"The cheese course I think of largely as an excuse (and a good one) to drink another wine." - Richard Olney, The French Menu Cookbook (1970)
Brooklyn Fermented is a roving academy of food and wine professionals dedicated to the informed, unfussy appreciation of well-crafted, regionally-expressive wine, cheese, and beer. We offer a dynamic program of classes at multiple venues across the borough and beyond.
Join Brooklyn Fermented’s Adrian Murcia as he leads an autumnal tasting tour of Spanish gastronomy inside Manhattan’s cozy oenophilic hideaway City Winery. Attendees will explore the diversity of Spain’s vibrant wine culture through a sampling of seven thoughtfully selected wines paired alongside three courses of seasonally inspired Spanish fare prepared by City Winery Chef Andres Barrera. Wines will include Adegas Benaza’s bright and juicy Godello from the little-known Spanish denominación de origen of Monterrei in Galicia; an elegant and super-classic 1998 Rioja Gran Reserva from the family-run gem-of-a-winery Hermanos Peciña in Rioja Alta; Pinyolet Selección, a jammy and complex Montsant made in tiny quantities from gnarly old Garnacha and Cariñena vineyards planted at high elevations in the early part of the last century; and Jorge Ordoñez & Co.’s stunning late-harvest Moscatel de Alejandria from Málaga.
For a full line-up of wines, and to sign up to attend, click here.
The Cuisine and Wines of Spain: Presented by American Airlines
City Winery
155 Varick Street
New York, NY
Monday, November 14, 2011
7 p.m.
Presenter: Adrian Murcia, Brooklyn Fermented
$75
Hermanos Peciña, Señorio de P. Peciña Joven 2009, DOCa Rioja (La Rioja, Spain), $12.99/750ml – 95% Tempranillo, 3% Graciano, 2% Garnacha
Ossau-Iraty, Onetik cooperative (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France), $28/lb. – unpasteurized sheep milk
With the exception of vines as far as the eye can see, the most common sight in Rioja, situated in north-central Spain’s upper Ebro River valley, is probably locals tucking into chulletillas (baby lamb chops grilled over vine cuttings) and cordero asado al horno de leña (leg of lamb roasted in wood-fired ovens) at lunchtime. And since Riojanos have been working the vine here for well over a thousand years, it makes sense that the earthy, cherry/raspberry-scented, Tempranillo-based reds they’ve been turning out for so long should match the flavors of the local diet. The felicitous Tempranillo-lamb combo extends to Rioja and sheep cheese as well; Rioja and Manchego are in fact a classic match. Here silky, sweet, and buttery Ossau-Iraty, a shepherd cheese from the western Pyrénées of France with an ancient pedigree, stands in for its Spanish cousin. Joven, Spanish for ‘young,’ is Rioja’s entry-level red category/age designation and spends less than a year in oak barrels, if it sees any time at all. Peciña’s exuberant, but still recognizably old-world Joven adds sweet tones to the cheese’s unmistakable meatiness, while simultaneously echoing, albeit subtlety, a decidedly umami savory character also apparent in the cheese.
Wine: Slope Cellars, 436 7th Avenue (14th & 15th), Brooklyn, NY. tel. (718) 369-7307
Cheese: Bklyn Larder, 228 Flatbush Ave. (Bergen & 6th Ave.), Brooklyn, NY. tel. (718) 783-1250
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