Join us tomorrow, Saturday, August 3 for a paella cooking demonstration and wine tasting. We’ve got gorgeous summer weather, and it’s the season for making paella outdoors. Paella is fantastic on camping trips, at fiestas, and block parties (Neighborhood Night Out is Tuesday, August 6). This is tomorrow’s schedule:
1:00 p.m. Paella cooking demonstration begins. Arrive at 1:00 p.m. to watch the step-by-step process of making paella and take the opportunity to ask questions. By 2:00 p.m. the paella will be done and samples available. The cost is $10.00 per person which includes a sample of the finished paella, the recipe and a copy of the cookbook “Paella”. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling the shop with credit card information (206.682.0679); no refunds but the ticket can be transferred to another person.
2:00 p.m. A tasting of Spanish wines from Galicia begins. The tasting features Pazo Senorans Albariño Rias Baixas 2017; Envidiacochina Albariño Rias Baixas 2017, Papa Godello, Valdeorras 2017 and Dominio do Bibei Lalama, Ribera Sacra Mencia 2013. Wine tasting is free.
Padron Peppers are in stock. The harvest has begun and we’ve started selling these tasty peppers. Simply sauté in olive oil until each side is blistered, toss with sea salt and serve as a tapa. About every 10th pepper is spicy which is part of the fun of eating them!
RARE AND LIMITED WINES ARRIVED TODAY. Our allocation of these amazing wines seems to shrink with each vintage. For this reason, we are limiting sales to one bottle of each wine per customer and no discounts apply. If you’d like more than one bottle, please let us know to put you on our waitlist. If we have any bottles remaining after August 18, we will contact you.
Raul Perez Sketch Albariño 2017, Rias Baixas ($79.00) “The impressive 2017 Sketch is vibrant, chiseled, precise and delineated, with great inner strength and a soil-like, mineral, almost salty sensation on the palate. It reminds me of the 2015, more mineral and sharper, with all that it takes for a long and positive evolution in bottle. It feels like one of the finest vintages for Sketch. This is sold without any appellation of origin. 2,000 bottles produced.” 95 points Wine Advocate
Raul Perez El Pecado Mencia, Ribera Sacra 2017 ($73.00) 100% Mencia from vineyards of about 100 years old, grown on a vertiginous terrace of the Sil river canyon in slate and granite soil. Foot trod, and fermented with indigenous yeasts, aged for a year in oak barrels. “…. 2017 El Pecado, from the same vineyard that produces the Finca Capeliños from Guímaro. This is always a more elegant style of red, and it fermented with some 65% full clusters and had a softer extraction. This 2017 reminds me of the 2015, with heady aromas of flowers, wild berries, spices and earth and a powerful, vibrant palate that reveals great finesse and very good freshness for a warm year. There are abundant, very fine tannins that might require some more time in bottle, and it has long, dry, salty and mineral finish. 800 bottles produced.” 96+ points Wine Advocate
R. Lopez Heredia Viña Gravonia Blanco Crianza 2010 Rioja ($29.99) “2010 was a superb vintage in Rioja, and the white 2010 Viña Gravonia Blanco is simply stunning, the best of the three vintages I tasted together (2009, 2010 and 2011). This is from a cooler and very balanced year that is perfectly reflected in the wine. The wine is evolving slowly, with notes of lemon curd, dried yellow flowers, saffron, and spices. The palate reveals real energy, great balance and a very tasty, almost salty finish. This has to be one of the best vintages for Viña Gravonia.” 95 points Wine Advocate
R. Lopez Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva Blanco 2005 Rioja ($47.00) “The 2005 Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva is a fine and elegant wine inspired by the vineyards of Graves in Bordeaux. 2005 was an excellent vintage, mostly Viura (Macabeo), but it always contains some 10% Malvasía Riojana, and the white varieties are always planted on whiter, limestone-rich soils. It matured in used oak barriques for six years before bottling. María José and Mercedes López de Heredia told me their Viura, with the low yields they get (often 2,000 kilograms per hectare), shows less of the vintage differences, and even in torrid years like 2003, the wines do not show heat. It’s very interesting comparing this with the Gravonia from 2008, as this showed higher ripeness and a lot more developed aromas, nuttier with hints of hay and straw, honey and also chamomile and dried flowers. But the oak is never obvious in the wine, it only adds spiciness but no wood aromas. 2005 was also a warmer, riper and more powerful vintage, which shows more in the palate, which is round and powerful with pungent flavors. 20,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2013.” 95 points Wine Advocate
R. Lopez Heredia Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva Rosado Rioja 2009 ($34.00) “The unique and personal 2009 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva is a little darker than the 2008 I tasted next to it. It also feels a little riper and nuttier, with some traces of ripe apricots and flowers. It’s also fuller and not as sharp as the 2008 and has a dry, chalky/stony palate. These are unique wines that develop in bottle for a long time.” 93+ points Wine Advocate
Paris-Madrid Grocery was featured in Seattle Dining’s July 2019 issue. Read Connie Adam’s in-depth exploration of our shop here.