The Maestro Takes a Vacation to Spain and Portugal

As a working winemaker and owner, it’s difficult for #thewinemaestro to take vacations and truly “check-out” of the daily routine. However, there is one time of year that it slows down, just after Christmas. Most people are wrapped up in New Year’s resolutions of eating healthy, working out and going dry in January. I, on the other hand, can slip away for a little while and eat cured meats, drink copious amounts of wine (and vermouth it seems) and walk around cobblestone villages till midnight working off my 9pm dinner.

Overlooking Granada from the Alhambra

So that’s exactly what I did, I took a trip to Spain and Portugal; I’ve never stepped foot in either country and Southern Spain has nice weather in January. Luckily, there are direct flights these days to Barcelona, where I started and ended my holiday. In between the Barcelona bookends it was a world-wind type of trip, Lisbon, Seville, Granada; sticking with the south for warmer weather. I’ve given the short list of some of the great dishes and restaurants I checked out. I’ll detail more of them on the blog in the weeks to come.

The quick and dirty on some of the best dishes and Restaurants:

• Pan con Tomate Tapisco, Lisbon

• Croquettes, Bodegas Castaneda, Granada

• Best Braised Meat, Bar del Pla, Barcelona

• Chicharrones, Bar Alfalfa in Sevilla

• Best Salad, the one I prepared at my AirBnB

• Fried Cuttlefish aka Fish Sticks Tapisco, Lisbon

• Tortilla Espanola, Petra, Seville

• Biggest Pile of Fish on a Plate, Ramblero within the Boqueria, Market Barcelona

• Best Dessert, Chocolate Cake, Landeau Chocolate in Lisbon

• Patatas Bravas, Mundial Bar, Barcelona

• Paella...I haven't had it enough to make a judgement

• Tartare of Fish, Tartare-IA inside TimeOut Market, Lisbon

• Bocadillo, aka Sandwich, Taberna Malvasia, Granada

• Vermut aka Vermouth, Terrazza Dona Maria, Seville

• Red Wine, Horacio Simoes Segredos 2015

Highly noteworthy dishes and Restaurants…

Best Simple Dish made Creative and Elegant and shouldn’t pair well together: Slow and Low, Barcelona Artichokes in fonduta drizzled with chili oil with a heaping pile of freshly shaved truffles

Best Spin on a Classic, Suba, Lisbon and a “reinvented” Tartare of cooked beef in truffle cream.

Best Overall Dish: Hoja Santa, Barcelona Black garlic mole of 70 ingredients with avocado and pistachio (Yeah, I know, I fly all the way to Spain to rave about Mole’…blame Albert Adria and Paco Mendez for making incredible food!)

I’ll be focusing on each of the towns I visited and the individual dishes and restaurants, complete with pictures of the food and occasionally the scenery.

Spain and Portugal treated me very well. It was a welcome vacation. There are several blog posts to follow regarding the details of the food and wine, so stay tuned.

Who wants to try a $500 wine?

Who wants to try a $500 wine? Or perhaps a $30 wine that tastes like pickle juice?

Part 1

I love being involved in wine tastings. Triple threat Chef/Somm/Proprietor Chris Shackelford has been holding open tastings for as long as I remember.  Usually about 30 or so wines from around the world are poured, with a mix of anything from a $20mid-week sipper, natural wines, right on through a $500 cult Cab from Napa; basically something for everyone and every budget. Knowing how to taste at Shack’s event is key, everyone bum-rushes the most expensive Pinot first, so avoid that station. Rather, enjoy a glass of Riesling or Sparkling wine to start, as there should be enough Pinot to try in about 20 minutes.

Highlights from Shack’s tasting for me included the Hourglass HG III Red Blend 2016 out of Napa, a Merlot heavy wine and rather enjoyable this early for $55, it’s warm-weather, modern, with some oak, but it totally works. The Schrader RBS To-Kalon Beckstoffer 2015 is pure clone 337 Cabernet on a specific French oak for 20 months, which allows me to see what a very pure expression of Cabernet tastes like in the modern style.  I work with clone 337 in Dry Creek, so it’s helpful to see where other winemakers take the fruit. For something with some bottle age and grace, a 1985 Forman Cabernet, Napa Valley was a dramatic contrast to the Hourglass or Schrader. The 85 Forman came in at 12.8% alcohol and drinking as you would expect a wine of pedigree from that era, wonderfully. Looping back to Pinot, the 2015 Trombetta Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast was my favorite in the line-up. Oh, there was a Scarecrow in there too, yawn…(that’s because I didn’t get any).

From the Shackelford tasting there were a few wines of the 'natural' category (not pictured). Pickle juice and brett showed up in back-to-back wines where flaws become flavors to some. It’s tough for me and other winemakers to be blatantly honest about many of these wines, as some of the winemakers are our peers and friends. Some of the stuff is just plain horrible and it gets an audience, simply because it’s different, not good. In fact, Sonic Burger just announced a Pickle Juice Slushie just in time for summer. Combine that with kombucha sales and maybe there’s a trend for vinegar based beverages. I’m just tasting volatile acidity (VA) and poorly made wines from producers who know better.

Perhaps among ancient Rome’s peasants, having a wine that tasted like pickle juice and had 10% alcohol in it was better than dysentery or cholera, but we live in modern times and I don’t want wine that tastes like pickle juice. Let’s face it, you messed up your ferment and you have to sell it, I get it, bulk it out next time and call it a day. 

I'll post Part 2 of my all-day tasting with a post entitled Back in the Game and a double blind tasting.

Maestro Meme Monday

Alliteration and Memes are fun to use, so the Maestro Meme Monday was born.

You may have noticed some self-depricating humor recently on the Mastro Scheidt Instagram account, depicting me and my father in some photos over the last few seasons. What often makes a meme funny is that the meme is true. I can tell you for certain, the phrases and expressions in these memes are true and have been thought about or said aloud.

We hope you enjoy them throughout 2018, every Monday, for Maestro Meme Monday.