Dinner with Mariano Garcia

Mariano Garcia, Spain’s most renowned winemaker, and his son Alberto Garcia, visited Washington DC briefly and importer Aurelio Cabestrero and the Taberna Del Alabarero restaurant arranged a dinner in his honor last night. I have the utmost respect for Sr. Garcia’s work, and it was a great pleasure to have an opportunity to meet him and learn first-hand why one invariably hears as many complimentary remarks about his personal qualities as one does about his formidable winemaking skills. It was also most enjoyable to meet Alberto again. Alberto runs a couple of notable wine projects with his brother, Eduardo, and generally handles the business side of the family’s wine projects. Although I tease him that he has a very easy job because the quality of the products he has to sell, it is clear that he is very good at what he does.

The dinner was more about eating, drinking, and talking than compiling detailed tasting notes, but here are some very brief impressions of the wines and a run-down of the delicious meal prepared by Santi Zabaleta, Taberna’s Executive Chef.

Sea urchin croquets, scallops tar-tar with caviar, and anchovy and olive cracker served with Vina Somoza 2003 . Some tapas and a nice Godello to get things started.

Light turnip cream with jamon Serrano and pork belly confit served with Prima 2003 . You’ll certainly be hearing more about this new Garcia project from D.O. Toro. This was a barrel sample but the wine will be released, only for export, in a few months. At an anticipated retail price of about $15 this will truly be one of the best bargains in the market. A bright approachable wine intended to be consumed immediately and within its first four years, the wine nevertheless carries the boisterous strong character of a Toro. I cannot name a wine with a nearly similar structure in this price range.

Salted cod chins poached in olive oil with sun dried peppers and caramelized onions served with Astrales 2002 . The ’02 version of Astrales impressed me as more open and elegant that the still tightly wound ’01. A characteristic Ribera del Duero nose with a more graceful and sophisticated palate.

Wild boar stew with chestnuts served with Paixar 2002 . Again the ’02 version of Paixar seemed more open than the ’01 premier vintage. Alberto says that the ’02 vintage in this DO actually exceeds the impressive ’01 vintage. The ’02 also seemed more characteristically Mencia than the ’01 Paixar, which had a profile quite distinct from all the other ’01 Bierzos that I had tried. [Incidentally, all the food was characteristically excellent, but this dish was spectacular.]

Angus beef rib eye steak with sauteed wild mushrooms served with Vina San Roman 2001 . I’ve already commented about this wine in the past, and it just gets better and better. Wide World of Wines in DC is/was temporarily offering it for $38.50, which I consider to be a great deal.

Mixed berry compote with sabayon of monastrell served with Silvano Garcia Monastrell 2003 . This is a great inexpensive desert wine from Jumilla characterized by big blueberry and fig flavors with an appealing non-syrupy mountfeel. This is not a Mariano-family project however, which brings to mind the question of when they will release a dessert wine. I’m sure they have had all sorts of interesting experiments over the years but none have been released.