Last Saturday Ibérica, Canary Wharf held the first in a short series of wine tastings for Vamos.

And what an experience it was. Not just because of the great wines and delicious food, but also because of what we learnt about wine and wine-making and the geography of Spain.

Our ‘Wine tour around Spain’ took us on a virtual tour across Spanish wine-making regions Penedes, Galicia, Rueda, Rioja and Catalonia from where we tasted sparkling, white and red wines along with the very best that each region’s cuisine has to offer.

We started with Cava Vilarnau Brut, a sparkling wine from the Penedes region near Barcelona and we learnt how the Cava fermentation process compares with Prosecco in producing a wine of superior quality. That was accompanied by tomato bread, a staple of Catalan cuisine and Iberian ham.

We then tasted two white wines:

Pazos de Lusco (Albariño), a fresh and fruity wine from Galicia, served with an amazing pulpo gallego (octopus) and Perro Verde (Verdejo) from Castilla y León, which was accompanied by an asparagus and Manchego cheese toast.

Our lovely host Irene then challenged us to pour a glass of wine with a ‘porrón’ before tasting two red wines from the only two D.O.C regions in Spain (Priorat and Rioja) from where we learnt how to recognize the difference between a Crianza, Reserva or Gran Reserva.

The reds were accompanied by an amazing confit chicken with Romesco sauce and a slow cooked lamb.

And to finish we had rice pudding, ‘Saffron Natillas’ with chocolate ice-cream scoop and churros con chocolate.

Thank you Irene and thank you Ibérica.

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