Wine Daddy has been selected to host a dinner for Celler Piñol Winery. The Spanish experience begins at 7.00pm with a Tapas Platter followed by Spanish-style Lamb Shank as main course, continued with a Spanish Cheese Platter and completed with a Brownie with ice cream as dessert, where guest sip the finest wines from Terra Alta as each course unfolds.
6pm, we are ready!
6.15pm, Juanjo is here
6.30pm and our guests started to come
Juanjo introducing and explaining the winery
Dinner started with Tapas Platter, main course Lamb Shank with garden salad, Spanish cheese platter and a surprise Homemade Chocolate Brownie with ice cream as dessert. It's a Spanish Fiesta!
It's too much food and wine is too good!
Juanjo explaining how wines are made, the process terms and sharing his experience and knowledge with guests
Lastly, a group photo when everyone still able to stand straight. :)
Our victims for the night
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Background
Juanjo Galcera Piñol, represents the 4th generation of this family run cellar where he has toiled the last 16 years. Piñol that is the name of the winery and his Mother’s family name (In Spain you keep both GALCERA first from the father and second PIÑOL from the mother). A Chemical Engineer by training, he gave up a lucrative carrier with Danone (the multinational yoghurt giant) to become the ambassador and much more, for this wonderful Spanish wine producer. A challenging job given that this vineyard was from a virtually unknown region of Spain when he started and production was only 25,000 bottles a year (very small for Spain).
He recalls his first trip abroad with a dozen bottles of wine in tow (back in 1999 when you could hand carry wine on board) trying to establish a market for his wines in Germany, Denmark and Austria. Today Celler Piñol exports over 600,000 bottles a year to 25 countries. Apart from a lot of effort, travel, passion, enthusiasm and a love for his family, town and the vines,…. Juanjo is a qualified Sommelier of wine having graduated from ROVIRA I VIRGILI University (a Leading winemaking school in Tarragona, Spain).
Celler Piñol Winery
Cellar Piñol is located in Batea, Terra Alta, the most southern region of Catalonia. At 500 meters above sea level, the area is characterized by a medieval appearance and the sprinkling of small towns throughout the mountains and countryside. It has a timeless beauty, where rugged mountains contrast sharply to sweeping plains filled with crops of ancient Mediterranean stock (grapes, almonds, olives).
At CELLER PIÑOL, healthy, organic farming methods (using ecologically friendly methods without herbicides, pesticides or sistemics) are used to produce the finest fruit. From the first planting of the seed, the maturation process of the fruit is controlled, harvesting only at the ideal time. The quality of Cellar Piñol wine is directly related to the health of the grapes and careful attention is paid to the vineyards each day. From pruning to leaf exposed to the sun and allowed to mature to its fullest.
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