Bodegas Aalto cult or not?

Ribera del Duero have very old traditions of winemaking all back to the old Romans and Phoenician times who showed the Iberian people at that time how to make wine and viticulture.

The Moorish conquerors know how to irrigate and that made even the driest part of the country a winegrowing area that still today flourish from this.

Most of today’s vineyards use to have connections to the church and believed are that the monks from France left some secrets behind on they pilgrimage tours.

Bodegas Aalto was born in 1999 by Mariano Garcia who was the winemaker at Vega Sicilia for more than 30 years and his good friend Javier Zaccagnini who was the head for the Consejo in Ribera.

The 32 first hectares is now 43 of the best sites in the area like La Horra and La Aquilera that are plantings between 40 to 100 years of age, absolutely fantastic when you thing about it.

The grape in Ribera have always been a certain clone of Tempranillo here called Tinto Fino and are widely planted in that part of Spain.

All the wine from seven different villages are vinified separately and the blended for the best balance and future, the wine is after that barrel aged for a minimum of 20 months in new and used barriques.

Aalto is a tasty wine with great ambition and some may even consider this as a cult wine, I don’t think so but that is another storey.

The PS is even more selected and a bigger wine in my taste and for all of you who is interested in Ribera wines should come to my tasting this saturday.

Great artisan food

When you think about great food you have to mention all the wonderful flavours in delicatessen that are made by people who is true to the original history and who really cares about how they produce the cheeses and cured/dried food stuff from all the regions of Europe.

The tradition of producing food from your own and local produce is a great way of preserving the artisan craftsmanship so all of you out there can taste the true favours of the land and the people who every day is trying they best to make us all happy.

I am happy to work in a company who has many of these fine producers and you can find them all in many of the best restaurants and delicatessen shops around the country.

At the Gastro Nord fair the 24-27 of April you can visit us at our stand and taste some of the best products from around Europe on the Swedish market and meet up with the producers and great chefs who will prepare some great treats for you.

Swedish Meatballs ala Original

There are many things to say about Swedish cuisine and the food from the Nordic countries, but I guess that the Meatballs ( Köttbullar ) is the thing that people around the globe think of when asked to mention one Swedish dish.

The Meatballs is actually brought in from Turkey bye the Swedish King Karl XII in the 1700 and are now consider to be the number food for all ages here often served with potatoes, lingonberry and pickled cucumber.

The best meatballs in Sweden are served at Värdshuset Ulla Winbladh at Djurgården in Stockholm, this old Inn is very traditional in foodservice and I just love the way they represent Sweden and its food culture without being snobby or old-fashioned.

Milk, beer or water is the thing to drink with meatballs due to the very creamy sauce and all the different flavours that is going on at the same time makes this a dish very hard to match wine.

Please enjoy this amazing dish the right way and do not consider what is served at most IKEA restaurants to be the true Swedish meatball

NEO wine, music and good life

Bodegas y Viñedos Neo is, according to its musician founder friends Javier Ajenjo, José Luís Simón and Julio César Conde the “dream” since early age and who, in 1999, decided to make a wine they liked.

The first 6,000 bottles of Neo 2000, which some years later scored a rating of 95 points from wine writer R Parker, were made in a rented corner of a bodega by the very talented winemaker Isaac Fernandez Montana who is still in charge of the wines.

Selling wine on the world market is always challenging but when you receive high scores it for sure make life a little easier and the guys knows how to incorporate wine, music, lifestyle and great passion for food in a family style blend.

The bodega holds around 10 hectares of very old plantings with many of the more than 70 years of age and that boost some amazing ripe fruits that shows in the wines.

Neo the regular bottling is a wine that is made from 50-60 years old planting of Tempranillo grapes with extreme control in the vineyard and some 2000 kg per hectare out take, the wine is kept 15 months in American and French barrels.

The main wine Neo Punta Esencia is the flagship wine made from 80+ years’ old vines with very low yield of 1500 kg/hectare and the use of new French barriques for 24 months and loved by the worlds wine critics with high scores.

Bodegas Neo are now producing a wide variety of wines from around Castilla y Leon all made by the Neo design studio aimed for the modern wine drinker, Im looking forward to taste this range of 3 reds and 2 whites.

The first production of 6000 bottles are now 10 years later in the range of 500 000 bottlers annual.

You can go a long way with some money and a great idea, you rock hombres.