Boy, does Salt Tasting Room know how to throw a great sausage party! Mix in a healthy dose of exotic Spanish wines from the rustic to the refined, and you’ve got the makings of Saturday’s Spain Vinos and Tapas ¡Olé!, number 52 of an impressive 63 event line up at this year’s Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. (Just ask Harry Hertscheg, the festival’s Executive Director, he was at every single one!)
Harry Hertscheg, Festival ED, Pilar Randolph of the Embassy of Spain, 'Sommelier of the Year' Kurtis Kolt of Salt, Tony Beatty, Vice Chair, Wine Festival Board of Directors
The romantic strumming of a Spanish guitar envelops us as we make our way downstairs to Salt’s cellar room. Guests are greeted by recently crowned Sommelier of the Year, Kurtis Kolt, as he and his staff feverishly pour the first flight. Shouts of “salud” and the clanking of glasses fill the room as Festival Vice Chair, Tony Beatty, announces that Spain has just been selected as next year’s theme country. We listen on as Spanish natives Toni Batet of Miguel Torres and Gloria Collell Puig of Seguras Viudas melodiously describe their wines in those glorious accents of theirs, easily worth half the price of admission alone.
Two hands-on courses of do-it-yourself wine and food pairings are presented where we’re left to our own devices, choosing amongst saucisson sec, shaved smoked beef tenderloin, earthy tartufo salami, Oyama’s chorizo rioja, and a sweet toscano fig salami. And this is just the charcuterie! Spanish cheeses such as Drunken Goat, Valdeon Azul, aged Manchego and Mahon are perfectly displayed alongside the team of accompaniments made up of toasted hazelnuts, cornichons, Basque olives, quince paste, pickled Piparras peppers, sweet Cippolini onions, and grainy Guinness mustard. So we slice and spread and mix and match as we concoct perfect pairings of our own. I see I am not alone when it comes to the Drunken Goat cheese with quince paste to accompany the strawberry-hued sparkling Segura Viudas Brut Rosé D.O. Cava.
As we move on to the reds, the bittersweet cocoa and spicy black pepper notes with ripe tannins and red fruit make up the eye-catching Torres Celeste D.O. Ribera del Duero, its label featuring the smattering of constellations that can be seen from the winery at night. Scope it out in the liquor stores for a reasonable $24.99. But it was the 2007 Marques de Vitoria ECCO D.O.Ca. Rioja with its bright cherry colour, sweet tannins, raspberry and liquorice palate that took the cork for best value at a stunning $15.98 per bottle.
