Spanish Wine & Tapas Dinner

Let me preface this by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone for RSVP'ing early to this event. We sold this out in less than a week. That's an incredible response.

Two of the best things about wine (aside form drinking it) is showcasing it with food and bringing people together to share the experience with you. Working with our friend, Juan Carlos Rodriguez from Bodegas Olarra in Rioja Spain, we visited a local Tapas & Wine Bar here in our neighborhood in hopes to collaborate on a wine dinner. This was one of my favorite wine spots to hang out after work, enjoy a few small plates and hopefully try a new wine. This was also the spot where I fell in love the varietal Tannat over a dish of grilled hanger steak. Flash forward, Ibiza Tapas now has a new owner and new chef to bring this place back to the spotlight and make people aware of the changes. Hopefully these pictures will convince people that were not able to attend our dinner last week to give Ibiza Tapas Hamden a try.

One of the main things we stressed was that we wanted a more family style approach as if you were invited to our home for Sunday Dinner. Tapas were split between hot and cold then for our entree we were served paella followed by dessert. As you can see from the pictures we had to be rolled out of there. So much food accompanied by tremendous wine and friends. For us and the people who came I hope they left with the same shared experience as we did. Looking forward to thew next time we can all sit down together and enjoy company, wine and food!

Here's the maestro leading our group through each wine and why we had chosen the food and wine pairing. And from the last picture it appears that someone failed "wine swirling 101", but gets extra credit for the haiku!! Two of the bigger standouts from the dinner were the single varietal Graciano Rioja and that paella. C'mon...how can you resist a paella? Cheers and we'll see you at the next one.