Martha’s Cheese and Wine Tasting

Colin Harkness

Moraira, Alicante is a very pretty, small town on Spain’s Costa Blanca. Over the last 26 years I’ve watched it grow, mainly to accommodate a large influx of foreign residents, including ourselves. Administratively, it continues to be run by the Ayuntamiento of Teulada which was originally the larger of the two towns, with Moraira fulfilling the role of fishing village more than anything else – until the tourists discovered it.

It boasts three beaches and, in times gone by, plenty of land on which to build. Enter the Inmobiliarias (Estate Agents) and Hoteliers providing, respectively: homes for foreigners, including second homes or holiday homes as well those who fell in love with the town and surrounding area and become resident here; plus those who want accommodation for their two week holidays each year.

Let’s not forget also the Spanish, although increasingly it has become the preserve of the wealthier Madrileños/Valencianos whose 4×4 vehicles speed along their respective autopistas on Friday nights and fiestas, escaping the city. There are some rumblings nowadays about Moraira being priced out of the reach of the locals – it’s largely out of our reach too!

Moraira, like everywhere else in Spain, took a hit from La Crisis, the financial catastrophe of some years ago; political austerity measures; Covid and so on, yet its resilience can be seen. Moraira thrives. The Estate Agent shops in town, a barometer of the economic times if there ever was one, rub shoulders with all manner of small businesses, providing for all the day-to-day and long term requirements needed by tourists and residents.

There is also a small, traditional bodega, in this case meaning wine shop. It’s traditional in that it has, in common with so many bodegas throughout Spain, large oak barrels which have bulk wine ‘en barril’ for customers to come and fill their own containers with mostly the high alcohol, big bodied, heady (in every sense of the word!) reds. There are also locally made rosados and whites as well as wines from other areas in Spain. There are some international wines too. It fulfils a certain role perfectly.

However, up until about three years ago there hasn’t been in Moraira a fine wine bodega. With the rapid gentrification of the town and the obvious influx of sophisticated, cultured people with sufficient and in many of cases, lots of disposable income, it is something that had been sorely missed. There were a couple of business that attempted to fill this gap, but for whatever reason, they didn’t last.

Then Martha came – saw and conquered!

Martha’s Vineyard was founded just a few years ago by Martha Ardila, a retired Diplomat for the Columbian Government with a passion for, and great knowledge of, wine. Martha has always enjoyed wine and spent some 15 years in the USA’s California wine-making area, where she was able to enjoy her passion whilst learning more and more about wine. Her passion is now her business, (along with husband, Brad, and Riff the dog!)

Essentially, Martha’s Vineyard is a fine wine shop (don’t worry, fine wine doesn’t always mean expensive – it means quality), selling local and regional Spanish wine as well as international wines. However, that’s not all. Martha holds regular wine tasting events as well as bodega visits and more. I’m on the mailing list and when I received the details of a recent Cheese and Wine Pairing Evening I responded very quickly, luckily finding two places left on a recent Friday, the Thursday having been sold out almost immediately!

If not too far away from the area I strongly recommend visiting Martha’s. Peruse the shelves, always stocked with well chosen, personally tasted wines, priced at wallet-friendly entry level through to, well, let’s face it, expensive offerings too. We are all catered-for here. Then, as you’re making your purchases ask to be included on the list. You may also wish to join Martha’s Wine Club – ask about details and benefits too.

The premise behind the tasting we attended was the well-known fact that cheese and wine go so well together. You’ll perhaps remember (if of a certain age!) the old song “Love and Marriage . . . . go together like a horse and carriage . . .” – well it’s a wonder that the writer didn’t manage to squeeze in a line about cheese and wine. They too are the perfect marriage. However, many of us have preconceived ideas about such pairings, for example, often it is red wines that are thought of, before white, if in fact white is even considered! It was Martha’s mission to put us right on that point – and didn’t she do well!

Apart from the Cava de Requena welcome drink (Pago de Tharsys Millesime, 24 months en rima [in bottle, resting on lees], therefore a Reserva, Chardonnay – by the way!), there were six wines to taste, in generous measures too. These six wines were paired with an impressive variety of national and international cheeses, each carefully chosen to compliment its paired wine, and vice versa.

So, the red wine only theory was booted right out – our first wine was a rather special Brut, white Cava, whose whopping 40 months en rima qualifies it for Gran Reserva status, Cava de Guarda Superior.  Made with Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Parellada, the traditional varieties of cava, this cava has both the spritz and acidity to nicely cut through the cream of the Tizne cheese and the depth of flavour to work well with the smokiness of this lovely cheese.

Martha is a great believer in the Siah range of wines from ‘Green Spain’, the Northwest corner, so named by the late John Radford because it receives the highest rainfall in Spain (mainly on the plain? – sorry, that’s for those of a certain age again!). DO Ribeiro provides the white we tasted using three of their treasured varieties: Treixadura, Godello and Albariño. I reckon you’ll all know the latter, many will also be conversant with Godello, but perhaps Treixadura is new to you? If so, go buy some! Like the others in the blend, it is fruity, tropical and citrus. The Godello adds a little vegetal note, a touch of fennel, with slatey mineral notes too. And the Albariño, well you know how lovely this wine can be – floral, white stoned fruits, fresh acidity and so on.

The Cheese for this wine was, in fact, our favourite of the night – and that’s saying something! So creamy it was runny and with a strong bot not too dominant taste. The acidity of the Siah blend was perfectly chosen and the combined flavours of the three varieties made a taste that stood perfectly shoulder to shoulder with the cheese. Wow, I can almost taste it now, weeks after the event!

Wine number three still wasn’t a red, though black grapes were represented. Do not, please, miss out rosé wines when thinking of cheese parings and as a starting point go to Martha’s and buy their Cara Nord Trepat Rosé. It’s the best rosado we’ve tasted this year, and that we can remember, the whole of last year too! Made with Cataluña’s less well-known black grape, Trepat, it’s subtle with earthy notes blending well with subdued soft red fruit, including pomegranate.

Its cheese was Espadán, goats cheese, which is on the smelly side of, aromatic! However, on the palate the rosado and the cheese ‘dance’ together, as Martha so delightfully said! I wondered if a rosé would make it with such an aromatic (smelly!) cheese – but should have trusted Martha implicitly!

Afinador, a soft creamy cheese again, but not runny as the one before, was chosen to pair with our first red wine. DOCa Rioja Alavesa provides Villota Garnacha 2021, from Bodegas Villota, and made with 100% Garnacha. When considering Rioja we often think first, perhaps exclusively, of Tempranillo, but we really should remember that other varieties are often used too, more usually in blends with the early ripening Tempranillo, but sometime, as here, as monovarietals.

This wine has a glorious nose – smell it and you are transported, wherever you are, to Spain, probably to that hallowed ground Rioja, but the aroma is definitely Spanish! The vines are 60 – 70 years old, with some fermentation and ageing in stainless steel, some in barrel. Lovely wine, and a very good pairing with the cheese, which actually comes from far away in Spain, the Jerez area.

Our final wine of the tasting took us back to Green Spain – in fact to DO Bierzo, whose wonderful Mencía black grape variety rules the roost. Made by the enigmatic and much revered, heavily-bearded Raúl Peréz, the Pagos de Posada Tilenus red has 15% alc. It’s a big wine yes, yet subtle too. Martha’s choice of the world famous Mahón Curado cows milk cheese from Menorca, was inspired. Two bold tastes complimenting each other.

Finally, talking of complements(!), this was an exceptionally good event!

www.marthasvineyard.es

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