El Crucero in Corella (Navarra), Lunch with the Wines of Aliaga

GerryDawes

29/07/2010 0 comentarios

El Crucero in Corella (Navarra), Lunch with the Wines of Aliaga at One of the Great Restaurants of Navarra's Ribera Baja Wine-growing Region, Also Home to One of Spain's Greatest Vegetable Growing Regions.

I have had the good luck to have had lunch at El Crucero, twice this year, once with Carlos Fernández Aliaga, English wine merchant Anthony Sargeant and Basilio Izquierdo. Izquierdo was the winemaker at CVNE for thirty years (until 2006) and now the winemaker owner of the tiny Rioja Alavesa bodega, Aguila Real, where he makes B. de Basilio wines (a garnacha blanca-based white that is one of the best Rioja whites I have ever tasted and a spectacular red that is reminiscent of the great CVNE Viña Real Oro wines of years past.

Gerry Dawes, Basilio Izquierdo, Carlos Fernández Aliaga and
English wine merchant-importer Anthony Sargeant, lunch at El Crucero.

In January, Sargeant, Izquierdo and I drove down to Corella to see Carlos and taste his wines, since Sargeant was looking for new properties for his English wine importing business. Carlos put us in Nabor Jiménez’s capable hands and asked him to do a tasting menu for us to accompany a lineup of his wines. First off, this being January, you may be wondering what vegetables are available in the middle of winter. The Navarrese are masters at cooking winter vegetables such as cardoons, borrage and cabbage; making dishes with the region’s bounty of tinned and glass jarred vegetables; and turning dried beans into something magical. (Click on the link above to see the whole article.)