You might be forgiven for thinking that the most famous thing about the village of Barrantes are its traffic lights (about 5 sets in the space of 200 metres – not synchronised), but you’d be wrong. Excluding Bodegas Castro Martin (that is not actually located in the village itself), there is a small family restaurant called O Tìo Benito, which loosely translated means With Uncle Benito, or perhaps At the table of Uncle Benito. Described in our local press recently as a ‘temple of cooking with a common touch’.

Clearly, when we’re working, we usually don’t have time to take lunch outside the bodega, but if we did, this would certainly be at the top of our list for local dining. Now, I’m not suggesting that this is a Michelin starred restaurant, but when it comes to honest, down-to-earth, great home cooking, then this is certainly the place to go. Run by Camilo Lojo, his wife Saladina and daughter Irene, this local landmark was established almost 40 years ago, and I swear that people have been queuing to get in ever since! I should tell you that the place is always packed (with locals rather than tourists), which is always the true indicator of good quality and value. Indeed, in my many years travelling the world as a buyer, I would always make a point of actively seeking out the small local restaurants that were overflowing with local people….. I have rarely had a bad meal working on this basis.

Tìo Benito is a place that we use to take visitors for lunch, so that they can savor the village atmosphere as well as it’s typical food. Famed for it’s Cod, Octopus, Cocido and other local dishes it has a fixed menu, and several other dishes that are rotated on a daily basis. It is also well-known for its award winning Tinto de Barrantes – the local wine that is guaranteed to stain you teeth a deep red colour. I’m afraid to admit that this is not my favourite tipple. On the other hand however, my personal recommendation is the selection of freshly homemade desserts, most especially the oven baked cheesecake, which is often still warm from the oven when it is served – heaven! I love this so much that Angela will often buy a whole one for me in place of a birthday cake. I don’t eat it in one sitting, but it certainly doesn’t last too long, and I only share it with others very grudgingly (typical old git that I am!)

We are currently slotting an oven and hotplate into our tiny kitchen in the Bodega, and I will write more about this later, but in the meantime we will have to settle for the table of our Uncle Benito.

As a bit of a foodie one of my favourite channels on TV is the Food Network, and very recently there’s a new programme that’s caught my eye. It’s called Meat & Potatoes (although not so much about the potatoes). The ex-chef and cattle rancher Rahm Fama presents the show and spends his time trawling all the best meat restaurants of the U.S. Now, I can tell you from my own experience that if you ever visit a steak house in the U.S. be warned, in fact, don’t eat for at least three days before you go. The portions are usually enormous (by European standards), the steaks are like door steps and are enough to feed your whole family for a week!

Well, there’s now some bad news for all you carnivores out there – those dreaded researchers have been at it again. They now claim that eating even small quantities of processed meat such as bacon, sausages or salami on a regular basis can increase the likelihood of dying early by a fifth, and eating steak increases the risk of early death by 12%. The study by the Harvard School of Medicine found that cutting the amount of red meat in peoples’ diets to 1.5 ounces (42 grams) a day, equivalent to one large steak a week, could prevent almost one in 10 early deaths in men and one in 13 in women.

In reality this is nothing new, because it’s apparently down to the amount of salt (in the case of processed meats) and saturated fats. Replacing red meat with poultry, fish or vegetables, whole grains and other healthy foods cut the risk of dying by up to one fifth – again, nothing new. Either way, it looks like the health police look set to terrorise meat-lovers into submission….. Sorry, I have to finish now, I’m just off to enjoy my Full English Breakfast!

No, it’s not the title of a new Gene Pitney song (although that might be difficult as he passed away almost exactly six years ago). It’s actually the time that it took for my meat to arrive from Aberdeen!

Here in Pontevedra there are some things that money just can’t buy…. Scottish beef, pork sausages, rack of lamb, Barbary duck to name but a few. Of course you can find one or two reasonable alternatives, but just occasionally you have to push the boat out and treat yourself to the real McCoy (no, that’s not a rare breed of Scottish beef).

When I was in England at Christmas I found a fabulous online butcher, Donald Russell, who deliver all around the UK. I had a rib of beef sent to my sister’s house so that I could cook a traditional roast lunch for her and her husband. The meat was fantastic, but at that time it didn’t even cross my mind that this butcher might be able to do international delivery. The great news for me is that they do, and so I trawled their website looking for all the things that I can’t buy easily in this remote corner of Galicia. Once a month a courier service collects all the meat orders for Spain – shock frozen and packed in dry ice. 25 hours later they’re in your home freezer….. a very impressive and efficient service.

It was just as well that I had one completely empty freezer, because it’s not any more. All I have to do now is get cooking.

It’s always really nice when a private customer takes the time to write to us to tell us how much they enjoyed drinking our wine. For me this is much better than any gold medal at any wine competition. As I have always maintained, it is the end consumer that really counts - if they really like our wine and come back to buy it again, that is the greatest accolade that we can ever have.

This photo was taken by one such customer here in Spain, who as you can see enjoyed his Christmas meal with fresh oysters washed down by a lovely, refreshing glass of Casal Caeiro. To quote him, he said it was the “perfect marriage”…. Indeed, when we are tasting with customers at various wine fairs around the world, I always say that the only thing we are missing is a plate of fresh oysters to go with the wine!

I have to quickly add that oysters are really not the most photogenic of foods – it’s no wonder that some people are put off just by looking at them. I have however, no doubt that they were absolutely delicious.

In France the English are affectionately known as ‘Les Rosbifs’, which is probably fair enough, as we often refer to them as the ’Frogs’. Of course both of these ’friendly’ nicknames are determined by our respective eating habits – the English love of Roast Beef, and the French love of eating anything that moves (and a lot of things that don’t)! I suppose it could be worse, at least we’re not known as ‘Les Poissons et Frites’…….

Anyway, the subject of my post for today is the New Year treat that I gave myself yesterday, on New Year’s Day. I bought myself a Rib of Beef (which is much easier said than done in this land of ‘ternera’), and cooked it with all the usual English trimmings – crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, a rich dark gravy and a jar of horseradish sauce (that I actually acquired on my recent visit to New York!)

Just to relate this anecdote to the wine business, the gravy was made with just a hint of Madeira, and the whole meal was washed down with a bottle of Chateau Palmer 1986 – yes, you are reading correctly, a 25 year old bottle of Margaux, that was just delicious. (It’s perhaps a bit odd to think that this wine was harvested 5 or 6 years before the birth of our daughter who was sitting at the table with us).

The other English connection is that Chateau Palmer itself was bought and owned by an British Army General, Charles Palmer, in the early 19th century, and since 1938 it has been part-owned by the Sichel family – Bordeaux Merchants for generations, but a family with a very strong English connections. Indeed, it was Charles Sichel who originally gifted me this bottle more than 10 years ago.

And finally, simply allow me to wish everyone visiting our site and/or our blog a very happy and prosperous New Year.

At the end of your Christmas meal (or any good meal for that matter) it could be time to break out the cheeseboard, accompanied by a good glass of red wine….. but then again, red wine might be the wrong choice!

Professional tasters are now saying that the so-called ’experts’ have been getting it wrong for years. To continue with a red wine after the main course is not necessarily the best advice, as it’s possible that it will simply dominate all but the very strongest of cheeses. Apparently white wine is much more versatile and will actually compliment a much wider range of cheese. The creaminess of many varieties such as camembert and  brie are simply drowned out and overpowered by the tannin in red wines – an opinion that I have already voiced on this blog some time ago.

Sweet white wine such as Sauternes are perfect with blue cheeses such as roquefort, as the flavour enhances its saltiness, in the same way that the fresh, acidic taste of albariño offers a counterpoint to the tangy nuttiness of a parmigiano-reggiano. The grassy, mineral flavours of a lighter style of sauvignon blanc (or again our albariño), can also deliver beautiful flavours when matched with goats’ cheese. It is advised however, that oaked white wines should generally be avoided altogether with cheese.

Red wine can still be served with the cheese course, but you will need to invest in an older (and usually more expensive) wine, such as an older Rioja, as time will have softened the flavours of the tannin. But it will still need to be served with a stronger flavoured cheese such as cheddar. Port and stilton can also remain on the menu but instead of the widespread ruby ports, we are advised to try the lighter style of tawny.

At the same time the wine professionals tell us that some whites can also be considered for foods traditionally matched with reds, such as venison or wild boar……. Of course the ideal solution is to simply stick with a good bottle of Albariño for the whole meal!

Coming from the North of England as I do, one of the staples of my diet as a boy was Fish & Chips. Not that my family would eat them on a daily basis, but perhaps once a week, and nearly always on a Friday – it was a sort of tradition. In those days it was not that expensive, and I clearly remember that chips, for example, could be bought for a few pennies, and that the fish on offer was nearly always cod. The other, most significant feature of a Fish & Chip supper was the wrapping – to carry your meal home from the shop, and to help keep it warm, it was always covered with a layer of greaseproof paper and then completely swathed in old newspapers! (Today’s hygiene inspectors would, no doubt, be handing out fines, left, right and centre)

As you can see from the photo – newspaper has been replaced by polystyrene, and they even provide a plastic fork! In my era it was always newspaper and eating with fingers (this may sound a bit crude and uncivilised, but it sure tasted good!)

So the reason for today’s story is the shocking news that the world famous Harry Ramsden’s chip shop in Guiseley, near Leeds, could be about to close. A ‘cathedral’ of Fish & Chips, which traditionally had a permanent queue at the restaurant door, was built in 1931, replacing a small wooden hut where Ramsden started frying in 1928. He chose his site at the junction of two roads leading from Leeds and Bradford to the Yorkshire Dales. His business made the Guinness Book of Records when seating reached 250 and made the building the largest chippy in the world. In 1952 Ramsden celebrated the restaurant’s 21st anniversary by serving 10,000 portions in one single day.

Unfortunately, a series of takeovers and franchises diluted the unique atmosphere, and to be brutally honest, the quality also plummeted, so much so that the queues have long since dried up. Now the writing is on the wall, and the doors could close later this month…..

This tale might not seem completely relevant to our wine business (except that Albariño does go well with fish), but even so, there are still lessons to be learned for any small business – biggest does not always mean best, and maintaining quality should always be paramount.

Modernist Cuisine is no ordinary cook book, indeed it is almost a work of art. Six volumes, extending to some 2,438 pages and weighing in at some 20kg (44lbs), it should perhaps be described more as a food encyclopedia, covering every aspect of food and its preparation.

As you may know I have always been a bit of a ‘foodie’, perhaps even a frustrated chef – I love pottering in the kitchen. Obviously there is a very close relationship between food and wine, and I know for a fact that the majority of wine professionals are also great food connoisseurs. My collection of cookery books is possibly even greater than that of wine books, and this latest addition to my collection is certainly the jewel in the crown.

If you’re looking for a recipe book, then this is probably not for you, but if you simply want to learn more about the science of food and different cooking menthods, then this is a work without equal. The photography and quality of prints is simply stunning, but I have to warn you that it comes with a hefty price tag. So start saving and put your order in now – my copy, that arrived earlier this week, was ordered in May!

I will start by confessing that the most expensive bottle of wine that I have ever bought in a restaurant, in my entire life, was a Château d’Yquem – but not the 1811 vintage I hasten to add. I’m afraid to say that it was one of those occassions where cost of the wine far outstripped the cost of the food, but at least I do have a very clear recollection of the lunch in question….

About a week ago a French collector bought a bottle of d’Yquem 1811 for £75,000 (USD122,600) in a private sale at the Ritz Hotel in London, and although it is claimed that this is the most expensive wine bought privately, this is not strictly true – unless you exclude wine auctions. At auction the most expensive bottle was a Château Cheval Blanc 1947 that was sold at Christie’s last year for £192,000 (USD314,000). So to say that the d’Yquem was the most expensive, it twisting the truth just a little.

The collector who bought this latest wine (bottled at the time of the Emperor Napoleon) intends to drink it in six years time at a dinner in Paris. In the meantime he plans to put it on display at his restaurant in Bali – I do hope that it travels well. From my own experience I have known bottles that did not travel well across the English Channel, never mind to the other side of the world!

Very old bottles like this are frequently re-corked by the producer, and I have to assume that on the last occassion the wine must have been tasted too. About 12 years ago it was described as being like liquid Crème Brulée.

I wasn’t quite sure whether today’s post should be made on our blog page or under the recipe heading on our new main menu. In the end I decided that the recipe page should be saved for food ideas that originate from here in Galicia, either traditional or modern interpretations of the traditional.

The featured fish dish was taken from last weekend’s Daily Telegraph colour supplement – to give it it’s full title the recipe is Seared Halibut with grilled and roasted vegetables and romesco sauce – quite a mouthful in more ways than one. Details of the recipe and the full article can be found here.

The real significance of this post is the recommended wine – our very own Castro Martin, described as follows: “Albariño comes in a number of guises, from fresh and salty through to peachy and textured. This falls into the latter camp, which is ideal as its gorgeous, aromatic, creamy nuances are wonderful with a dense fish such as halibut. Just as vital is the variety’s signature tongue-tingling lift of acid to parry the romesco sauce”.

You may notice, if you look at the original article, a bit of a ‘typo’ – instead of Albariño ‘Sobre Lias’ (on the lees), the Telegraph have mistakenly named our wine Albariño ‘Sobre Luis’ (on Luis)!