A Dinner with Marqués de Riscal at Homer St Cafe for VanWineFest 2023

One of the world’s best vineyards, Marqués de Riscal lives by wine and lives for wine. I joined Brand Ambassador José Luis Maguro Jr. at this perfectly paired dinner dedicated to the shared love of wine. The evening began with canapés, followed by a four-course dinner exquisitely prepared by the team at Homer St. Cafe and Bar. Let me get into the details.

Talking With Brand Ambassador Jose Luis Maguro Jr.

Marqués de Riscal is still a family-owned winery by three families that believe in quality. They have been making wine for over 150 years. They produce 13 million bottles a year and distribute the wines to 120 different countries. They are a winery with vines over 100 years old which makes it expensive to maintain the vines, but they do this as they believe in making quality wines. They propagate their old vines by grafting these old vines to new vine stalks.

The Marqués de Riscal Reserva wine with wire

You may notice on their Reserva red wine that there is a golden-coloured wire mesh around the bottle. They are the first winery to do this. Their wine won a gold medal in 1895 in a blind tasting with Bordeaux wines. There is a sticker on the bottom front of this wine label showing the award. Some restaurants bought our award-winning wine, but after using the wine, would refill the bottles with other, lesser wines, which made our quality wine look bad. To prevent fraud, they came up with the idea of placing the golden wire around their bottle and they told people if you see their wine and it does not have the golden wire then that is a fraudulent bottle and not to buy it. This wine is available at BC Liquor stores.

The winery is located in the north in the mountains which stops the cold winds. In the south, there are more mountains that block the hot weather. Their winery is located between these mountains, which gives them a perfect micro-climate for growing grape vines.

He mentioned that his father and uncle met renowned Canadian architect Frank O. Gehry and became friends with him. They told him that they wanted to design a new winery with a hotel, The Marqués de Riscal City of Wine, making it the Spanish château of the 21st century. Jose’s dad liked hockey and enjoyed speaking to Frank about Canadian hockey. They brought Frank to the winery, which is in a small town, Elciego, but they have a proud name and history. In their original winery, they had a library of wines, called the Cathedral, which has wines dating back to 1862. They found out that Frank was born in 1929, so they opened a bottle of that vintage for Frank to try, as a present. Frank enjoyed it so much, he agreed to design the Marqués de Riscal City of Wine. The design of the winery exterior represents a vine growing from the ground.

My Wine Tasting Notes

Marques de Riscal Vinas Viejas Rosado 2021 — Marqués de Riscal Vinas Viejas Rosado 2021

Marqués de Riscal Sauvignon Blanc 2020 – an organic wine. Deep lemon coloured. Toast, lemon and stone fruit aromas. Dry, with a lean mouthfeel. Lemon, toast, and a touch of stone fruit on the palate.

Vinas Viejas Rosado 2021 – A bright medium-intensity salmon colour. It has a light strawberry nose. The wine is off-dry, medium body and acidity. Fruity flavours of strawberries and rhubarb. Round and mouth-filling. I left this wine in my glass and it stayed fresh and fruity the whole time. An excellent wine to enjoy. –

Baron de Chirel Verdejo Vinas Centenarias 2021 – made from pre-phylloxera vines that are more than 100 years old. It has a bright lemon with green tint in the glass. A nice light stone fruit nose. Medium body, round with a medium-intensity acid backbone. Stone fruit flavours with a touch of pepperiness and honey.

Marqués de Riscal Finca Torrea 2017 – made from a blend of Tempranillo and Graciano, coming from the Finca, “the land”, of Torrea. The wine label shows the map of the vineyard plots of the Finca de Torrea. The vines are around 70 years of age. The wine is an opaque ruby colour. A light intensity ripe berry fruit nose. Medium body, smooth with a thicker mouthfeel. Medium acidity. Off-dry with sweet berry fruit flavours. Light tannins and pepperiness.

Marqués de Riscal XR Reserva 2017 – This wine came from their best quality barrels. The winery originally granted the workers wine for their personal consumption and were asked to pick the barrels they would like for themselves. The workers knew the best barrels and marked an XR on each barrel so they knew which to request for themselves. It truly is an excellent wine! This wine has a deep ruby colour. Ripe, juicy berry nose. Fresh ripe berry fruit and sweet spices plus light pepperiness. Medium acidity and light tannins and mouthfeel. Medium-plus length. –

Marqués de Riscal Baron de Chirel Rioja 2017 – 110-year-old vines for this wine. It is an opaque ruby colour. Medium intensity juicy berry nose. Medium body and acidity. Dry, full body, round with a balanced backbone between acidity and tannins. Juicy berry flavours and pepperiness on the palate.

Wine and Food Pairing

The sunseeker oyster, steak tartare and albacore tuna were all light bites and paired nicely with the acidity, lemon and stone fruit flavours from the Rueda Organic Sauvignon Blanc.

Totten Inlet Mussel Escabeche with Vinas Viejas Rosado wine

I really enjoyed the Totten Inlet Mussel Escabeche but had not heard of Totten Inlet. Through Google, I learned that it is just north of Olympia, WA. The mussels were in a sauce with light acidity. This acidity pls the flavour of the mussel made a complimentary pairing with this rose. I think that the Vinas Viejas Rosado is a very versatile wine and would pair nicely with our bounty of seafood in BC, as well as chicken, lamb, and grilled sausages.

The Gindara sablefish was soft and fatty (in a nice way), plus had a sprig of dill which makes the fish flavour even nice. The cannellini beans added some creamy texture. The Baron de Chirel Verdejo Vinas Centenarias 2021 body and medium acidity worked nicely with the texture of the cannellini beans and the fattiness of the sablefish.

Rotisserie striploin served with the Finca Torrea and XR Reserva wines

The most amazing dish of this evening was the rotisserie striploin which was about 1/2″ thick, medium done, and looked more like prime rib. It was a deliciously soft, thick cut of beef. The Sauce Bordelaise had some sweetness to it. Together, the soft texture of the beef and the sweetness of the sauce was a complementary pairing with the Finca Torrea wine but was an exceptional pairing with the XR Reserva. Sans rival.

To close the dinner we had a Basque-style cheesecake, which was specially made with cheese that was brought directly from the Rioja region and was baked specifically to be burnt on the outside, in the traditional style for this type of cheesecake. The cheesecake was creamy, so soft with some tartness and saltiness. Not sweet at all. The Baron de Chirel Rioja, a big red wine, does not make one think of a good pairing. You would probably be thinking of having a sweeter white wine, but you would be wrong. All the textures and flavours of this cheesecake worked with the fruitiness of this wine.

Thank You

I truly have to thank the chef and crew at Homer St. Cafe and Bar for providing dishes that go well beyond what was expected and paired so well with each of the Marqués de Riscal wines. Gracias. And many thanks to Jose Luis Maguro Jr. for being such an interesting speaker, and the Vancouver International Wine Festival for providing me with a seat at the table.