This week, we're going to relax a bit from the craziness of La Mercè and instead slide into the smooth world of wine. As many of you know, I was very lucky to celebrate my 20th birthday in style, in La Rioja - aka Spanish wine country. La Rioja is the smallest of Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions, but is widely recognized for producing the best wines the country has to offer. Rioja wine is known for its sweet, fruity flavor paired with a gritty, earthy nature. My study abroad program put together a really nice weekend in the region that allowed us to see several bodegas, or wineries, and we got to get in a solid bit of wine tasting as well.
I really hope I don’t mess this up too badly, but here’s my understanding of the wine-making process in La Rioja: The grapes are picked, and the bad ones are sorted out. Then, the pulp is separated from the skin and the skins (piels) are pressed in a circular wooden contraption while the pulp juice ferments in great big metal vats for 13-14 days. Then the pulp juice goes through the second round of fermentation, which takes 20-30 days, after which the pulp juice and the peel juice are recombined in different ways to produce several distinct wines. Finally, the wine is aged. Typically, Rioja wines fall into four categories: Rioja (aged for 1 yr or less); Crianza (1-2 yrs); Rioja Reserva (3 yrs); and Rioja Gran Reserva (5 yrs).
Here's a pic of us trying some vino tinto (red wine) and vino blanco (white wine):
One of the vineyards we visited, Bodegas Marqués de Riscal, had a special wine cellar nick-named El Catedral, which holds their most precious collection of wines dating all the way back to 1862. Every year, they save 300-500 botellas of wine from their production to save it for posterity.. presumably so that at a really important event they can whip out that 100-odd year bottle that is – quite literally – priceless (i.e. not for sale). Word has it that they had to bring out one of the old bottles to convince a certain architect to design their hotel for them.. Before I tell you who the architect was, see if you can figure it out from the building:
(Top: Hotel @ Bodega; Bottom: Lewis Library @ Princeton)
If you guessed Frank Gehry you’d be right. It was really neat to see this building of his - a hotel on the property of the bodega - thousands of miles from the familiar Lewis Library where I often tutor and study. As you can see, he’s still got the crazy new-age look going on in this creation, but there's also a symbolic significance to the color scheme. Apparently the building evokes a bottle of wine, with the purple metal sheets representing the red wine, the gold signifying the label, and the silver acting as the cap of the bottle.
When we weren’t exploring the bodegas, we got to check out Logroño, the capital of La Rioja. This sweet little town was SO different than Barcelona – very laid back and chill.. Logroño reps quaint (and plentiful!) bars and awesome tapas too.. I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the break from all the people in Barca, but I think it’s the kind of place that could get old after a while. Oh and I bought a cheap soccer ball on my bday which we played some pick-up with, and then everybody in my program signed it.. Pretty sweet memento! And, I even made a couple new friends in Logroño:
Unfortunately, I just found out today from my buddy Trent that his namesake town, Fuenmayor, is a scant 10 miles from Logroño. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to make the pilgrimage while I was in Logroño, but hopefully next time I will do.
Amsterdam this coming weekend – hah any suggestions that don’t have to do with space cakes and the red light district?
When I first saw that photograph, for a moment I thought you’ve found the historical origins of your native Texas and of Galveston Island ! Why else would a vegetarian pose with such a happy smile with those cabezas de vaca in the background…? Must have found in Spain Cabeza de Vaca’s ancestral origins…
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you remember the story – shipwrecked on Galveston Island, with 400 men and a few dozen horses, Cabeza de Vaca spent several months in 1528 exploring the Gulf coast of the land then known as La Florida, later to become the Republic of Texas. Alas, upon closer scrutiny, I realized they were cabezas de cerdo, not vaca…
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From Wikipedia: “Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Spanish pronunciation: [kaˈβeθaðeˈβaka]) (Jerez de la Frontera, ca. 1490/1507 – Sevilla, ca. 1557/1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition. He is remembered as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of Native Americans, first published in 1542 as La Relación (The Report), and later known as Naufragios (Shipwrecks).” And “In 16th-century documents, his name appeared as "Alvar nuñez cabeça de vaca". Cabeza de Vaca means literally, "head of cow". This surname was granted to his mother's family in the 13th century, when his ancestor Martín Alhaja aided a Christian army attacking Moors by leaving a cow's head to point out a secret mountain pass for their use. (In the prologue to La Relación, his account of his shipwreck and travels in North America, Cabeza de Vaca refers to his forefather's service to the King, and regrets that his own deeds could not be as great.). Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to describe America from Florida through Arizona. His 1542 works are the oldest history we have. He set the stage for the Conquest of Native America."
What amazing and stimulating photos of Gehry’s Hotel Marques de Riscal! Only 75-or-so miles south of that other Gehry masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, acknowledged this year by the world’s leading architects, critics, and deans of architecture schools as, perhaps, one of the most significant architectural works since 1980 (The World Architecture Survey, conducted by Vanity Fair in 2010). I’m not sure of the details, but, as a result of their ballots and comments, I believe Vanity Fair named Gehry “the most important architect of our age.”
ReplyDeleteSeveral thousand miles to the West is that other landmark proclaiming Gehry’s talents and creativity, Princeton University’s Lewis Library. Made possible by a generous gift from Peter B. Lewis, a 1955 graduate and a trustee of Princeton University, it has become very popular since its opening in 2008 or 2009. The Princeton building clearly reflects Gehry’s unique sculpted style, almost creating a long-distance, transatlantic triptych linking it with the older Basque and Rioja monuments.
Carioca.
I'm not hungover... I have wine flu.
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog, enjoy reading it weekly! Especially liked Week 8 "Un poquito de todo." Keep blogging......CK
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