August 22, 2023 Lunch - Restaurant Maria Lucia, Limes, Spain
This was a day devoted to wine, as tomorrow will be also.
We have discovered that this inland valley about thirty miles from the coast is conducive to producing excellent wines from local grapes. I would guess it would be a sommelier’s nightmare to guess the grape and location, let alone the year of these wines, because I think they are mostly undiscovered.
The main white grape is Albariñ blanco. Here is a local description.
The different types of native grape that we can find are: the carrasquín, the berdejo and the albarín. The one with the highest production is Mencía imported at the end of the 19th century after the phylloxera plague of 1893. The color of red wine varies between purplish red and purple red, while that of white varies between straw yellow and yellowish green. According to the oenological tastings there are two types of grapes that stand out above the rest: the albarín negrín and the white albarín; being above all this last one in which the winemakers place the most trust. Considering the tastings, the general properties of the different vintages can be summarized in these attributes: a humid cave aroma, some cherry blossom, and light on the palate with a point of acidity reminiscent of cider.
Albariñ Blanco is produced in two distinct styles. Joven is fermented and bottled without aging, which is the style referred to in the last sentence as tasting like cider.
Albarin blanco joven is aromatic, bright, fruity, and has a slightly bitter after-taste. Aged Albarin Blanco is a very different wine. It is aged 6 to 9 months in oak and has an elegant finish. The same is true for the reds. There is a young vibrant fruity joven and aged single varietals and blends.
Today we drove to Ganges de Narcea for breakfast at the Manin Bakery at 10:00. Suzette drank coffee and ate a slice of toasted bread spread with fresh tomato paste and garnished with a slice of serrano ham.
I ordered a glass of fresh orange juice and a ham and sardine empanada. Both were made with a dark whole wheat bread dough, dry but filling.
We then drove to the wine Museum, which was small, but near the start of a fairly flat ruta de vino paralleling the river running through a part of Ganges de Nacea for about a kilometer, which Suzette walked to the end of and I walked about half way.
We got some help from the museum attendant to visit a winery tomorrow and Bodega Danza today at 7:00 p.m. More importantly, we asked the attendant if Maria Luisa Restaurant, one of the top ten restaurants further out of Ganges in the direction of the Danza winery was good, and she said, “It is very good”.
So, we drove up the valley to the southwest to Restaurant Maria Luisa, a small restaurant on the side of the road. We sat at a table on its front patio just a couple of feet front the roadway under an awning that blocked the sun and decided to order its 15€ Comida del Dia. A Comida del Dia includes an appetizer or first course, an entree or second course, a dessert, wine or beer, bread, and coffee.
The husband waiter brought us the full menu and pointed to the available first courses. I ordered Fabada and Suzette ordered mustard greens and potato soup. The waiter brought us soup bowls and silver and a basket of brown bread and a liter carafe of red wine. We drank and nibbled bread until he returned with two large bowls with about four or five portions each, one filled with Fabada stewed beans in a pimiento flavored liquid and another filled with a mustard green and potato thick soup plus a small stainless steel platter with two of each of grilled morcilla, chorizo and boiled pancetta so a double portion of Fabada. Generosity seems to be the theme at Maria Luisa and the flavors were clean and flavorful, if just a little simplistic after all the gastronomic pyrotechnics we have experienced lately.
I had chosen beef fillet for my second course and Suzette had chosen fried trout for her second course. As soon as I lapped up my second bowl of Fabada, the waiter brought the entrees. On a steel platter were six small trout, none longer than four inches, lightly floured and fried with pancetta. They were tiny but delicious and we guessed that the trout came fresh from a fish pond in the river behind the restaurant.
The fillet of beef
My fillet steak was also excellent, about 1/4 inch thick, sautéed to medium rare, and served on a layer of fried potatoes with a slice of sautéed pimiento pepper on top.
We poured more wine and asked for a bottle of cold water and dug our way through the trout and steak.
Finally when we finished it was time for dessert and the waiter brought out the menu and went through the choices for dessert. I ordered creme caramel and Suzette ordered Swiss cake, which was a jelly roll covered with a fruit glaze, plus pipings of cool whip and a maraschino cherry.
I ate most of both. The flan was firm and the caramel sauce, not very sweet, as if it had been overcooked, but I enjoyed the Swiss jelly roll although it looked store bought.
After we finished, I was offered a cup of coffee with milk, which I accepted.
Apparently, coffee is included with the meal because the entire cost of the meal was 30€.
This was the best food value of the trip so far and if Suzette wanted to return I would go back tomorrow for lunch.
We finished the second course at 3:00 and my coffee and dessert at 3:30.
We checked the location of the Danza Winery and discovered that it was high on the hillside just above us, so even though we had a 7:00 p.m. reservation, we decided to go there and see if they would let us taste.
When we arrived around 4:00 the husband was there and poured us the two white Albariñ Blancos, one joven without barrel oak aging and the other aged six months in oak barrels. They were two distinctly different wines.
Then we tried the four reds. Again the joven had luscious cherry and plum flavors without much acidity and the other aged wines were far more elegant.
It seemed to me we had been served the joven red with our meal at lunch and I tried to ask the husband if they sell wine to the restaurant below and I think he said “Sometimes”.
Soon the wife returned and we were shown their production facility and we bought a bottle of each white and a bottle of Mencia/Albarin negrin blend for a total of 45€. Danza’s whites were better than those of the Monasterio.
I can not tell you how unique these wines are. These are great wines made with unique local grapes that we had never heard of or tasted before yesterday.
The husband offered to back our car down the steep driveway and we drove back to the Parador.
After a rest, at 5:30 we went swimming, and at 7:00 we went on a tour of the archaeological artifacts and the excavated remains of the original 11th century church foundation. After viewing the archeological museum, the tour went to the dining room, which used to be the refectory. Since we had eaten there last night and because we did not understand the Spanish commentary, we went across the corridor into the bar and had vermouths that were served with olives and potato chips (tapas), which was enough food to satisfy us for dinner.
This is the second or third day that eating a huge Comida del Dia satiated our craving for dinner.
It is 11:00 as I write this entry and Suzette is sleeping and I am still not hungry, although I ate two squares of milk chocolate with almonds at 8:30.
Bon Appetit
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