…and can’t make it to Barcelona, I’ve got another option a little bit closer to home.
Well, my home, anyway.
I’ve been busy checking out my new ‘ville here, so I had to go to a place highly recommended by a friend. Turned out to be a real winner too. La Rambla, on Third Street in McMinnville, is a tapas bar with a decidedly Spanish attitude. We had a lovely meal there, all of tapas; although they had a full list of main menu items, we decided to go with the small plates flow this first time out. I’m glad we did, as we ended up with some delicious small plates, with enough food to stuff us full, and enough variety of flavors to satisfy even the most demanding foodie.
We started with some mixed olives, of course. Their variety of olives, along with some fresh, fruity olive oil and standard aceto balsamico for dipping the crusty bread (of which you get plenty) gave us plenty of room to study the cocktails, wine list and tapas offerings. The cocktail list looked sufficiently interesting that we deviated from our standard practice and each ordered one. Hey, it was a Friday night!
When the tapas started arriving though, we ordered a wine new to us, a local named Remy Three Wives Red 2007 from the Willamette Valley. Wow! We were both impressed by this wine, a heady blend of 50% Syrah, 13% Sangiovese, and 37% Lagrein. Yes, I said Lagrein! (I know, I know; I was surprised to find Lagrein in the Pacific Northwest too. I can rarely find it here from its original home in northern Italy.) Those three make for a wonderful blend, with the Syrah giving some basic body and blueberry fruit, the Sangiovese giving some racy acidity and structure and dusty cherry, and the Lagrein delivering a wallop of black fruit (think big, fat, black plums), black pepper, herbs and earthiness. We liked it enough we went out the next day and found a couple of bottles on a local retailer’s shelf. We’ll be drinking a lot of this stuff! My suggestion is to find some if you can (and apparently you can order it via the internet from some outfit in Corvallis; you should do so. Word.)
With the Three Wives Red perking up our tastebuds, the tapas began to arrive in quick succession. There was a Dungeness and goat cheese stuffed piquillo pepper that disappeared in a flash; it was so good, it was gone before we knew it, and good enough that we could have easily ordered another, had not the other delectables distracted us.
The next highlight was succulent green figs, soft and silky and sweet, but not cloying, with Serrano ham wrapped around it and then roasted lightly. Snarf.
Then the bowl of Penn Cove Mussels arrived, fragrant in a bath of aromatic white wine, harissa cream and citrus. The mussels were small but meaty and plump, and the sauce was eminently soppable with the grill-singed toast that accompanied them.
The mushrooms sautéed in wine and garlic were an unexpected delight: an assortment of fresh, tasty ‘shrooms with just the right touch of garlic and olive oil and sautéed to the point of perfection in white wine.
The list of tapas featured several different varieties of potato dishes: the traditional Spanish potato and onion frittata/omelet, garlic fried potatoes, patatas con alioli, and the one we decided on, the patatas Bravas, a delicious combination of chunked Yukon Gold potatoes, bronzed in the oven, and covered with a creamy garlic aioli sauce, then topped with romescu sauce (tomato).
The Remy Three Wives Red soldiered on through each of these dishes without faltering; it matched and mated with each dish. It even handled the mussels in harrisa cream sauce! And it had that capacity, so important in a ‘food wine’, of being both earthy and refreshing at the same time. Truly impressive and delicious wine. [Note: Apparently the Remy Red Blend changes each year, as the 2006 is reported to be a Sangiovese/Syrah blend from Washington. We had the 2007 triple-variety blend.)
Mind you, the paella and other Spanish cucina items were on the list at La Rambla. And we intend to go back and try as many as we can. We like this place…a lot. And to top it off, it has a lovely long, dark wooden bar, perfect for singles or casual couples, and a wine list worth exploring, balanced between local faves and a variety of well-selected Spanish wines. And after you eat, you have all of Third Street to explore and….ahem …ramble down.