|
|
Laely’s Adventures | the woman behind the wines
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16th, 2008 Maybe It's The Cava? Adventures AROUND Making Wine If you're reading this, chances are you already know something about wine, and HOW it's made. Simply put, wine is fermented grape juice.
What is probably more interesting is “WHY” are wines the way they are? What influences a winemaker to make wine in the first place, make it a certain style, and where to grow it? So, as an adventurer and winemaker, I’m going to relate some of the adventures that happen to me along the way, things that end up inspiring new ideas for me as a winemaker. They may be tangential, and it doesn’t matter where the weird ideas come from, they all matter and somehow end up as part of every wine I make.
After all, I didn't need to start in a specific place. It wasn't as if I were from California, or France, or Spain. I didn't grow up in one place, and I didn't have a family vineyard to tend. My life was much more random than that; and for my winemaking, it was about passion and following what was culturally interesting and about places, languages, food, and people I've met along the way. I make 2 wines in the south of France. Pinot Noir and Merlot. In Spain, I make Sexto - a blend of 6 grapes in Terra Alta, Catalonia - and a wine that has not yet been released from the Priorat region. I've spent years of my life in France; living in Bordeaux and the South, and making wine in the Languedoc since 1994. I've been lucky to spend a fair amount of time in Spain over the years too. I lived there briefly as a kid, and during university in Bordeaux we'd go just a few hours over the border to check things out. San Sebastian is my food Mecca, and I always try to get to Pamplona for the fiesta San Fermin (Pamplona), famous for the running of the bulls. I recently returned from harvest in France and Spain. But instead of writing about the harvest in depth, I'd rather write about an area that is going through major changes - Northeast Spain. What's happening now, particularly in the area around Barcelona, really excites me. I think that this new food movement is as important as Alice Water's "Californian Cuisine", Asian Fusion, or “going” local/organic/green. Ferran Adria, the chef at El Bulli, arguably started this food movement. He got the world's attention with his outrageous 3-star dining heaven (I've had 2 beautiful, 36 course extravaganzas there). Chances are you already know about El Bulli or Ferran. I think he's somewhat responsible for launching an entirely new food scene. His disciples, and "the pretenders", have changed things, even if it's only to bring attention to the way things were done before, with slight tweaks. It's these tweaks I'm finding interesting. Bar Pinotxo: This is the place I wish I could go every day…It’s smack dab in the middle of the market-doesn’t’ get any fresher.
Mercat de la Boqueria: Pull up a metal stool to the bar, have a cava, café amb gel, order breakfast, my favorite meal…or lunch or dinner. But let’s talk breakfast…. where else can you get flash fried dark green peppers, baby squid with garbanzo beans, mushrooms perfectly sautéed with young garlic, divine gambas a la plancha (huge, bright pink/orange colored prawns, so juicy and perfectly grilled, the list of tasty tidbits goes on and on. The man who runs the show has been there forever; he must be nearing 100! He won’t let you have anything other than the perfect meal. Seriously. If you haven’t ordered something he thinks you need, he’ll send it to you anyway, and you realize he’s right. So simple, so perfect, everything so fresh it makes you wonder about anything else you’d ever eat. People here actually take time to have a civilized, sacred meal, which isn’t about work, or rushing around…it’s about being right there that second, eating fresh, local food simply.
Barcelona is changing, and I love it. While I'm there I ponder that it's a lot like wine, or a great meal in the market. You start with great raw product (fruit) and make things simply. It takes time. It takes good people. I watched the guys working for the old man at Mercat de la Boqueria; the cooks, bar guys, and I watched them run around the market getting fresh goodies from their buddies, the other vendors…fish, meat, fruits, veggies. How does this reverie affect my wines? Something about appreciation. I said it was tangential, but all these experiences somehow make it into my wine. Or maybe it's listening to other people, like when the old man tells you that you need something and you realize, “yeah, that’s exactly what I needed.” Definitely sounds like it’s the cava…
Some other fun places and great restaurants that may be of interest:
I love tapas, and I saw some changes from the old style, to fanciful, new creative tapas. Here are a few of my favorites, old style and new:
Quimet y Quimet: Packed, no seats, small, but amazing. Lots of conservas, which is an art form in Spain; canned, jarred, delicious little fish. All sorts of bizarre things to try, and amazing wines –very international.
Inopia: Owned by Ferran Adria’s brother, Albert, this is very UN El Bulli, on purpose. This is tapas, definitely a modern twist, here’s a good example of “tweaking”. The fluorescent lights are part of the charm, the food and creative bebidas delicious. Tweaks? Not only here, but also in a lot of places, the newer items are “bombs”, and “bikinis”. Bombs are round, small fist shaped croquettes or other hot, molten foods inside something like a crust. Bikinis look like kid’s grilled cheese sandwiches minus the crust, but between the grilled bread isn’t boring cheese, it’s goodies like Iberico ham, truffles, foie gras, etc.
Cal Pep: Old school favorite. Line out the door for a good reason, well worth the wait. Amazing food and an amazing operation…I know it’s in every tourist book, but it’s still worth it and the locals still go there too.
Bar Mut: This looks like a cool little marble topped bar, but the food blew me away. Their foie gras bikinis are worth the trip to Spain alone. They have great wines, not touristy.
Tapac 24: This is the low-key tapas version of Commerc 24, the fancy restaurant most similar to El Bulli in Barcelona. I love them both – everybody does. I had to get a double order of Mc Foie Burgur before my bull stew and sublime squid with black rice.
To stay: Hotel Banys Orientals, in the Born area. Hip, only 83 Euros a night, right in the action, who cares if the rooms are small.
TUESDAY, JULY 29th, 2008
Setting the Record Straight
For the record, I am not a Bond girl. I don’t have a secret identity, multiple passports or a corkscrew, let alone a pistol in my boot. Never been to Langley, VA or 10 Downing Street. Never had gadgets designed to do amazingly painful things to somebody else. Nope, Laely Heron winemaker, not secret agent. OK — got it?
Yikes, I mean it’s nice when people say nice things about you but sometimes they go a bit overboard. Recently Intowine.com asked to do a piece on Heron Wines and myself and the resulting piece, was very flattering and kind, but a Bond girl? Nope, just a winemaker.
Maybe it’s because at Heron we approach things so differently than the larger monolithic wine companies. There are a lot of big players with many more resources than we have. We are an alternative to the huge companies that tend to dominate this price range. My goal is to make wines that always shock people when they taste the quality and see the price. It is possible, and I want to continue to over deliver high quality, handcrafted wines at fair prices.
I'm a firm believer that "less is more" if you start with great grapes, grown in the right place, for each varietal of wine. If you start with high quality "raw product" (just like cooking) there is less need for manipulation, and the grapes can do the talking. People ask me all the time if my philosophy is more French in style because of my background there; and my answer is "no", my philosophy is BALANCED in style.
So when people ask me, what’s your secret to making great wines, I tell them to get a big worldview; it only helps your wines. Taste from every region you can, see what people are doing internationally. If you want to make a Sangiovese, go hang out in Italy and LEARN what people do there, and then check out other places too. Learn first, and then do your own thing.
I don’t know, call me crazy in that I want my Chardonnay to taste like the fruit and not the barrel. I want my Pinot Noir to taste of Pinot Noir and not some other varietal. The same holds true for all of our wines. Think about it, isn’t it insane when people market their Merlots by reassuring the trade and the consumer to not to “worry, because our Merlot drinks like a Cabernet.” Maybe it’s just me, but when I want to drink Cabernet, I buy a Cabernet.
So there you have it, all of Heron’s state secrets readily available and on the table. Nothing to hide, so no need for a secret lair or passports in another name. Make great wine from the best fruit and sell it at an affordable price. That’s it.
Then again, if diamonds are forever maybe I should go after this secret agent thing after all…. |
|
|
RSS: News Feed – Events Feed – Products Feed