It was that time of year again when I had to get to
Calatayud in Spain to join my Peña (club) to celebrate the festival of San Roque!
This year I drove down with Castillon wine maker Vincent Galineau and he would
be in for quite a surprise.
We made good time and after a six-hour drive we were with my
friend and winemaker Norrel in perfect time for a Spanish lunch. We headed
straight to the El Ciervo: a family-run restaurant in the tiny village of Cevada
de Canada. The restaurant is the Spanish
equivalent of my beloved Voyageur restaurant in Castillon that burnt down last
year so I was ready for a real treat of homemade cooking, no fuss, no menu, and
no choice!
As always, we were greeted in the downstairs bar by Antonio
who runs the place. Antonio also runs around like a madman, taking orders and
setting up the tables upstairs, pouring beers downstairs and serving the
wonderful food that his wife, sister and mother are making in the kitchen.
We started with a crisp green salad with tuna and local
olives to share before I was given a very tasty revuelto morcilla y pimento roja: finely chopped black pudding
mixed in with scrambled eggs and roasted red peppers. The main dish of conejo con amandres, rabbit with almond
sauce, didn’t disappoint and neither did Norrel’s dish of beef cheeks in red
wine. A simple, fruity and cold bottle
of local Garnacha from the coop San Gregorio was the perfect wine match. Dessert
was homemade pana cotta and a drizzle of local honey, all in for nine euros!
Festivities were waiting so we headed back to Norrel’s place
in Calatayud to meet the rest of the gang and to get changed into our Peña
Garnacha outfits … and so the next 48 hours of madness began.
We all trooped down to our Peña where the usual suspects were
already in full fiesta mode. Primitivo was jumping around, our band was in full
swing and Oscar was in usual fancy dress. This year Oscar came as the
infamously badly restored church painting of Jesus from the nearby village of
Borja. If you haven’t heard then you can
read more here.
Suddenly all the members of our purple army were ready and
we headed for battle to the main square to see the opening of the festival and
to meet the other Peñas! On arrival the scene was mayhem; foam, flour, eggs,
paint, ketchup you name it was flying in the air with each Peña’s band playing
and singing as loud as possible.
The statue of San Roque was marched up to the balcony and
the fireworks were let off opening the festival. The task now was for everyone
to get back to their Peña for supper via the small streets now super jam
packed; it was like a mass game of ludo!
Some three hours later, after crawling along dancing the
charanga, we finally arrived to the wonderful smell of paella and the bar in
full swing.
It was a rather special one
this year as Norrel had made a wine for the Peña, sold exclusively to Laithwaite’s.
You really have to get some of this Garnacha; it oozes the fiesta ambiance and
everyone was delighted that we had our own wine!
As normal, the fiesta continued into the early
hours … kids and grannies included! Tomorrow’s fancy dress theme is cowboys and
Indians…………..
Another harvest is upon us, although not as near as usual! Due to the abnormally cold spring the vineyards are approximately 20 days behind; unheard of. But quality is there. Beautiful set on the Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Roussanne, but strangely some of the reds like Pinot Noir are more advanced than the whites? It’s going to be a backward harvest but we are watching very carefully to get that perfect picking date.
