España

(I was originally going to title this post “Making of the case for Spain“, as if Spanish wines needed to have a case made for them. After realizing how ridiculous this was, I settled on this more neutral title).

OK, it’s three months later and I am just now writing about Spain. What’s up with that? It’s not that Spanish wines were not inspiring. They were. It’s just I’m back to my old lazy ways.

What impressed me most about Spanish wines? Quality and value. And diversity. Of course that comes from my newbie perspective; I think Spanish wines have been high-quality for hundreds of years, and have been a great value for as long as I have known. They’ve been overshadowed by their more famous, and usually more expensive French counterparts to some extent Italian counterparts. OK enough generalities, let’s get on to the actual places, experiences and tastes of these amazing wines!

Galicia

OK, I AM making the case for Spain (sorry)… why it is so vast, diverse, beautiful, delicious, and the people seem confortable in their own skin.

We were on the road from Salamanca to Santiago de Compostela (on the Galician coastline), and stopped at a small freeway offramp town near Ourense (why would even anybody even know about the name of this town?)

While stopping to load up on diesel, we decided to stop for lunch at a small restaurant next door next to a dusty parking lot across the street from the gas station

Looked simple enough, but at 1:40 PM, they asked us if we had reservations (?)

Surprisingly, the menu was fairly extensive, even though it was basically a truckstop. They had a three course menu for €14… I had a #Davimoment when I ordered the merluza en Cazuela (my mothers name was Davinia).

It looked, smelled, and tasted like some thing that mom would make… And of course at that age, when I was a kid, I didn’t appreciate at all. Tomatoes, onions, peas, potato and a big hunk of hake (what an unfortunate name for merluza, an otherwise delicious, meaty fish) along with a few clams. That, and a cheap €3 bottle of local white.