Sevilla Tapas

I was recently very pleased to discover that two new Seville restaurants are serving Botani and so yesterday I mixed business with pleasure by taking a quick trip north to visit them, and was joined by my friends Manuel and Shawn (aka Sevilla Tapas). First we went to Arenero, which is located in the Barrio Santa Cruz, and enjoyed some special tapas from the “taller” section of their menu. The ceviche with lime foam was very good but my favourite tapa had to be the bulltail mini-burger with melted papoyo cheese on “pan de ketchup”. Arenero features many Andalusian wines and has weekly by-the-glass specials written up on the blackboard behind the bar.

Next we went to Albarama, which is the new sister bar of one of my favourite places in Sevilla, Puracepa. It was good having a chance to see wine expert Filippo again before he leaves to live and work in Barcelona, and the tapas were exquisite. At both bars we had Botani (2009 at Arenero, 2008 at Albarama) and I was delighted to see that Filippo has also chosen Victoria nº2 for his wine list at Albarama. Later Filippo invited us to try a beautiful Brut Prosecco with our dessert and he joined us in a toast to his new life in Catalunya.

It was a great evening which I hope to repeat again soon, but next time I will try not to leave all my wine samples in the car (in Málaga!) after making a special trip out to the Bodega to pick them up and carefully pack them in ice.

Arenero
Pasaje de Vila, 6
Open 13.00–midnight
(kitchen closed 16.00–20.00)
Closed Sunday evenings & Mondays

Albarama
Plaza San Francisco nº5
Open 11.00–23.30
(kitchen closed 16.00–20.30)
Closed Sunday evenings

Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Wistfully looking back at a brief summer getaway I took in July, just before the vendimia started. It was my first visit to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but it won’t be my last. Such a beautiful beachside village with some of the best seafood you can find anywhere. I had the very best tortillitas de camerones that I’d ever had in my life at Casa Balbino, along with some Barbiano manzanilla (sherry). It was a perfect summer daytrip – and on motorbike too!

Seville Visit

Had a great time in Sevilla on Tuesday. I had a very productive meeting with my wine distributor, Federico Flores, and later met with Shawn from Sevilla Tapas to visit a couple of bars with my wines. Our first stop was La Azotea where we had some excellent tapas and got to briefly chat with owners Juan & Jeanine. We got there a bit later than expected and the bar was already quite full – after sampling the tapas I could understand why.

Afterwards we went to a wine bar / albacería called Puracepa where we spent an enjoyable time chatting with their wine expert Fillipo, who also helped us select tapas to pair with Botani and the two sweet wines I’d brought along, Selección Especial and Victoria. If you watched yesterday’s video you will know that we ended up closing the place, and then had a lovely walk back through the square in front of the cathedral and barrio Santa Cruz.

top: tapas at La Azotea
bottom: cheese &  pâté at Puracepa

Sevilla Visit Video

This is a video we made last night at the end of my trip to Sevilla, in Puracepa with their wine expert Filippo. The written version with photos will come a bit later. I’m back in Málaga now. Lots to do before the vendimia starts, but I hope to get back to Sevilla soon.

Winemaker Dinner at Mercat Chicago

This Thursday – May 20th at 7pm – take a culinary tour of Spain with me and Iron Chef Jose Garces from the Catalan-inspired Mercat a la Planxa. At the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.

There will be a five-course dinner with wine pairings, including sous vide buffalo tenderloin, pernil asado, salmorejo & other delights! So if you are going to be in Chicago come down to the South Loop and join us.

Call 312 -765-0524 for reservations.
Call 312-768-4400 for more information.

Hope to see you there!

A Visit With George Miliotes

George Miliotes, Master Sommelier for The Capital Grille, was here this week with my brother Jorge Ordoñez and we visited the vineyard as well as several restaurants and places of interest in Málaga. Upon meeting me George exclaimed, “so this is the Málaga wine goddess!”, but later he found out how standing out in the vineyard and taking in the vast exquisite view does actually make one feel like a deity.

Our first meal was at El Caleño, on the paseo marítimo de Pedregalejos, a small urban beach area just outside central Málaga that has a disctinct style all its own.

This is where Jorge showed everyone the proper way to eat cigalas, which is to break off the head and then “crunch & suck”, which became the mantra of the evening.

Later we had a lovely dessert selection of turrón icecream, flan and fresh strawberries, perfectly paired with a bottle of Selección #1 Victoria.

The second day started with another visit to the vineyards and with what I think was perhaps the best moment of all, while we were sitting quietly in the sunshine, enjoying some Joselito Jamón with perfectly chilled Botani, watching the vineyard in action and the workers busy with their hoes. But soon it was lunchtime again.

This time we went to Andrés Maricuchi, also in El Pedregal, after which Jorge had to leave us. And so we spent the afternoon taking in the Picasso museum and also visiting the Market to sample some churros con chocolate. You wouldn’t think we could be hungry again after all that, but plans were made for a tapas crawl that evening.

We started off at Quitapenas, then went to Lo Güeno and, when a request for Prado Enea arose, finished off at one of my favourite restaurants, La Reserva 12. There we were surprised to run into my actor brother Jaime, who was in town for the Festival de Málaga Cine, and he happily entertained us with his best Robert De Niro impression.

It was a very intense and enjoyable couple of days. I leave you with a delicious photo of cigalas that was taken – and tweeted! – by George during our meal at El Caleño.