“Cheese and biscuits? What sort of plate is that?” My friend Ramón, who runs a restaurant in Marbella’s Old Town, had been asked by a group of foreign residents to do a dinner party for them, and all had been negotiated to everyone’s satisfaction, even the wine, which had to be provided in unlimited quantities [...]
It would be a pleasant surprise if the name Don Pohren meant anything to the readers of this gastronomic supplement, but I am not optimistic. Pohren (USA 1929) arrived in Spain when he was 24, and his only ambition was to hear – and if possible participate in – as much flamenco as possible. When [...]
‘Tell me how you store your wine and I will tell you what sort of a drinker you are’ – or something along these lines. This is the promotional slogan of a brand of wine storage cabinets that have come to be every wine aficionado’s essential accessory. They get called all sorts of things: wine [...]
The ritual of drinking port is unknown in Spain. It is even likely that the Spaniards who enthusiastically drink a few copas of Málaga Virgen or other sweet local wine will never have considered port as a possible alternative. The export figures speak for themselves. France is the top consumer by volume (quality is not [...]
There was no change of facial expression but the wine waiter’s voice went up an octave. “Sir, in my opinion this wine is in perfect condition”. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he realised his mistake. The customer is always right. It all started when the man, complete with gold Rolex [...]
The typical food-snob has a great time with caviar, such are the myths and pretentiousness associated with this gastronomic delight. Caviar must be eaten with an ivory spoon (never silver); forget blinis as they confuse the taste buds, as does sour cream; champagne is the correct accompaniment…… I could go on for pages but the [...]
A visit to French restaurant is often a first experience when it comes to haute cuisine – love it or hate it – but you have to admit the French are masters of gourmet sophistication and quality. The odd thing is that a country that was once considered No. 1 in wine and food has [...]
This could make me enemies but the picturesque village of Ojén, nestling in the hills behind Marbella, does not really have a great deal to shout about, and is generally looked upon as a dormitory village supplying Marbella with unskilled labour. The wine museum, once housed in the old aguardiente distillery, is long since closed [...]
While many of the world’s wine-producing regions are expanding in terms of sales (ignoring temporary economic downturns), there is one Spanish region that has got real problems – and answers there are few. The first English merchants established themselves in the Jerez region around the beginning of the 16th century, and from this moment the [...]
The Jesuit missionaries were the first to plant vines in South America. They had no intention of making wine to sell, merely for their own enjoyment and to serve at mass. Sir Edmund James Palmer Norton (1865-1984) was another sort of missionary, a railroad engineer, and one of the many who went to the Continent [...]