10:39 PM

April - - Wine Makers

Another Great Wine Makers Article

Cooking, Food & Wine Tours of Spain

Cooking, Food & Wine Tours of Spain - In a recent issue of Food & Wine Magazine there is a great article featuring Spain's Top Food Critic Jos? Carlos Capel discussing issues like "Why is Spain the world's most exciting food destination right now?" more... As well in this same issue Anya Von Bremzen gives some insider tips on... "Where To Go Next: Catalonia, Madrid, Galicia | Spain"

This year we have many new exciting culinary & cooking holiday and deluxe wine tours for travelers who would like to savor Spain with a Gourmet Appetite!

Starting off your journey you could try a Galician Coastal Cooking, Food and Wine Tour on the Atlantic Coast of Spain. Galicia is famed for it's fresh, abundant Seafood, highly-acclaimed Albari?o white wines and recently new young chefs like; Xose Cannas of Pepe Vieira who was just mentioned in this months issue of Food & Wine. On the Rias Baixas the sea plays an important role in peoples lives, come visit this magnificent coastline from the sea on our Gastronomic Sailing Journey. For an in-depth view of this undiscovered region of Spain try our 8 Days or 12 Days Deluxe food & wine tours. Even if you only have a couple of days in this region you could take a one day wine tour sampling Albari?o white wines of the D.O. Rias Baixas or Mencia red wines of the D.O. Ribeira Sacra. If you are just stopping through, or arriving at one of the ports of call on cruise and have time only for a half-day, we can offer guided tapa tours in Vigo, La Coru?a, Santiago de Compostela and Lugo.

Moving across Northern Spain to the Basque Country, one of the most notable regions for it's dynamic cuisine with top chefs like; Arzak, Berasategui, etc... In San Sebastian you could take a half-day hands-on Basque cooking class in one of the authentic gastronomic societies or a Pintxo tapa tour of the old quarter enjoying the "tasty little bites" in the most emblematic bars and taverns. For more days we could recommend our week-long Basque Country & Cantabian Cooking Holiday. For wine touring you could visit a Txacoli white winery from Bilbao, as well we can't forget to mention the world-renowned Rioja wines of the Basque/Rioja wine region D.O. Rioja which are a "must-taste" if your are in the area.

On the Eastern side of Spain you will discover the delights of Catalan Cuisine!Another region of "Hot" chefs like; Ferran Adria. Either basing your stay in Barcelona or exploring the countryside of Catalonia we have various tours to offer, for example in Barcelona how about a half-day private cooking class with a visit to La Boqueria Market to shop for the special ingredients for your class with a professional chef. Evening or midday tapa tours with a Food & Wine guide are also a lot of fun to wander the city's old quarter. Venturing out from Barcelona for the day you could learn about the Roots of Catalan Cuisine or a private wine tour to one of the regions like; Penedes, Cava, Priorat & Montsant, Emporda-Costa Brava, Coster del Segre or Conca de Barbera. As well you could try a short-break or week-long trip to learn in-depth about the wines with a expert wine guide. Gourmet Culinary Holidays in the Priorat region are also available for short-breaks or week-long stays.

If you are traveling as a group of ten or more you could stay at the Luxurious 5* Read's Hotel on the Balearic Island of Mallorca and learn the cooking secrets of the Michelin-starred Chef Marc Fosh.

In the middle of Spain lies Madrid, the heart and capital of this country which has much to offer for culinary travelers. Learn about Castilian Cuisine with a professional chef for a half-day cooking class or up to week-long cooking vacations. In the evenings or for lunch this is yet another Spanish city where tapa tours are very popular, or try a more "sit-down" gourmet dinner with a commented Spanish Olive Oil tasting in Madrid at a prestigious city centre restaurant. Ribera del Duero, one of Spain's most important wine regions can be reached in a day as a private VIP chauffeur driven tour or joining a deluxe small group tour from Madrid. Or how about a group excursion of Toledo and the wines of Castile Spain. Explore Quixote Land and discover the roots of Spanish Saffron of La Mancha.

Down South in Passionate Andalusia we have various, cooking, food & wine related tours. Leaving Madrid by high-speed train you could join in on a one day or short-break deluxe tour of Cordoba and the Wines of Montilla. In Seville we have two options for private half-day cooking classes. Learn how to make Spanish Tapas in the well-equipped kitchen of the apartment of an expert chef, or an exclusive cooking classes with one of Seville's most prestigious chefs Willy Moya at his restaurant Poncio. Also within reach from the city are day wine tours to Jerez (Sherry), Sanlucar de Barrameda or Ronda as well visits to Olive Oil Mills and Spanish Cured Ham producer. Try a 4 Day or 7 Day stay in Seville and enjoy all these culinary activities. Nearby Seville in the beautiful Andalusian Countryside can be found the 5* Grand Luxury Hacienda Benazuza, where you could learn the original recipes of Ferran Adria in La Alquer?a Restaurant (two Michelin Stars) prepared by chef Rafael Morales, under the management of the "El Bulli" team. In Granada learn about the ancient Arabic influences in the rice dishes of the region by cooking with local women of Granada. Down on the Costa del Sol in Marbella relax, play some golf and do a bit of wine touring.

After this delectable summary of cooking, food & wine tours we offer to Spain, we are also capable of creating a "personalized" culinary holiday just for you! Lets us know your desires and we will do our best to fulfill your appetite for a food and wine adventure in Spain... as well as Portugal!
For more info go to Euroadventures or CityGuide Europe

About the Author

Publisher CityGuide Europe

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10:09 AM

04/06/08 - - Wine Flavors

Another Great Wine Flavors Article

Ruster Ausbruch: the Exquisite Dessert Wine from Austria

Ruster Ausbruch is a rare, specialty sweet dessert wine which hails from Austria. First, let's look at the name itself: Ruster is pronounced "rooster", like the bird, and it simply means that the wine comes from the town of Rust (pronounced roost), which is in the Burgenland region of Austria. Ausbruch is pronounced ahs-brook, and comes from the German word Ausbrechen, which means to "break out." There are a number of dessert wines from different countries called Ausbruch, and it refers to the method used to select the grapes during harvest: grapes which have been affected by botrytis cinerea (also known as noble rot) are "broken out" of the bunch to be used, leaving the clean, un-affected grapes behind. When you come across a sweet wine labeled "Noble," it is this precious mold they are talking about.

The quality of these wines depends upon how meticulously this selection process it is done. The simplest way involves taking two buckets and making one pass at the vines, roughly separating the merely ripe grapes from those affected by noble rot.

The more labor intensive way involves going through the vineyard day after day, sometimes as much as a dozen times, and only picking the most perfectly noble-rotted grapes with each pass and leaving the rest on the vine until they, too, reach rotted perfection. With this method, even the most experienced picker will collect only about enough grapes to produce 20 liters of wine with each pass. In fact, winemaker Michael Wenzel of the Wenzel Winery tells of a year when it took a team of 7 harvesters working full-time for 10 days to pick enough grapes for a mere 300 liters of this precious wine.

Production then goes something like this: maceration generally takes between a half to 2 days, depending upon the quality of the nobly rotted grapes. Next comes a gentle run through the press. The must is then left to ferment until it reaches around 12% alcohol, which takes approximately four months. The wines are then aged in wooden casks or oak barrels, the length of time and type of barrel used depending upon the style of the vintner

Precious few Ruster Ausbruch wines are currently imported to the United States, and they can be difficult to locate at your local wine shop. Two outstanding producers to look for are the Feiler-Artinger winery, which just celebrated its 100-year anniversary, and the Wenzel winery, whose family have been making wine in Rust since 1647. Both can be found online at the Austrian specialty wine shop Winemonger, which offers at least 6 different varieties of Ruster Ausbruch dessert wine at last count. Two other good resources for locating these wines are wine-searcher.com and winezap.com.

Last year, Wine Enthusiast magazine named the 2001 Wenzel SAZ Ruster Ausbruch wine to it's "Top 100 Wines in the World" list, a wine which vintner Michael Wenzel describes this way: "This is the flagship of our Ruster Ausbruch wines. "Saz" stands for the historically important lage [vineyard area] on our property. The idea was to create a Ruster Ausbruch from grapes that have been the traditional combination used for hundreds of years: 60% Furmint, 40% In the glass it is a beautiful sparkly yellow. The nose is immensely fruity, with notes of apricot and citrus fruits. An explosion of fruits. On the palate you are overwhelmed by the finesse of the acid that carries the wine and builds the backbone for long cellaring potential. The 2001 Saz was aged for 18 months in new wood barrels."

What is the cellar potential for a Ruster Ausbruch? Vintner Kurt Feiler, from the Feiler-Artinger winery, describes their passage into maturity this way: "The Ruster Ausbruch has a cellaring potential of up to 50, 60 years. It shows well in the first 2 years, then closes down in year 3 for about a year, and then opens back up with fruit and more complexity on the palate; more rounded and integrated. It will hold at this perfect taste for another 15 years and then slows development as it moves into its ripening period. The sweet impression of the sugar reduces during this final period, developing a more crispy, slightly drier finish. For our Ruster Ausbruch blends every grape is picked single varietal, at different times, and then after fermentation they are blended. This also helps us to control the final feeling."

One might be tempted to serve such a sweet dessert wine alongside the dessert course, but both Michael Wenzel and Kurt Feiler recommend different route: pair these wines with something savory, such as a blue-veined cheese or some prepared foie gras. If you do elect to serve it with dessert, they would recommend keeping it simple and not-too-sweet, such as a white cake or ripe fruits. Or better yet, serve a glass of Ruster as the entire dessert course. This is one dessert wine that can certainly stand alone, and deserves to do so.

These rare and exquisite wines are a must for the dessert wine connoisseur, and a knockout for the sweet wine novice.

About the Author

Emily Schindler is a wine importer based in Los Angeles. To read more of her wine writing, or to find the wines she imports, go to http://www.winemonger.com

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