I am not sure if you remember, but back in January I had the good fortune of travelling to Spain. About half way through the trip we entered the town of Zamora, the urban capital of the province of Zamora and the wine region known as Toro.

Zamora is an ancient city perched at the top of a hill overlooking the Duero river as it flows across the central plains of Spain. From the Castle (Castillo) you look down on a bridge that was built by the Romans early in the 2^nd century AD and is still in use today. This is the backdrop for one of the most amazing meals that I had on the entire trip.

We enjoyed seafood, fresh vegetables, a selection of Jamon (pronounced Ha-mon), olives, chicken and beef. It was a big meal, but what made it so amazing was that every course was served with red wine – Tinta de Toro.

The Tinta de Toro grape, also known as Tempranillo, when close to harvest, is black with thick, chewy skins. Wines from other grapes with this character (Tanat, Malbec, Petite Verdot), can produce huge tannic wines that need years to soften or tame. Tinta de Toro can also be really tannic and aggressive. For this reason the Spanish have long practised strict aging processes. These are stated on the label and include Gran Reserva, Reserva and Crianza.

The reason that we were able to enjoy Tinta de Toro with so many different foods was because of the aging. Older Gran Reserva wines are required to have 60 months of aging (min. 18 months in oak casks no larger than 300L), can be very delicate, earthy and spicy, with bright acidity that will go beautifully with seafood like a Pinot Noir does. Reserva must be aged a minimum of 36 months with no less than 12 months barrel agng. Reservas are brilliant with poultry and soft cheeses.

The youngest and most common of these is Crianza. A Crianza must be aged for 24 months with no less than 6 months barrel aging. These are wonderful with Jamon, roasted or stewed meats and strong cheese.

I speak of all this because a number of the wines that I loved, and have since ordered, will be hitting the shelves in the coming months. The first is the Vina Bajoz (Bah-hose) 2003 Crianza.

This is a wine that needs 45 minutes to breathe and will open up with all sorts of wonderful lavender, rosemary and violet notes entwined with ripe fruit flavours of currants, black wild berries and cherry. This wine has a wonderfully curvaceous body and a long velvety finish that still makes my mouth water.

There  are only 42 cases available and once it is gone there will be no more so jump on it now.

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Cheers

Rod

Beerfest is this week so I thought I would share one of the coolest beer stories that I have come across.

It wasn’t that long ago that every village in the area of Flanders Belgium had its own brewery. The breweries were a great source of pride for the village and from this sprang the tradition of Belgian brewing.

About 200 years ago in the hamlet of Buggenhout , the Bosteel Brewery was established and since then has been handed down from generation to generation. Its reputation was built on Bosteel Pils and this became their first export to far off exotic places like Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels.

As time passed they expanded their line up and attempted some new things. Some didn’t work at all, I won’t rehash those, but a few worked tremendously well. A case in point is DeuS Brut des Flandres which is the successful attempt to create a beer that carries the delicacy and body of a true French Champagne but harbours the flavours characteristic of its barley based nature. In fact the attempt was so successful that it won the coveted ‘Beer of the Year’ Award from Malt Advocate Magazine a few years back.

DeuS Brut des Flandres is the result of a great deal of patience and the blending of two methods. First the Belgian master brewer ferments the beer using special yeast. It then goes through what is called secondary fermentation, which is a period of tank conditioning. After the tank conditioning, it is bottled and sent to Champagne where it starts a 3^rd fermentation in the bottle which lets the creamy textures and baked bread aromas integrate with the citrusy aspects of the malt. The DeuS is then left to slowly ‘ripen’, as the brewmaster calls it, where it is slowly turned on the riddling rack which sees the yeast cells start to collect in the neck of the bottle. Lastly, just like a fine Champagne, it is disgorged- great word. This is the process where the neck of the bottle (where the yeast cells have collected) is frozen,  making the extraction of the yeast plug simple, clean and easy. Following disgorgement, the beer is left to rest before making its journey to its final resting place- your palate (hopefully!).

I have served the DeuS on a number of occasions and it is perfect with lighter style foods like local whitefish or trout, tender grilled chicken and even with a cheese plate of soft cheeses like Brie.

I once served it to my father-in-law who proclaimed it to be the best wine he had ever had at my place.

Serve chilled, about 2 to 4C, and place in a bucket of ice and water to keep the temperature consistent. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

If you would like more information on the Bosteels Brewery or DeuS Brut des Flandres check out their website at www.bestbelgianspecialbeers.be

Cheers!