Grape Wine Journey

The table setting by the Restaurant Moo inside the Hotel Omm in Barcelona was a little peculiar, the man thought. There was a large, decorative plate with the basic silver setting, but no napkin to be seen anywhere.

“Would you like something to drink to start,” a female wait staff, about 5’3’’ asked the two diners, who both looked at each other and replied: “Perhaps some water, no gas, please.”

“Some water, certainly,” the waitress said and went on her way. The couple looked at each other once more. The man remarked: “why don’t we get some cava to start.” “Sure,” the woman replied. “That sounds good.”

Another waiter, this time tall and bald, came back with the water. “Can we also have some cava, please, two glasses,” the man said.

After about two minutes, the waitress who first took the order for the water came back and put down two glasses. It turned out she was actually the sommelier. The couple has since forgotten the name of the cava, remembering only that it was a 2004 vintage with a yellowish, golden tint. It was richer, and more full-bodied than the typical sparkling wine.

Then another waitress came over, with a tray, on which two neatly folded napkins were placed. She offered one first the woman, then one to the man. Right after, she came back with three pre-starters – smoked mussel in a kind of edible shell, a piece of fois gras between two thin chocolate cookies, and a kind of profitero injected with some crushed stuffing.

The bald waiter comes back. “Let me explained a little bit about the menu,” he said. “Basically, on the right, we have the chef’s tasting menu, with all of his signature dishes. On the left, there are three other tasting menus, the Gourmet, the Season and the Vegetarian. With each of these menus, there is a wine pairing options, so we will choose the best wine to go with that dish for you. You can also choose a la carte, and there is also a wine pairing option with each dish. Have a look and I’ll come back in a couple of minutes.”

“What do you think?” the woman asked. “My friend who recommended this restaurant told me that we really need to try the Golden Egg, the first dish in the Gourmet menu.”

“That sounds good,” the man said. “What is it?”

“She wouldn’t say. Just that it’s a surprise, and I need to try it,” she said.

“Ok, that’s what I’m going to have,” he said. “Ok,” she said.

“Oh, but there’s this prawn and pig’s trotters that sounds really good on the a la carte menu. I’m going to try to get that as a replacement for one of the tasting menu dishes,” the man said, gesturing to the bald waiter to come over.

“Hi there, I think we will both have the Gourmet tasting menu, but I really want to try this dish here,” the man said, pointing to the prawn and pig’s trotters dish. Can I replace that with a course in the tasting menu, perhaps this Ceps and Fois Gras dish?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem sir,” the waiter said.

“And we would also like to take the wine pairing option too,” the man added. “Excellent,” the waiter replied.

Another round of pre-starters arrived, this time a dual of dishes served side by side on a elongated plate with two inserted bowls. On the left was some sort of seafood, with the texture of finely threaded jellyfish, accompanied by garlic cream. On the right, fresh peas and a generous sprinkling of ricotta cheese served as the bedding for two pieces of razor clam, carefully prepared to leave only the meatiest portion of the shellfish.

When it finally arrived, the Golden Egg was just that, a gold coloured egg surrounded by what looked like crushed peanuts and minced meat. But it wasn’t really an egg. The hard, crispy shell broke open easily under the spoon, revealing a soft stuffing that tasted a bit like egg, but not entirely.

“Not bad, but not really that exciting,” the man said. “Yes,” the woman agreed. The problem wasn’t so much the taste, the man thought, but the crispy shell that constituted the egg didn’t exactly dissolve when it was broken up, nor did it flake into small pieces that can be mixed thoroughly with the other ingredients. The result was like have a soft grilled egg that still had some shells in it.

By this time, the couple was on the last drop of their cava. Just in time, the sommelier came back with two new empty glasses in preparation for the wine to pair with the next course.

The next course was Smoked Pigeon Carpaccio with Juniper ice cream, paired by a 1976 vintage Alella Vinicola from Marfil Solera. The pigeon, delicately sliced and elegantly arranged in the centre of the plate, was melt-in-your-mouth tender but with a deep, rich, intense palette that represented the best of the game fowl.

“This is spectacular,” the woman said as she finished a morsel of the pigeon.

The dish was matched to near perfection by the sommelier’s selection of the wine, which as she explained, was a local wine made from a mixture of Alella and Pansa blanca grapes and in the tradition of sherry. The colour had a tint of burgundy and perhaps, sauterne, to it, but was still clear. The taste was like a sharp sherry or port, without the heavy body, or the sweet after taste.

“The wine is really good,” the man said to the woman. “Yes, that’s true, but I think it was only good because it was matched with the strong taste of the pigeon. I don’t think I would like it otherwise,” she replied.

For the next course, the woman was presented with Ceps with Fois Gras – ceps being porcini mushroom in the local dialect, while the man got his Prawns with Pig’s Trotters. The fois gras reminded the woman of something she had had at a restaurant inside a modern style Ryocan called Akana in the Izo prefecture outside Tokyo. The mushrooms were grilled or pan-fried, and mixed among slices of goose liver in a typical tangy sweet sauce. The prawn turned out to be prawns in a kind of tempura batter, with no sign of the pig’s trotter.

“Where’s the pig’s trotter?” the man asked rhetorically.

“What do you mean?” the woman turned and said.

“I only see the prawns. I think the pig’s trotter might actually be part of the batter, but the taste or texture doesn’t really come through. A shame really, it sounded so good,” he said.

The wine however, was anything but disappointing. The mushroom and liver was paired with a glass of 2007 Barbara Fores from the makers, El Quinta. The wine, made from a mixture of Terra Alta and Garnatxa blanca grapes, offered a crisp yet full body fruit follow through that resulted in a whole that was much more than its parts.

“That’s very nice,” the man said after tasting the woman’s glass. “It actually reminds me a bit of some American wines. Might not be the usually dry whites that we like, but it’s very nice.”

“It is a bit complex, but it does go well with the richness of the fois gras,” the woman added.

The 2006 Marti Fabra by Masia Carreras, which featured a mixture of Emporda, Carinena blanca, garnatxa and picapoll, was even more impressive, the man thought. Similar to the El Quinta, it was complex, fruity, but this time even fuller in body, with even a dash of oak thrown in.

“This is even more full body than yours,” the man said to the woman. “I never realise Spanish white wines tasted like this. I’m very impressed.”

The waiter came to take away the plates as the couple finished their course. “Where’s the pig’s trotters?” the man asked politely.

“It’s in the batter,” the waiter replied.

“I see. That’s what we thought too, but I couldn’t really taste it. A shame as I was really looking forward to the combination of the two items,” the man said as the waiter shrugged apologetically and took away the plates.

The next course was the fish, Red Mullet with Mandarin sauce and Saffron. Two pieces of pan fried red mullet was placed on each plate covered with a thick layer of salmon and a smaller fish variety – probably trout – roe. The presentation was nice, and since the couple both enjoy ikura – salmon roe in Japanese, it was a pleasant surprise.

The wine accompanying the fish and roe was another excellent selection by the sommelier. The 2007 Mas d’en Gil from Coma Alta was made from Priorat, garnatxa blanca and viognier, like the previous two whites, offered a rich, full bodied, complex bouquet but this time with the fruit and sweetness of the viognier grape coming through.

The final savoury course of the night was Duck Terrine with Plums and Turnip, a strong flavoured and meaty dish that combined the roughness of duck terrine and confit with the sweetness of fois gras. This was accompanied by a 2001 Elian Daros by the makers, Clos Baquey, and featuring a mix of Merlot, cabernet sauvignon, franc, and abouriou – a local grape variety from a region just outside Barcelona.

The Clos Baquey was the only red wine for the evening and despite the burgundy-type bottle, was full bodied and smooth. But it certainly paled in complexity to the preceding whites.

Dessert was Caramelised Apple, accompanied by a 2001 Andrien Cazeaux from Chateau Vieux Moulin, which was made from Loupiac, Semillion, sauvignon and muscadelle. The apple was made in the same theme as the Golden Egg. The shell that formed the apple was not actually the apple itself, but a kind of hard, crisp candy that only looked like a fruit, but cracked open to reveal a sweet cream underneath. The result, unfortunately, was the same as the previous course, the man thought, a bit too much sharpness and crunch for his taste.

“What do you think?” the woman asked.

“Well, the food was ok. The pigeon was excellent. I really enjoyed the white wines and I think the wine pairing was done really well. Especially because she chose a lot of local wines that we probably wouldn’t get the chance to try otherwise,” the man said.