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Saturday 31 October 2009

Up this morning at reasonable hour (for once) for some coffee on the terrace of the restaurant overlooking the Navarra valley

We said our goodbyes to Javier and Carlos, exchanged some wines and moved swiftly onto a tour of the winery with the cellar master Alex to taste the 2009 ferments. The wines looked great and the vintage is certainly a cracker here in Spain too.

No lunch needed due to last nights marathon tasting dinner! So we left straight for Calatayud to meet my friend and winemaker Norrel Robertson to celebrate his 40th birthday.

We arrived in good time for coffee and a look around the town before heading back to Norrel’s newly and stunningly renovated house. The house is situated in the old town and has the most stunning views over the Church and onto the Moorish castle that dominates the skyline of Calaytayud

Norrels wife Sharon cooked up some fantastic suckling lamb which has its own D.O. here in Aragon called Ternasco, which comes from the word "tierno" meaning tender – and I can safely say it was very very tender!! All washed down with some Chateau Pichon Longueville 2000 kindly provided by our kiwi winemaker friend Nathan.

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