« Landmark Menu Labeling Legislation Lands on Governor’s Desk | Main | Coors Brewers Raises Beer Prices for Second Time This Year »
September 02, 2008
Vino Barcelona Spain Come of Age
I suppose it's finally official. Spain is no longer trendy; it's mainstream. It took tennis sensation Raphael Nadal, Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and,
more improbably, Woody Allen this summer to put the land of writers like Cervantes and galleries like Bilbao fully on the map for suburban North America.
Suddenly even populist movie critics such as Roger Ebert are drooling over the setting, not just the sexy stars, of Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. "The city is magnificent," the famous thumb recently typed. Certainly the regional Catalan government, which partly, and controversially, funded Allen's hit movie, must be muy satisfecho with the investment.
Foodies everywhere, though, had for about 15 years known that Spain, and in particular the northeast region of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, is today's global hot spot for dining trends. By the early 1990s, surrealist chef Ferran Adria - Salvador Dali with a basting brush - had been making ripples across the ocean with his foams and seaweed-based gelatins, creating tromp l'oeil presentations like oyster froth and liquid ravioli.
Shrewd restaurateurs soon riffed on the Spanish new wave, deploying "tapas" - the Spanish term for bar food - as a euphemism for cutting back on portions while keeping prices the same, a development that in McDonald's parlance might be less-generously dubbed Shortchange-me!
Advertisements, (article continues below)
Today in North America it's gotten hard to avoid foams and gelatins on expensive restaurant menus. And thanks now to Woody, can McFoams be far off?
Curiously, it has taken Spanish wine longer to make its modern splash. Perhaps it's because many producers have clung to old ways, crafting "tintos" (Spanish for red) that can taste like they've been sitting in mouldy old barrels and mingling with the Mediterranean air for too long. Which frankly, many have.
Most modern-minded wine consumers would call these wines anachronisms - Franco Tintos, if you will. But these old, woody wines can have their charm, depending on your perspective and taste buds.
They are time capsules of the era before refrigerated, stainless-steel fermentation tanks and polished, air-tight winemaking.
There are, of course, also many new-style producers crafting wines as youthful, fresh and seductive as Vicky and Cristina, yet still with some of the Old World charm and romance of a city like Barcelona.
You can find the entire spectrum in stores across the country!
Soource: “Vino Cristina Barcelona,” Beppi Crosariol, Globe and Mail, September 2, 2008
Posted by fortna at September 2, 2008 07:29 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.avenuevine.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/4278