Cellar Tours Newsletter
March 2004

Cellar Tastings is a new website dedicated to worldwide food, wine and gourmet travel events. On this exciting new site, you will find detailed information on gourmet and culinary activities and unique travel options for the Gourmand. Cellar Tastings features international events- professional and non-commercial wine tastings, wine and culinary tours, cooking lessons, gourmet dinners, wine fairs, harvest festivals, folkloric festivals related to local artisan products, wine classes and education, sommelier training, etc, and various fun and educational events related to the world of food and wine.
Find events or post your own food or wine events on: www.cellartastings.com

This wonderful wine tour begins at the fabulous 5* Palace hotel in Madrid, where we will meet for an aperitif to discuss our itinerary over a glass of something bubbly. We will journey north to the famed Ribera del Duero Wine region. A few world famous cellars will be visited along the way, and we'll even have a "Tapas" style lunch with wine, at one of the wineries. During our trip, we will visit an interesting wine museum located inside a monumental hilltop castle. After the Duero visit, we carry on to La Rioja, Spain's most famous and oldest wine region, where will be staying in a completely preserved medieval village. We are invited to some of the most stunning cellars in Spain, some of them dating back to the 1890's. We will have wine tastings in gorgeous surroundings. An excursion to a fascinating 10th century monastery is planned, where we can marvel at the pink sandstone and Mozarabic features. Gourmet meals will be enjoyed throughout the trip, including an unforgettable meal in an Art Nouveau "castle", where our Poet host will entertain us with a creative 4-course feast and commentary between courses.
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By Jennifer Drapisch

San Sebastian is a wonderful city- a successful blend of tradition and a rural feel with a modern, cosmopolitan atmosphere. It's also one of the hottest culinary destinations on earth. The lovely far-reaching sandy beaches and the exquisite cuisine attract tourists from all parts of the world. San Sebastian combines radition, atmosphere, and culture with some of the best gourmet cuisine in the world. The Basques are hospitable and have a proud heritage, which they are enthusiastic to share with visitors. They are extremely warm people, who welcome you back time after time. Basque country offers some of the best Michelin starred cuisine in Spain, along with a multitude of "Caserones" (villa style house-cum-restaurants) where they serve typical Basque cuisine based on their rich gastronomic traditions. The essence of San Sebastian is its tradition and indulgent lifestyle that has born a community dedicated to cuisine and the greater spoils of traditional living. In fact, the main attraction to this beautiful city is the food and the atmosphere. Intriguing wines like Txacoli complement the infamous and varied styles of the New Basque Cuisine.
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Parés Baltà is a tiny, top end winery, founded in the 1930's in an area that has been producing wine since the 1700's. The family-owned winery produces Cavas, and still red and white wines. The vineyards are spread out over five premium estates, with a total of 176 hectares of low yielding vines. The vineyards enjoy a balmy microclimate and are located only a few miles form the Mediterranean Sea in the Penedes and Cava ppellations. Parés Baltà uses a multitude of grape varietals for their wines, from the traditional cava grapes of Macabeo, Xarel.lo, and Parellada; to Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon for velvety rich reds; and finally, to non-traditional Catalan grape varietals such as Chardonnay or even Gewurztraminer for oak aged whites. While not an "official" organic winery, they use many eco-friendly viticulture and winemaking practices such as allowing sheep to fertilize the vineyards naturally
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The prestigious Arzuaga Navarro winery was founded by the ambitious and dynamic Florentino Arzuaga, in the wine village of Quintanilla de Onésimo, 20 minutes away from the spectacular crusader castle in Peñafiel. The town of Quintanilla de Onésimo is considered to be Ribera Del Duero's "Golden Mile", as it is home to such wine superstars as Vega Sicilia, Pingus and Viña Mayor. In fact, Arzuaga's vines nestle right up to Vega Sicilia's vines. The beautiful Arzuaga estate is located in the most privileged part of the Duero region, rising 100 metres above the river. The concept of the Wine Hotel was conceived, and the beautiful Hacienda-style five star hotel was built as an extension of the winery installations, right in the vineyards.

Hotel Arzuaga is extremely luxurious but it manages to have a cozy feel at the same time. There are views from the elegant bedrooms of the vines, Jacuzzi baths, and pretty rooms full of antiques, extra large beds, and wine paraphernalia. There are 42 bedrooms, including a few fantastic suites. Once you enter the hotel, you can dine in their gorgeous restaurant (considered one of the best in the whole Ribera del Duero wine region), visit the wine cellars, participate in a "Cata" wine tasting, go for vineyard walks, or drive a few miles down the road to visit the Arzuaga family's private game reserve, complete with stag and wild boar. Cellar Tours is delighted to feature Arzuaga as one of our favorite hotels in Spain for our gourmet wine tours.

5* Hotel Arzuaga
Address: Carretera N-122 Km 325, Quintanilla de Onésimo, Valladolid, 47350 Spain
Tel: +34 983 687 004
Fax: +34 983 687 099
Web: www.arzuaganavarro.com

Our best memory of Portuguese food was a spectacularly juicy steak served with a luscious red wine from the Alentejo, while watching an exquisite Fado performance at Cafe Luso in Lisbon. What can top that gastronomic memory? Portuguese food is fairly unknown, and what a pity as there are so many delicious dishes. Seafood and meat are present in the majority of traditional dishes, and sometimes even in the same dish. Feijoada can be found almost anywhere (and interestingly is also the national dish of Brazil) and is a bean stew, slow cooked with bacon, meat tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley, olive oil, eggs salt and pepper. "Cozido a Portuguesa" is another stew, similar to Spain's "Cocido", made with beef, chicken, pork (smoked), rice, beans, cabbage, potato, carrot and turnip- rustic but heavenly.
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By Tara L Stevens
Featured in the Broadsheet

Only recently opened, Taller de Tapas - literally Tapas Workshop in English -- is reaching cult status in the stomachs and minds of Barcelonans. The reason? They serve only very simple, very fresh food. Tapas, the way God intended it. Enter Taller de Tapas. The latest venture of José Lombardero a veteran restaurateur who's been in the business more than 25-years - he has two other restaurants both named Lombardo, in town -- and his wife Kate Preston, who's been at his side for the last 11. "Taller de Tapas has been our dream baby for years," says Kate with the glow of a new mother. "We love Spanish food and we wanted to do something using all of our favourite recipes, but made fresh on the spot."

The restaurant offers at least 50 different dishes in all, not including deserts. And it's also an excellent place to sample the kind of sturdy regional cooking that makes men out of boys; trinxat for example, a dish of cabbage and potatoes from the fertile plains of the Cerdanya, and richly Autumnal plates of earthy ceps and bolets (local forest mushrooms) sautéed with fine jamon. Likewise, the décor is modern and unfussy with an open kitchen, white walls, steel-grey tiled floors and black clad waiting staff in comfortable contrast to elements of more traditional dining rooms; oak panelling and exposed, rough brick walls. After gorging on too many delicious tapas, desserts inevitably lose their appeal, but if you can squeeze something in, forget the chocolate mousse and ice cream and spare a thought for Grandma and her goats in the hills. Now, there's a desert worth getting fat for. ¡Bon appetit!

Taller de Tapas is located on Plaza Sant Josep Oriol 9 (next door to Plaza del Pí), Barcelona, tel: 93 301 80 20, www.tallerdetapas.com. Open every day except Christmas day, 12noon until midnight. A second branch of Taller de Tapas is on Calle Argenteria 5, El Born, Barcelona, which opens from 9am for breakfast.

By Jennifer Drapisch

Catalonia's premiere wine region of Penedes (located less than an hour south of Barcelona) produces a range of excellent still wines ranging from delicate whites to beefy reds, as well as the flagship Cava. Traditional Method Cava is made with the indigenous grapes of Xarel.lo and Parellada. Excellent Boutique Cava companies include Raventos Blanc, Gramona, and Pares Balta. Freixenet and Codorniu are the two largest and ubiquitous Cava companies. The wealth of Penedes terroir is well-known and the region's indigenous grape varieties are held in increasingly high esteem, along with the best international grapes. The winemakers in Penedes employ thousand year old Mediterranean wine making practices with a modern twist. Wines with the Penedes DO can be found on the menus of the best restaurants all over the world. The range of wine styles in Penedes, from the fresh whites to the elegant Cavas and velvety red wines is one of the most extensive in the world
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