Christmas in London

CHRISTMAS IN LONDON:  Two of The Spanish Table alumni have relocated to merry olde England. Libby managed the Seattle store, then opened our Berkeley store in 2001, and is now attending graduate school in London.  Megan Keister has relocated to Expedia’s London office. They both are looking forward to a Dickens of a Christmas!
GREAT GIFTS; SUPER STOCKING STUFFERS:  Here at The Spanish Table, we’re loaded with gifts and stocking stuffers that are practical and useful.  A dozen new cookbooks with recipes from places as diverse as Spain’s El Bulli to the villages of Turkey.  Black cazuelas and bean pots.  Olive wood bowls and spatulas. 2009 Calendars.  Plus a full range of tagines both for cooking and serving the exotic dish we fell in love with during our visit to Morocco last May as well as the flavorful, aromatic spices that bring the Kasbah home.
FOOD PRODUCTS: For the holiday host and hostess, we have cured meats and gourmet cheese and an unmatched selection of Spanish, Portuguese and Argentine wines as well as ports Sherries and Madeiras in a full range of prices to fill any entertainment or gift needs.
CHOCOLATE COVERED ALFAJORES!  Argentina’s Dulce de Leche filled treats!
PECES BRAND FIGURITAS DE MAZAPÁN: Direct from Consuegra (Toledo) Spain.
CATALAN OLIVES:  Bold and spicy Catalan green olives. These large green olives have semi-soft flesh and are marinated in celery, garlic, curry and hot pepper. Those of you that like it picante will enjoy these olives for sure!
LOMO FROM SPAIN: We now stock Palacios brand Lomo Embuchado!  Made in La Rioja, the cured pork tenderloin is seasoned with garlic, smoky pimentón, and sea salt. Slice and serve, or make a simple sandwich with an olive oil-brushed baguette and slices of young Manchego.
O DE OLIVA: Varietal olive oils from three of Spain’s great olives.  Choose from sweet Cuquillo, fruity Hojiblanca or bold, bitter Picual.  Experience the difference!
NUTELLA, COCOKREM OR NOCILLA?  My niece and I discovered Nutella last year when we were riding horses in Ireland.  Each afternoon we’d treat ourselves to biscuits topped with the delightful hazelnut-chocolate spread and now it’s my daily habit!  Cokokrem from Turkey is thicker with more chocolate flavor.  My favorite is still the Nocilla from Spain.  Rich and creamy, its dense chocolate will satisfy any chocoholic.
Our CHEESE CASE is burgeoning with many, many delectable cheeses!  Here are a few selections and recommendations for combining them into a cheese platter.
TORTA DEL CASAR from Extremadura is one of Spain’s most famous cheeses.  Rich and buttery, this raw sheep’s milk, washed-rind cheese takes 20 sheep milked twice daily to create just one wheel of cheese. Serve by cutting off the top and spooning out the delightfully oozy center.   Due to its delicate nature, it is sold only as a full wheel.
MAHON ARTISANAL: The famous cheesemonger, Stephen Jenkins, is quoted as saying, “Mahon: what Gouda wished it could be.” Mahon Artisanal is the raw milk version of this cheese–rarely brought to the U.S.! This cow’s milk cheese from Menorca has a golden orange rind with a sharp, salty, buttery, interior. Mahon can hold its own with many of Spain’s sheep and goat milk cheeses, and is my #1 recommendation for pairing on a cheese platter. 
SUGGESTED CHEESE AND PATE PLATTERS:
Catalan Platter:  Drap, Ros, Montcabrer, Nevat
Portuguese Platter:  Dom Villas, Queijo Amarelo, Queijo Cabra Quinta
Basque Platter:  Montcayol, Kaikou, Le Bleu de Basque, Idiazabal                       
Artisanal Platter:  Mahon Artisanal, Roncal, Monte Enebro, Peña Corado
Pate Platter: Truffle Mousse, Coarse Campangne with cornichons and dry cured black.olives.
NEW WINES THIS WEEK:
We have too many wonderful wines under $15 (even under $10) to enumerate them here but if you are having a party, we can put a great wine in your guest’s hands with busting your budget.
2007 Tres Picos Garnacha, Campo de Borja $15.99 New vintage!   Just off the boat and already drinking better than the 2006, this is a rich and balanced garnacha.   Produced from low yielding vineyards, Tres Picos has concentrated flavors of blackberries and strawberries with notes of black pepper, vanilla and plums.   90 points Stephen Tanzer
2005 Pago Florentino, La Mancha $19.99 100% Cencibel (called Tempranillo in other parts of Spain), this is a staff favorite.   Lavishly oaked and teeming with ripe black fruit, this is an unctuous and modern wine.   Full bodied with notes of smoke and balanced with fine acidity and a long spicy finish, this is all around a delicious wine.  
2006 Alto Moncayo Veraton Campo De Borja $23.99 Veraton arrived a week ago and we scooped up 18 bottles before the distributor sold out.  “Very spicy on the nose, which displays blackberry, blueberry, white pepper and cinnamon qualities.  Sappy dark berry flavors combine intensity with depth, picking up candied licorice with air.   … This went through several changes in the glass and is utterly delicious now.”   91 points Stephen Tanzer                 
2006 Alto Moncayo Campo De Borja $42.00 12 bottles available “Impressively complex, seductive bouquet of dark berry preserves, tobacco, graphite, and smoky Indian spices.  Pliant black raspberry and candied cherry flavors are enlivened by zesty minerals and firmed by fine-grained tannins.  An exotic floral pastille quality emerges with air and carries into the finish, which is strikingly sweet, lively and persistent.”  93 points Stephen Tanzer
2005 Alvaro Palacios Les Terrasses Priorat ($38.00) “A more affordable introduction to his intense, elegant style.”   90 points Wine Spectator
COLLECTOR’S CORNER
2000 Marques de Murrieta Ygay Gran Reserva Especial Rioja $57.00 “Offers up an enticing perfume of cedar, pencil lead, earth notes and black fruits… a supple textured, layered wine with ample black cherry.” 93 points Wine & Spirits, 90 points Robert Parker2005 Bodegas y Vinas Dos Victorias Gran Elias Mora Toro $83.00 “Has an iron grip now, but there’s impressive concentration.  Shows rich cassis, coffee, anise and tar notes.”   2 bottles available   95 points Wine Spectator
2005 Bodegas y Vinas Dos Victorias Elias Mora Crianza Toro  $40.00 “Best value which shows a core of cassis, currant and espresso flavors.”  93 points Wine Spectator
2004 Bodegas y Vinedos Maurodos San Roman Toro ($57.00) “Alluring plum, blackberry, cola and spice cake flavors are rich and balanced in this expressive red…”  94 points Wine Spectator  One of Wine Spectator’s Top 15 Spanish Wines of 2008
WARRES VINTAGE PORTS:   We’ve just received a limited number of these ports:
1980 Vintage $109.00 “A solid port from an unsung vintage.”
1985 Vintage $112.00 “… Grape, chocolate and plum.  Full and chewy.”  91 points Wine Spectator
1991 Vintage $90.00 “Raisiny and very sweet, with plum and prune flavors.”  90 points Wine Spectator
1994 Vintage $103.00 …”fabulous concentration and complex character.  Full bodied, with velvety tannins… Beautiful wine.  Best after 2008.”   95 points Wine Spectator
RESTAURANT NEWS:  We were thrilled when highly regarded Spanish restaurant Taberna del Alabardero opened yesterday in the former Cascadia location on First Avenue in Belltown.  We noshed on a fantastic array of tapas at their Sevilla location a few years ago and will be checking out their Seattle location very, very soon!  Their Washington D.C. location was named the “best Spanish restaurant outside of Spain.”  Purple Wine Bar’s newest venture, Barrio is now open on 12th, near Pike.  Modern Mexican in a space saturated in ambience, terrific food at wallet-friendly prices and a great wine list.

YBARRA ANCHOVY STUFFED OLIVES

YBARRA ANCHOVY STUFFED OLIVES are back in stock!   Our first visit to Ybarra’s Sevilla office a few years ago happened to be the day before La Feria de Abril began.  Javier, Ybarra’s export manager, invited us to join his group on opening day.  For this, the social event of the year, men wear suits and shiny shoes and women dress in the latest flamenco fashion with colorful picos (scarves).    Sevillianos ride horses groomed and polished to their hooves and tote a glass around their neck for sipping sherry.
NEW SHIPMENT OF VALOR CHOCOLATES arrived this week!   Valor has been a master chocolatier since 1881 and operates irresistible chocolate shops all over Spain. Located in the seaside town of Villajoyosa Alicante, a chocolate industry sprang up in this region when fishermen brought chocolate back from Ghana.   Stopping at the factory in 2006, we were given a tour which ended in the tasting room and discovered chocolates that we simply had to bring in.   We’ve now got dark chocolate bars flavored with orange, banana or pear ($3.69 per 3.5 oz bar).   Small boxes of Bombones – great for stocking stuffers! – are $5.39.  Decorative tins of Bombones (10.5 oz) are $19.99.
BOQUERONES ON SALE: White anchovies.  Special price, regularly $11.99; now $6.99 while they last.
CHEESE CASE
Every December we feature an extra selection of highly prized cheeses from Spain and Portugal.    Our holiday line up began arriving this week:
Currently we have a nice fat wheel of Nevat, our fourth Catalan cheese in the case. I can’t think of any other cheese that would better kick off the season with a lively glass of Cava. Maker Josep Cuixart takes same-day goat milk from his own herd and hangs the curds in a cheese cloth until it looks like a snow capped Mountain. (Nevat means snow in English.)  Nevat can be positively oozy in its old age, or like a firm brie, but it captivates with a chalky core of sweet tang.
Torta Del Casar: Fantastic sheep’s milk cheese from Extremadura.   Salty, herbaceous almost spoonable; with artichoke rennet.
Cabra Quinta Da Gardunha: Creamy Portuguese goat’s milk cheese, fresh and slightly tangy with a grassy piquant flavor.
Dom Villas: Springy textured cow’s milk cheese to complement your Portuguese cheese platter.
Sao Jorge: Wonderfully piquant, intense and creamy, it pairs perfectly with Linguica.
All of these Portuguese are made with vegetarian rennet.
NEW FLAMENCO CD: Cantaora La Tana was discovered by Paco de Lucia and performs on his CD “Cositas Buenas.”   “Tu, Ven A Mi” is La Tana’s first solo release and features producer Paco de Lucia on acoustic guitar.  This compelling CD is a must-have for any flamenco afficionado. 
KUDOS TO THE WINE PRESS for taking notice of the amazing wines coming out of Spain and Portugal!   The Wine Spectator’s Dec. 15 issue features wines from Spain and enthuses over Rioja:   “Today, no other region can deliver such quality, value and diversity.”
Some of the highly recommended wines that we’ve got in stock:
2007 Adega Condes de Albarei Albariño, Riax Baixas ($13.99) “Focused and distinctive… Complex yet balanced.”  90 points Wine Spectator
1998 Lopez de Heredia Viña Gravonia Crianza Rioja ($27.99) “R. Lopez de Heredia continues to carry the flag for traditional white Riojas, made with Viura long-aged in American oak; its Viña Gravonia Crianza is unique, with toasted hazelnut, lemon confit and lanolin notes, firm and delicate.”  91 points Wine Spectator
2005 Quinta de Cabriz Dao Reserva ($19.99) “Powerful, dripping with rich, dark plum and mocha.”  89 points Wine Spectator
2004 LAN Rioja Reserva $17.99 “Silky, expressive” 90 points Wine Spectator
2005 Condado de Haza, Ribera del Duero ($29.99) “Shows focus and depth, on a supple frame.” 93 points Wine Spectator
2001 Bodegas Luis Cañas Selección de la familia Reserva Rioja ($33.00)       “This lively red has a syrupy texture, yet crisp acidity, showing kirsch, cassis, vanilla and licorice flavors.  It’s dense and focused, with well integrated tannins.”  90 points Wine Spectator
COLLECTOR’S CORNER
2005 LAN Edition Limitada ($50.00) “Intense, vibrant, a great value” 91 points Wine Spectator
2005 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla ($150.00) “Muscular, with a distinctive meaty note, Bodegas El Nido is the top producer…  It’s 2005 adds Cabernet Sauvignon to the mix and shows blueberry, mineral and tar flavors.”   94 points Wine Spectator
Highly recommended from Argentina:
2005 Luigi Bosca Malbec Reserva ($19.99) “A big, broad-shouldered wine, with muscular layers of black fig, coffee, bittersweet cocoa and dark licorice.”  91 points Wine Spectator
2007 Viña Doña Paula Malbec ($12.99) “Dark and winy, delivering warm currant paste, cocoa powder and Turkish coffee notes, with solid grip on the fleshy finish.”  90 points Wine Spectator
SPANISH WINE DINNER Casa Ventura Imports is teaming up with Restaurant Perché No for a Mediterranean culinary event on Wednesday December 10 at 6:30 p.m.   Spanish wines will be paired with a 5 course Italian dinner, accompanied by a live opera singer and an olive oil tasting.    Perché No is located in the Greenlake neighborhood and the cost is $75.00 per person.   For reservations or more information, call 206-547-0222.