OK, but just a little. My words to Felix, the owner of FelixMassana winery, as he was offering me a taste of his new test Merlot right from the fermenting vat. I was limiting this glass because it was following at least 6 prior glasses which had been consumed (not tasted) since we started our tour that morning.
There were 8 of us on the tour, plus our tour guide Charles--who hailed 14 years ago from Oregon. He came from OSU to do graduate work and never went home! Our van consisted of us, Sandy & Betty from the cabin next to us, and a Norwegian family of 4. We started by examining the soil, the 75 year old root stock, the grafting of new stock, and the packets of sex pheromones they use to confuse the flies so they won't lay eggs on the plants--apparently it leads to very frustrated flies. There is no irrigation allowed in this region and they use age-old techniques, including harvesting at night, to achieve some delicious results.
Our first stop, Eudald Massana Noya is run by the 9th generation of the family. Their wines are completely organic, or here they call it "Agricultura ecologica". Locals come to pick up their week's supply of wine and they use whatever containers are handy-- the wine is about 1 euro per liter.
Our tasting started with the Sauvingnon Blanc, moved on to the Rose, and finished up with the Cabernet--as demonstrated here by Betty, Fritz and Sandy!
From there we drove 5 minutes to Felix's where he showed us his hand bottling process before sitting us down for a delicious lunch prepared by his wife Cristina and his mother.
We had a tortilla (what we call a frittata), freshly made bread rubbed with olive oil and tomatoes, 5 kinds of salami and Proscuitto, local cheese made with cow's milk and goat's milk and lots more wine. Again, we started with the white and progressed through the Rose to the Reds, then we topped it off with the specialty of the house-- the Cava (champagne). I have 2 bottles of the Cava and 2 of the Cabernet in the cabin. It might make it home for a special occasion, but we do have a lot of days at sea coming up so we'll see. After the Cava we moved on to local hazelnuts and almonds plus some delicious biscotti which was washed down with some Muscat. Here Felix demonstrates the appropriate pouring of the Muscat.
Mine ended up in my eye, down my chin, and in my lap---obviously I need more practice.
You might think that we had consumed plenty of wine for 10 days, let alone one, and you would be right, but we followed up this tour by going to dinner in Barcelona. Charles had strongly recommended El Salon, which is down a little alley in the Gothic Quarter, so the 4 of us went and had a wonderful meal with more local wine! As we were strolling back to the ship along the waterfront (the remains of our restaurant wine corked and carried) the locals we just coming out--it was 11pm.
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There were 8 of us on the tour, plus our tour guide Charles--who hailed 14 years ago from Oregon. He came from OSU to do graduate work and never went home! Our van consisted of us, Sandy & Betty from the cabin next to us, and a Norwegian family of 4. We started by examining the soil, the 75 year old root stock, the grafting of new stock, and the packets of sex pheromones they use to confuse the flies so they won't lay eggs on the plants--apparently it leads to very frustrated flies. There is no irrigation allowed in this region and they use age-old techniques, including harvesting at night, to achieve some delicious results.
Our first stop, Eudald Massana Noya is run by the 9th generation of the family. Their wines are completely organic, or here they call it "Agricultura ecologica". Locals come to pick up their week's supply of wine and they use whatever containers are handy-- the wine is about 1 euro per liter.
Our tasting started with the Sauvingnon Blanc, moved on to the Rose, and finished up with the Cabernet--as demonstrated here by Betty, Fritz and Sandy!
From there we drove 5 minutes to Felix's where he showed us his hand bottling process before sitting us down for a delicious lunch prepared by his wife Cristina and his mother.
We had a tortilla (what we call a frittata), freshly made bread rubbed with olive oil and tomatoes, 5 kinds of salami and Proscuitto, local cheese made with cow's milk and goat's milk and lots more wine. Again, we started with the white and progressed through the Rose to the Reds, then we topped it off with the specialty of the house-- the Cava (champagne). I have 2 bottles of the Cava and 2 of the Cabernet in the cabin. It might make it home for a special occasion, but we do have a lot of days at sea coming up so we'll see. After the Cava we moved on to local hazelnuts and almonds plus some delicious biscotti which was washed down with some Muscat. Here Felix demonstrates the appropriate pouring of the Muscat.
Mine ended up in my eye, down my chin, and in my lap---obviously I need more practice.
You might think that we had consumed plenty of wine for 10 days, let alone one, and you would be right, but we followed up this tour by going to dinner in Barcelona. Charles had strongly recommended El Salon, which is down a little alley in the Gothic Quarter, so the 4 of us went and had a wonderful meal with more local wine! As we were strolling back to the ship along the waterfront (the remains of our restaurant wine corked and carried) the locals we just coming out--it was 11pm.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Spain
1 comment:
I'm loving the updates...keep them coming :) Sounds like a fun time with the wine...maybe you can demonstrate that pouring technique at the wedding!
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