Easter basketParis-Madrid Grocery will be closed on Easter Sunday, April 9.   No joke, Easter is just a week away!  It’s time to stop in at Paris-Madrid Grocery for Easter brunch and dinner ingredients. We recommend picking up Spanish hot chocolate (which is so thick that it is more of a pudding than a drink) and serve it with churros, deep-fried sticks of batter.  This is a tasty, warming treat after a walk or Easter egg hunt. We have Spanish hot chocolate mix and purros (a thick-style churro, in our freezer) that are simple to heat and serve.  If your menu includes eggs, here is a memorable combination I had one night in Leon, Spain: eggs scrambled with prawns, piquillo peppers, grated Manchego cheese, and white asparagus. (Paris Madrid Grocery stocks piquillo peppers, Manchego cheese, and white asparagus).  To drink, we’ve got rosés in stock along with bubbles from France, Spain, and Portugal to add festiveness to the day.  And one of our charcuterie platters is always a crowd-pleaser.  French Chocolate Easter bars

French Easter chocolates:  Our chocolates from France will add excitement to anyone’s Easter basket. Select from milk chocolate bars in a green Easter-style package or a dark chocolate (72%) bar with a white chocolate bunny.French Chocolate praline eggs We also have milk chocolate pralines in egg shapes that are super tasty, and bunnies individually wrapped, either white or milk chocolate.

WINE CORNER:
Caves São João Rosé Bruto Bairrada 2020
($19.99) is back in stock. A favorite from our Portuguese tasting, this wine hails from Bairrada, the preeminent region for world-class sparkling wine. The vineyards are planted 20km from the ocean, battered by the northern Atlantic winds for which the area is well known. Méthode traditionnelle gives this wine a soft, silky texture, combined with the floral tones and bright fruit of its indigenous varietals – 60% Baga, 40% Touriga Naçional.

Easter Muga roseMuga Rioja Rosé 2021 ($17.99)  defines fresh minerality in a rosado wine.  Very light on the palate with delicate fruit notes, it is excellent with shellfish or charcuterie.

Camino de los ArrierosAlvar de Dios Camino de los Arrieros 2019, Arribes ($28.99) This stunning wine marries high-elevation vineyards, unusual varietals, and granitic soils to deliver a wine of freshness and grace.  D.O. Arribes is a little-known appellation located along the Spanish border with Portugal, where the Duero River becomes the Douro as it carves a steep valley out of the granitic mountains. Here winemaker Alvar de Dios Hernandez found not only granitic soils – but a range of indigenous varieties capable of expressing elegance and freshness.  The wine is a blend of Rufete, Juan García, Trincadeira Preta, Merenzao, and some other stray varieties mixed in the vineyards all planted on sandy red slate soils.  Camino is harvested by hand, fermented whole cluster with indigenous yeasts in 1000L French oak vats with pigeage by foot.  “I love the bright aromatics and the purity and nuance of the pale red 2019 Camino de los Arrieros, a field blend of multiple grape varieties from 36 small plots in the village of Villadepera. There are notes of red cherries and orange peel denoting freshness, and it has only 11.5% alcohol and a low pH (3.42). 6,000 bottles were filled in June 2021.”  94 points Wine Advocate

We carry a Spanish alcohol-free beer from Estrella Galicia and an alcohol-free white Spanish bubbly for those wishing to avoid alcohol.