contributesto a clever interplay of textures—gooey noodles, creamy ice cream,fleshy prawns—without in any waydiluting or distracting from theoverall flavor.

Prime material rules Prime material, or “product”, isaccorded such importance at JulioRestaurant that it shapes the menuand governs any changes made to it

in the course of the year. Therestaurant offers three menus: agastronomic one, which showcasesJosé Luis’ latest creations; a classicone, consisting of a selection of therestaurant’s signature dishes; and ashort tasting menu, which providesa whistle-stop tour of its cuisine ingeneral. All three are governed bywhat is available in the market atthe moment and are consistentlyfree of superficial frills and trendyproducts. Indeed, the repertoire atJulio Restaurant is a tribute to theproducts and foodways of itsnatural surroundings. Making changes to the menu turnsout to be quite a discursive business.By a stroke of luck, a new dish isabout to be launched while I’m there,so I am able to take part in thedecision-making process insofar as Iget to taste it before its firstappearance in the dining room. JoséLuis succinctly explains the work thathas gone into it so far: “With springon the way, we need to make a coupleof changes to the gastronomic menu.We have some superb quality octopusat the moment (octopus is servedregularly in the bar), so we’ve decidedthat the new dish should be octopus-based. Hot or cold? We’ve gone forcold, given the time of year when itwill feature on the menu, and it willalso make things easier for the kitchenstaff. A cold octopus dish soundscomplicated in theory, but then wethought of salpicón (seafood salad) anddecided to go ahead. First we pressurecooked the octopus and retained thecooking liquid. That turned out to bevery strongly flavored, which made us


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intriguing dish in which the brothprovides continuity and accentuatesthe overall flavor. Meanwhile, eachmouthful is subtly different from theone before—slightly more bitter,slightly more acidic, slightly saltier—as if its individual components aremaking their presence felt. Now all Ineed to do is compare and contrastthis version with the definitive onethey actually put on the menu.

Restaurant with soulA visit to Julio Restaurant leaves onewith the feeling that it has “soul”: avery definite personality whose traitsderive from the fact that it is apersonal project that is lent weight byits family background and backing.Though José Luis Ungidos joined theteam as a newcomer, it now seems asif he’s always been there, contributinghis strengths and a new vitality in theform of an approach to cooking that isbased on an appreciation of flavors.The team knows what it’s doing andhas tremendous faith in the projectand a commitment to getting thingsright. This extends to both food andwine, and there is plenty of evidenceof joined-up thinking between kitchenand dining room and vice versa, withimpeccable service throughout.The plan at Julio Restaurant is to carryon growing, continuing their quest fortextures and flavors while remainingtrue to the culinary traditions andnatural environment of their chosenpatch. With all this in mind, they havecommissioned artisan pâtissierFrancisco Mora to create a dish thatencapsulates the restaurant’s

philosophy. It is a chocolate dessertwhich reflects the changes wrought inthe vineyards (characteristic of thisarea) and farmland by the passing ofthe seasons. We are served a wholeset of different chocolates,representing a vine shoot in wintersurrounded by earth andaccompanied by a yoghurt mousse (areference to the moon, which can beseen splendidly from Fontanars) tocleanse and refresh the palate aftereach mouthful.And that’s the story so far. There arefurther schemes afoot: they have justopened a hotel in the country, SantaElena, one of whose purposes is tochannel more customers to therestaurant.

Almudena Muyo worked for more thantwelve years as a journalist specializingin international trade before taking upher current post as editorial co-coordinator of Spain Gourmetour.

JULIO RESTAURANTConde de Salvatierra 9Fontanars dels Alforins (Valencia)Tel: (+34) 962 222 238www.juliorestaurant.es (Catalan,English, French, Spanish) [email protected]

For detailed information aboutSpanish chefs, visit our websitewww.foodsfromspain.com and clickon Chefs & Training.

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rethink the concept of a cold dish andstart to consider hot ones. I’ve alwayscooked octopus with potato and apple,so I added those to the ingredients wealready had, plus broad beans, redpepper, land seaweed, the cookingliquid and the octopus.”Before making the final decision, JoséLuis and Julio have been consideringthe quantity and variety of vegetablesthat this dish will require, and havetested different options, given that,according to Julio: “José Luis includesa lot of greenery, which complicatesthings later when you need to matcha wine with the dish.” These are themoments when the symbiosisbetween the two of them really shows:each is prepared to make a concessionin his area of responsibility to producean end result—the perfect balancebetween food and wine—that is to thediner’s benefit. “We tried several options,” continuesUngidos, “and decided to go for anoctopus soup, with a sauté of broadbeans, potatoes and apples, and a touchof red pepper and land seaweed. Toappreciate the full beauty of this dish,our wine recommendation is aSanclodio 2010 (DO Ribeiro), byBodegas Sanclodio.” I now have the aforementioned octopussoup in front of me, well presented andpleasing to the eye. The broth thatcompletes the dish is served at the tableand brings with it an unmistakablewhiff of the sea. Julio explains to methat the (Granny Smith) apple has beencooked at a low temperature, whichcauses its texture to become syrupywhile retaining its characteristic acidity.It proves to be a nicely structured,

A HARVEST


of Salt from the CanariesA volcanic landscape bathed by the clear waters of the Atlantic at the southernmosttip of the Canary Island of La Palma, all of it declared a World Biosphere Reserveby UNESCO. This is the source of one of the Canaries’ most enticing gourmetproducts: hand-harvested sea salt and flor de sal from Salinas de Fuencaliente


TEXTRODRIGO GARCÍA FERNÁNDEZ/©ICEX


PHOTOSPABLO NEUSTADT/©ICEX

As the plane flies towards the islandof La Palma in the Canaries, travelersare enchanted as some of the island’smain features appear: leafy bananaplantations along the coast, narrowroads with little traffic, and smallvillages nestling on the mountainslopes. And, on landing, the mainimpression, strangely, is that life hereis lived at a slower pace thanelsewhere.This island, the third largest in theCanary archipelago, has two verydistinct faces. The north isinundated with shades of green, withlush vegetation watered by manysprings. The south is unmistakablyvolcanic. From the top of the SanAntonio and Teneguía volcanoes,the view is unique: to one side isthe crater left behind by the latesteruptions and, to the other, thesouth coast and the infinity ofthe ocean, with the islands of ElHierro and La Gomera just beforethe eye reaches the smooth lineof the horizon.Starting out from these volcanoesand their interesting interpretationcenter, I took one of the trekkingroutes down to the Fuencalientesaltworks (salinas in Spanish) at thesouthernmost tip of the island. ThereI met Andrés Hernández, a youngentrepreneur from La Palma whohad no doubts about returning to theisland to take charge of the familybusiness after completing his studiesin Business Administration andManagement at the University of LaLaguna in Tenerife. His enthusiasmand determination to achieve onlythe very best quality have allowedhim to successfully sell sea salt andflor de sal in food stores in the

that never leaves his lips. The “toll”he has had to pay has been toughdecision-making, a lot of hard workmaking his artisan flor de sal knownand a fight to break down thebarriers that make exporting from anisland expensive and logisticallycomplicated. “We’re only too awareof the problems, but the quality ofour products—flor de sal and virginsea salt, whose secrets lie in the soil,the water and the air that surroundus—helps us resolve them all.”Andrés knows what he is doing. Hedevotes his time to managing acompany with up to 20 workers,exploring new markets and settingup marketing projects. But he is alsoperfectly capable of donning hisrubber boots and overalls andgetting into the ponds to skim off theflor de sal with a sort of sieve,ensuring the product is not damagedduring harvesting. “You can nevertell when the thin layer of saltcrystals is going to form on thesurface of the ponds. It depends onthe moisture and the light during thelast few days of the cycle. So if thelayer forms on the weekend and theworkers are not expected untilMonday, then it’s up to me to collectthe flor de sal.”

Canary island saltSo how is this exquisite condiment,flor de sal, formed (Spain GourmetourNo. 76)? It takes just threeingredients from nature: sunlight,relative moisture in the air and wind.What makes things morecomplicated is getting them in theright proportions. Plenty of hours ofsunlight are needed, with low levels

Canaries and to start exporting tothe competitive markets ofGermany and the UK.

Third generationThe Fuencaliente saltworks dateback to 1967, when our host’sgrandfather discovered the idealconditions in this spot forproducing salt. He had seensaltworks on other islands andsought the advice of experts beforesetting up a small business in thisprivileged location. His sonFernando followed in his footsteps,and Andrés is now the thirdgeneration to have fallen under thespell of this edible mineral. “I always knew my future would bedetermined by the saltworks,” statesthis young islander. “We used tospend the summers in a small houseactually inside the saltworks, andthe sunsets and sunrises Iexperienced here must have lefttheir mark,” he tells us with a smile

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of moisture and just a gentle seabreeze to produce irregular flor desal crystals on the surface of theponds. This process is very differentto that of common sea salt, which isformed by evaporating the waterand precipitating the salt to thebottom of the pan. Once this layer has formed, the florde sal is collected and packed byhand. The artisan nature of thisgourmet product is shared byanother, also made at theFuencaliente saltworks, namely,Teneguía sea salt. After beingcollected, this fine salt is milled,dried and packed without any sortof chemical processing to ensurethat its organoleptic and mineralqualities are not altered. The artisan production and naturalorigin of these two products are twoof their main distinguishingcharacteristics. There is only oneother similar saltworks in theCanaries (at Janubio, on the islandof Lanzarote), but its productionand sales are well below those ofFuencaliente. Andrés mentions akey fact reflecting the huge effort heis making to keep this small-scaleprocess in operation. “In the middleof the last century, there were over50 similar saltworks in theCanaries. Today, there are just two,and we are the only ones reallylooking towards the future andworking on exports.”

Hand harvestingAndrés tells me his businessbelongs to the European Federationof Producers of Hand-Harvested SeaSalt, an international network thataims to preserve this type oftraditional operation. He alsoexplains that it was only towardsthe end of 2011 that the SpanishMinistry of the Environment andRural and Marine Affairs passedregulations for the sale oftraditionally-produced, hand-harvested sea salt having a sodiumchloride content below the figureunder previous legislation. “All thisis helping us and giving us energyto defend our virgin sea salt andflor de sal in Spanish andEuropean markets.” As we visit the saltworks, protectedsince 1994 as a Site of ScientificInterest with its wetlands rich inflora and fauna, Andrés describesthe projects he is currently workingon. “In early 2012, we began tobuild an interpretation center forthe saltworks where visitors canlearn about this ecosystem, its valueas a natural process and thesustainable cultivation of sea saltand flor de sal. We will also have arestaurant offering Canary cuisineand focusing on foods and winesfrom La Palma and from the otherislands.” All of this amounts to anambitious project, considering thatthe company has a staff of just

SALINAS DE FUENCALIENTE

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seven, including, as Andrés confidesto us, “three who have been with usfor over 20 years. They’re like partof the family.”Today travelers and trekkers in thesouth of the island can reach theFuencaliente saltworks on foot, enterthe area of the ponds and hear insitu about the process of producingthe virgin sea salt and flor de sal.And, of course, the products areavailable for them to buy. In fact,these direct sales to German, Frenchand British travelers are “the firstlink in the company’s export chain”,according to its manager. “Thesetourists are the people that take ourproducts back home, where theythen serve as opinion leaders andproduct advisors.” Sustainable, ecological, top-qualityproduction is what Salinas deFuencaliente has to offer, meetingthe needs of demanding marketssuch as Germany, where they have adistributor, Herbaria, which sells itsproducts in a chain of organic foodstores that extends all over thecountry. One of the company’sstrategies for attracting customers(and keeping them) in Germany is toencourage visits to the saltworks.“We have managed to acquire somefaithful customers in Germany byorganizing personalized visits here sothat they can see for themselves howthe whole process is done by handand, at the same time, appreciate ourunique cultural, natural andethnographic landscape.”

A gourmet touchThe flor de sal grown and manuallyharvested in these saltworks is onoffer in many restaurants in LaPalma and the other Canary Islands,some of which are part of therevolution in Canary cuisine. Oneexample is Humboldt restaurant inthe Valle de la Orotava in Tenerife,led by a great advocate of theislands’ produce, Pedro RodríguezDios (Spain Gourmetour No. 81). One of his interesting creations isSorbete de mango con yogur de cabra,virutas de almendra palmera ypimientas del mundo (Mango sorbetwith goats’ milk yoghurt, La Palmaalmond flakes and peppers), whichincludes, among other Canaryproducts, flor de sal from Salinasde Fuencaliente. The chef describeshis dish as follows: “It representspart of the essence of the Canaries,with spicy, balsamic, sweet andmilky touches. It’s an essentiallyCanary dish because it includesthe magnificent almonds grownon the island of La Palma, and webring out their flavor bycombining them with the Salinasde Fuencaliente flor de sal. Andthe Canary Islands are amongSpain’s main producers of goats’milk, so the leading role in this dishis shared by goats’ milk yoghurt.”After a history of about 50 years,Salinas de Fuencaliente has been ableto preserve a traditional, ecologicalactivity while introducing a gourmet

Salinas de Fuencaliente

Workforce: 7 people

Annual production: 600 tons of salt,of which 5 are flor de sal and the restvirgin sea salt

Surface area:35,000 square meters(376,736 square feet)

Export quota: 15%

Main export markets: Austria,Germany and the United Kingdom

Products: Teneguía virgin sea saltand Fuencaliente saltworks flor de salContact details:Maldonado, 10 38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma Canary IslandsTel. (+34) 922 411 523 Fax (+34) 922 696 002www.salinasdefuencaliente.com

product on the commercial circuit.Things have not been easy for Andrésand his family, least of all when thenearby Teneguía volcano erupted in1971, spurting out lava which all butreached the lighthouse at the edge ofthe saltworks. But today they have apromising future, marked by theentrepreneurial zeal of Andrés and hisintention to take this 100% La Palmaproduct to all lovers of good food.

Rodrigo García Fernández is ajournalist and editorial coordinator ofthe ICEX gastronomy portal,www.foodsfromspain.com.


RodolfoGerschmanfrom MexicoCity

MEXICOTextRodolfo Gerschman/©ICEX

TraslationtHawys Pritchard/©ICEX

Emilio Castelar Park in Mexico City’swell-to-do Polanco quarter is skirted bya street of the same name whose greatsweep of café terraces, around four inthe afternoon, presents a scene worthyof Madrid or Barcelona. Mexicans like tohave lunch between 2 and 3 pm and,having eaten, segue into the venerablecustom of relaxed post-prandialconversation and people-watchingknown as the sobremesa. The customseems to thrive particularly among theregulars at Jaleo, a little tapas andpintxo restaurant whose papertablecloths are hand-emblazoned withthe house logo by a waiter armed witha giant rubber stamp, which he wieldswith enviable verve. Jaleo is doing well. Today, all 24 placeson the outdoor terrace are occupied atsobremesa time and the indoorrestaurant is also full to capacity. Thecustomers behave as they would in a bar(Jaleo doesn’t have one, incidentally),getting up from their tables to greetfriends and chatting for a while beforereturning to carry on eating. During thetime I spent talking to Jaleo’s Spanishchef, Pedro Martín, and his businesspartner, Catalan-born Coia Solà, varioushabitués came up to offer theircompliments and hold forth about tapasand allied subjects. A native of La Palma in the CanaryIslands, Pedro Martín has been inMexico for six years now. His CVincludes experience in Madrid (ElCenador de Salvador and the Silken

Have a SpanishBreak Photos

Jaleo


Puerta América Hotel’s in-houserestaurant, Lágrimas Negras) and in SanSebastián, where he worked with MartínBerasategui and, later, at Arzak. Themove to Mexico came out of the blue: ithappened at a time when Juan MariArzak was involved in an advisorycapacity with Tezka (his Basquerestaurant in Mexico City), whose chefsBruno Oteiza and Mikel Alonso wereabout to leave to set up a restaurant oftheir own. His solution was to send Pedro to takeover Tezka, which he made very muchhis own with a distinctive style ofcuisine clearly inspired by his CanaryIsland origins. Not long after, he andCoia (who is from Catalonia, though shehas been in Mexico for ten years now)made the decision to go into businesstogether. Her original career choice,banking, had turned out to be amistake, as had a Scandinavianrestaurant venture. Meeting Pedroenabled her to reassess the way forwardand to confess (including to herself)how much she liked the idea of runninga tapas bar. The partners set up Jaleo with the fullknowledge that Mexico City was averitable elephant’s graveyard of failedtapas bars. “Mexicans love tacos (wheator corn flatbreads rolled round afilling),” explains Pedro. “Given thechoice of a taco at 15 pesos or a tapa at50, there’d be no contest.” The key toJaleo’s success has been the food it offersits customers. “Ours is a chef-centered

business,” he declares emphatically, “andthe whole objective has always been toshowcase our cuisine.” And customersgot the point that this was food of awhole different category. The locale itselfcan claim some of the credit: “Jaleo issmall, noisy and crowded, and peoplelike it that way. It’s all part of its appeal.” Getting the ingredients right is one theirkey principles. “We never stint on theproducts we use, or on sourcing them,from no matter how far afield.” Many(such as albacore tuna from Ensenada)are Mexican, while others (canned bonitodel norte, salt cod, baby broad beans andasparagus from Navarre, piquillopeppers…) are brought in from Spain.The US is also an acknowledged source:patatas bravas (chunks of fried potatodressed with a piquant tomato sauce)made with Idaho potatoes are quitedifferent from any other kind. The winelist, made up entirely of Spanish wines,is as fresh in its approach as everythingelse. Brief but well-chosen, it featuresthe products of 15 DOs among itsselection of 40 wines, ten of which areavailable by the glass.“It was heavy going at first trying to getpeople to understand what our food wasall about,” admits Pedro. “We keptgetting asked for basic things likecroquetas. But both our approach andour customers’ taste have developedsince then. Our dishes originate from allover Spain: for example, our version ofpapas a la importancia (egg and flour-dipped potato slices fried and then

cooked further in an onion-based sauce)has its sauce enriched with pimentón (atype of paprika from Spain) and isserved with clams rather than theCastilian original’s traditional cockles,which aren’t available here. We also doajoblanco, the Andalusian chilled soupmade by emulsifying blanched almondswith garlic, olive oil and a slosh ofsherry vinegar, which we serve withgrapes and figs. Then there’s the lessspecifically regional pintxo de lomo decerdo blanco, a skewer of top-qualitypork loin that has been vacuummarinated with sweet and hotpimentón, olive oil and raw garlic.” Atthe moment, Jaleo’s tiny kitchenproduces a repertoire of over 70different dishes-in-miniature, each ofwhich Pedro Martín describes withmouthwatering enthusiasm. Meanwhile,as dish after dish appears on the tablebefore us, the food proves to have aneloquence all its own.

Jaleo Bar de TapasEmilio Castelar 121, local 1Polanco, Chapultepec, 11560Mexico DFMexicowww.jaleo.mx

Rodolfo Gerschman, who originally hailsfrom Mexico, is the editor of Gula andCatadores magazines and writes a winecolumn in Buena Mesa, the weekly foodand wine supplement of Reformanewspaper.

BOOKS


MoVida Cocina

by Frank Camorra, RichardCornish. English. The dynamicduo comprising Australianfood writer Richard Cornishand Spanish restaurantentrepreneur and chef FrankCamorra cannot be stopped.The franchise has won overAustralians, and this text, theirthird cookbook, further puts aspotlight on the dishes andpeople behind the successfulbrand. Camorra shares all thespecial tricks and techniqueshe uses at MoVida anddiscusses his trajectory, fromthe first venture on HosierLane to his latest restaurant,Pulpo. The 70 recipes areorganized into sectionsincluding everything frombreakfast, sub sandwiches andsalads to rices and desserts.These include Chorizo-filledfried potato bombs with spicysauce, Soupy rice with lambribs and peas, and Slow-cooked egg with broad beans,Ibérico ham and truffle. Inshort, the book shows howMoVida has secured a place fortapas on Australia’s culinaryscene. (Murdoch Books Pty Ltd,www.murdochbooks.com.au).

Tapas. Small ClassicDishes from Spain

(Pequeños platos clásicos deEspaña) by Elisabeth Luard.English. Luard is adistinguished food writer,broadcaster and journalist and,let’s face it, a woman withexcellent taste. This textfeatures tapas, which shedescribes as “beautifullysimple, tantalizingly deliciousand easy to prepare.” Herrecipes are organized intoseveral chapters: basics; saladsand cold dishes; vegetables;fish, prawns, shrimp andshellfish; meat; chicken andgame; and croquettes, pastiesand pies. Each section beginswith an introduction to thefood group, followed by to-the-point recipes. Highlightsinclude tripe and chili withchickpeas, artichoke omelet,beetroot salad, pork medallionswith lemon and marjoram,tuna croquettes, andcinnamon-spiced oxtail soup.It also includes countless tipson how to organize your tapasextravaganza, depending onthe season, on the special foodneeds of your guests, andmuch more. (Grub Street,www.grubstreet.co.uk).

El Willy.Three Years in China

(Tres años en China) by Willyand Nasi. English. WillyTrullas Moreno is a nativeSpanish chef making waveson China’s gastronomy scene.He is the man behind elWilly, one of Shanghai’shippest restaurants, and a barcalled el Cóctel, anotherventure in Hong Kong. Thistruly unique book is dividedinto two parts. In the firstpart, entitled “The SexyChef”, Willy gives the backstory, documented withpersonal photos, much like ascrapbook or a diary. It is avery fun read. In the secondpart, “The Sexy Recipes”,Willy dishes on the dishesthat have made him famous,such as grilled Manila clamswith garlic and chili andCatalan-style cod withtomato, onion and olives.This is truly one sexycookbook which brings foodand fun together on everysingle page. (el Willy Ltd., www.el-willy.com).

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Akelare

by Pedro Subijana. English,Euskara, Spanish. This is topchef Pedro Subijana’s newbook about his restaurantAkelarre, which boasts 3Michelin stars and has beenreferred to as “a temple ofinternational gastronomy”.The book brings to life themagic that is Akelarre,focusing on its mostdistinguishing features,excellence and innovation.This highly visual text payshomage to Akelarre’s mostoutstanding dishes over thelast decade, such asCharcoal-grilled lamb withwine sediment; Boned lamb’stail with cauliflower, leek,carrot and beetroot macaroni;Peach flower; Edible aromasof port; and Liquid fruitravioli with apple soup. Italso includes a DVD with amaster class on specialcooking techniques, from oneof the founding fathers ofNew Basque Cuisine himself,which you can watch fromthe comfort of your ownhome. (Editorial Everest,www.everest.es).

Rías Baixas.Territoriogastronómico

(Rías Baixas. GourmetTerritory) by Manuel Gagoand Jorge Guitián. English,Spanish. Come on a journeythrough Rías Baixas (Galicia,northwest Spain), “where seaand land merge in a sinuousdance, creating a uniquehabitat.” The 26 recipes (andtheir photos) contributed bythe chefs, including Xosé T.Cannas (Pepe Vieirarestaurant, in Poio), PabloRomero (Allo e Aceite, inPontevedra), Antonio Botana(Pandemonium, inCambados) to name but afew, are truly spectacular:Confit of salt cod with greenonion and creamedcauliflower; Galician-styleoctopus with a crispy SanSimón cheese biscuit; orCockles on a bed of Devoncrab sousing sauce and anemulsion of fresh asparagus.All in all a delicious look atGalicia and its cuisine. Notfor nothing did this textreceive the “Best in theWorld” Gourmand CookbookAward in the “Best LocalCuisine” category. (Pontevedra Provincial Council,www.depontevedra.es).

Guía del turismogastronómico en España, 2012

(2012 Gastronomy TourismGuide to Spain). Variousauthors. Spanish. What betterguide to Spain than one thatmaps out the country’s bestgastronomic itineraries? Thisboasts more than 50 routesnationwide, complete withup-to-date maps. Theintroduction provides anoverview of the country’sgastronomic landscape. Thenthe guide is broken intoregions, each of whichfeatures several suggestions.In Andalusia, routes includeolive oil, ham, and monasterysweets. The Canary Islandshave a cheese route, as doesAsturias, which also has acider route. Black truffles andham can be followed inAragón, roast suckling pig inCastile-Leon, cherries inExtremadura, andstrawberries in Madrid. Eachroute starts with anintroduction to the food,followed by extensive detail ofthe related sights, specializedrestaurants and shops,restaurants and hotels. (Grupo Anaya, S.A.,www.anayatouring.com).

Guía del turismo delvino en España,2012

(2012 Wine Tourism Guideto Spain). Various authors.Spanish. This text, dubbedthe “wine tourism bible”,now in its 8th edition, is thebest way to discover thecountry’s countless gems inthe world of wine. Organizedby Spanish region, with dataon all the DOs, the mostcommonly used grapes, wineproduction methods, andmuch more, this text willtake you to any of thehundreds of beautiful andless well-known placesaround the nation (and, ofcourse, famous sites too), andshow you some of the mostbreathtaking wine landscapesyou’ve ever seen. The bookcomes with completeinformation about hotels,restaurants, wineries,specialized stores and currentmaps, and the introductionincludes wine vocabulary anddetails about wine tastings,wine and health, and winefairs and festivals. (Grupo Anaya, S.A.,www.anayatouring.com).

Aceites Borges Pont, S.A.

Tel: (+34) 973 501 212 [email protected]: Inside front cover

Ángel CamachoAlimentación, S.A. (Fragata)Tel: (+34) 955 854 [email protected]: 3

Consorcio del JamónSerrano Español Tel: (+34) 917 356 [email protected]: 95

F.J. Sánchez Sucesores, S.A.Tel: (+34) 950 364 [email protected]: Inside back cover

Grupo GourmetsTel: (+34) 915 489 [email protected]: 94

AD IN

DEX

Grupo Mahou – San MiguelTel: (+34) 915 269 [email protected]: 4

Hazienda La RamblaTel: (+34) 696873 [email protected]: Back cover

Industrial QueseraCuquerellaTel: (+34) 926 266 [email protected]: 89

Loreto Speciality Foods,S.L.Tel: (+34) 954 113 [email protected]: 91

Rafael Salgado, S.A.Tel: (+34) 916 667 [email protected]: 93

Vinos D.O. NavarraTel: (+34) 948 741 [email protected]: 88

PREMIUM QUALITY SPANISH CHEESE

-THE GRANDEE OF SPAIN-

“GRAND SELECTION 2010 CONTEST”: MAESE MIGUEL D.O. 3 MONTHS:GOLD MEDAL AWARDED

Award winning 12 month matured Manchego D.O. from La Mancha October 2008

Awarded first prize Manchego cheese at the annual Manchego cheesemakers guild contest.

TARTESANA, S.L“Tarquessia de La Mancha”

Ctra. de Toledo, s/n 13420 Malagón (C.Real) Spain

Tel: +(34) 926 266 410Fax: +(34) 926 266 413

[email protected]

I. QUESERA CUQUERELLA, S.L. - QUESOS ROCINANTEMalagón (C. Real) - Spain - Tel.: +34 926 266 410 - Fax: +34 926 266 413

[email protected] - www.rocinante.es

“THE CROWN JEWEL”


BreadAsociación Provincial deFabricantes yExpendedores de Pan deCiudad Real (IGP Pan deCruz de Ciudad Real)Tel.: (+34) 926 250 [email protected]

Consejo Regulador IGPPan de CeaTels.: (+34) 988 282586/618 265 [email protected]@fornodocarlos.eswww.pandecea.org

RicePDO Arroz de Valencia

Arroces J. Montoro, S.L.Tel.: (+34) 961 413 [email protected]

Arroces y Cereales, S.A.Tel.: (+34) 962 858 [email protected] www.arcesa.com

Arrocerías AntonioTomás, S.L.Tel.: (+34) 961 740 900 –961 740 [email protected]

Herba Rice MillsTel.: (+34) 961 203 [email protected]

Maicerías Españolas, S.A.Tel.: (+34) 961 850 [email protected]

Productos La Campana, S.L.Tels.: (+34) 961 270 211 –961 270 [email protected]

Source: Consejo ReguladorDOP Arroz de ValenciaTel.: (+34) 961 706 [email protected]

PDO Arroz del Delta delEbro

Arrossaires del Delta del'Ebre, SCCLTel.: (+34) 977 487 [email protected]

Cámara Arrocera delMontsiáTel.: (+34) 977 701 [email protected] www.lacamara.es

Source: Consejo ReguladorDOP Arroz del Delta delEbroTels.: (+34) 977 487 800 /[email protected]

PDO Calasparra

Cooperativa del CampoVirgen de la EsperanzaTels.: (+34) 968 720 123 –968 723 [email protected]

Juan Haro e Hijos, C.B.Tel.: (+34) 968 745 [email protected]

Source: Consejo ReguladorDOP CalasparraTel.: (+34) 968 720 [email protected]

EXPO

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Food ProductsThis is a selection ofexporters supplied by theindividual Sources.

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JAPANTels.: (3) 34 32 61 41/42 [email protected]

NETHERLANDSTel.: (70) 346 59 00 [email protected]

NORWAYTel.: (22) 83 76 76 [email protected]

RUSSIATel.: (495) 935 83 [email protected]

SINGAPORETel.: 67 37 30 08 [email protected]

SWEDEN Tel.: (8) 611 19 92 [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOMTel.: (20) 7317 20 10 [email protected]

UNITED STATESTel.: (312) 642 19 92 [email protected]

Tel.: (323) 658 71 95 [email protected]



PARADORS CENTRALBOOKING OFFICETel.: (+34) 902 547 [email protected]

NETHERLANDSTel.: (70) 364 31 [email protected]

NORWAYTel.: (23) 31 06 80 [email protected]

RUSSIATels.: (495) 783 9281/82/84/[email protected]

SINGAPORETel.: 67 32 97 88 [email protected]

SWEDEN Tel.: (8) 24 66 10 [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOMTel.: (20) 7467 23 30 [email protected]

UNITED STATESTel.: (212) 661 49 [email protected]

For tourist information,contact your nearestSPANISH TOURISTOFFICE:

CANADATels.: (416) 961 31 31/40 79 [email protected]

CHINATels.: (10) 65 32 93 06/[email protected]

DENMARK Tel.: 33 18 66 30 [email protected]

ITALYTel.: (02) 72 00 46 17 [email protected]


For more information,contact the ECONOMICAND COMMERCIALOFFICES AT SPAIN’SEMBASSIES in thefollowing countries :

AUSTRALIA Tel.: (2) 93 62 42 [email protected]

CANADATel.: (416) 967 04 88 [email protected]

CHINATel.: (10) 58 799 733 [email protected]


DENMARK Tel.: (33) 31 22 10 [email protected]

HONG KONG Tel.: 25 21 74 [email protected]

IRELANDTel.: (1) 661 63 13 [email protected]

ITALYTel.: (02) 78 14 00 [email protected]

JAPANTel.: (3) 55 75 04 31 [email protected]

MALAYSIA Tel.: (3) 2148 73 00 [email protected]

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CRED

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CoverToya Legido/©ICEX

Contentsp. 2 Amador Toril/©ICEXp. 3 Amador Toril/©ICEX;Toya Legido/©ICEX; MatíasCosta/©ICEX

Spanish Breakfaspp. 8-9 Toya Legido/©ICEXpp. 10-11 Toya Legido/©ICEX;Nelson Souto/©ICEXp. 12 Toya Legido/©ICEXp. 13 Piedad Sancho-Mata/©ICEXp. 14 Toya Legido/©ICEX;Juan Manuel Sanz/©ICEXp. 15 Amador Toril/©ICEXp. 16 FernandoMadariaga/©ICEX; ToyaLegido/©ICEXp. 17 FernandoMadariaga/©ICEXp. 18 Tomás Zarza/©ICEX;Fernando Madariaga/©ICEXp. 19 Toya Legido/©ICEX

DOCa Prioratp. 20 Matías Costa/©ICEXp. 21 Juan ManuelSanz/©ICEXp. 22 Matías Costa/©ICEXp. 23 Juan ManuelSanz/©ICEXpp. 24-31 Matías Costa/©ICEX

Verdejopp. 32-33 Juan ManuelSanz/©ICEXp. 34 Piedad Sancho-Mata/©ICEXpp. 35-41 top Juan ManuelSanz©BELONDRADE S.L;bottom Juan ManuelSanz/©ICEX

Ricep. 42 Amador Toril/©ICEXp. 43 Anke van Wijck/©ICEXpp. 44-45 AmadorToril/©ICEXp. 46 FernandoBriones/©ICEX; AmadorToril/©ICEXp. 47 Anke van Wijck/©ICEX;Map: Javier Bellosop. 48 Anke van Wijck/©ICEX;Amador Toril/©ICEXp. 49 Anke van Wijck/©ICEX;Amador Toril/©ICEXp. 50 Fernando Briones/©ICEXp. 51 FernandoBriones/©ICEX; AmadorToril/©ICEXpp. 52-57 Toya Legido andTomás Zarza/©ICEX

Breadpp. 58-63 AmadorToril/©ICEXp. 64 Amador Toril/©ICEX;Map: Javier Bellosopp. 65-66 AmadorToril/©ICEX

p. 67 Toya Legido/©ICEXpp. 68-71 Toya Legido andTomás Zarza/©ICEX

José LuisUngidospp. 72-79 Toya Legido andTomás Zarza/©ICEX

Salinas deFuencalientepp. 80-83 PabloNeustadt/©ICEX

RodolfoGerschman fromMexico City

pp. 84-85 Jaleo

TheExtraVirgin.

[email protected]

anunci_EN.indd 1 11/04/12 15:38

Spain Gourmetour 85 (2012)

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Transcript of Spain Gourmetour 85 (2012)