* * * * *   Padre Luis de Lezama Barañano, founder of Grupo Lezama Restaurant and Hotel Group has just died. Ironically, I awoke early this morning and was on my phone reviewing Instagram messages, which I had not checked since before Christmas. I came across a message from a photographer friend of mine, Eric Mencher, who spends a lot of time in Spain. He sent me a photograph of ..read more

  * * * * *   The late Pedro Arregi at Restaurante Elkano with his prized wood-grilled rodaballo (turbot).  Elkano Txiki is run by Restaurante Elkano in the recuperated space that was where the Pedro Arregi started Elkano decades ago in 1964 as bar with grill on the street to cook some of the catch brought in each day by local fisherman.  The chef behind the menu ..read more

 * * * * *  (11 Days, 10 Nights, with the option of extra days in Madrid) Join a Spanish Adventure Designed, Organized and Guided by Acclaimed Spanish Gastronomy, Wine & Culture Expert Gerry Dawes  Food and Wine Road Warrior Gerry Dawes in Burgos, Spain About Gerry Dawes  Gerry Dawes is a writer-photographer and author of Sunset in a Glass:&nbsp ..read more

 * * * * *   New Yorker (Brooklyn) Michael Whiteman, President of Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman Restaurants Consultants, contemplates three kinds of artisanal lards, including manteca colorá (with pimentón, Spanish paprika), zurrapa de lomo (bits of pork loin fried in Ibérico pork fat, all of which is put into a serving bowl and left to solidify as a spread) and just rendered ..read more

 * * * * *   Spain's Most Revered Winemaker Mariano García, owner of Mauro and winemaker at Vega Sicilia for 30 years October 14, 2024 Having lunch yesterday with one of my dearest friends, whom I have known and argued with about wine with for 40 years, Spain's most revered winemaker, Mariano García, owner of Mauro and winemaker at Vega Sicilia for 30 years.   & ..read more

 * * * * *  All photographs by Gerry Dawes©2024 / gerrydawes@aol.com.   Ibeas de Juarros, just east of Burgos on the Camino de Santiago, home to the great little black-red beans of Ibeas and near to discovery of the world's oldest human remains at Atapuerca, July 10, 2023. Ironically, this mural suggests that the primeval man is soon going to add some pilgrim ..read more

* * * * * Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Author of Don Quixote* * * * * * Casa de Cervantes, Valladolid Dostoevsky in The Diary of a Writer on Don Quixote* "There is nothing in life more powerful than this piece of fiction. It is still the final and the greatest expression of human thought, the most bitter irony that a human is capable of expressing; and if the world came to an end and ..read more

* * * * *  (Parts of this chronicle first appeared in the Penguin Guide to Spain & in the Berlitz Travellers Guide to Spain.) In early May, 2007, I stayed in Valladolid while attending the Premios Zarcillo, an annual judging of wines ostensibly drawn from around the world by an international panel of wine experts, but primarily from the host region of Castilla y León. I had not really ..read more

* * * * * by Gerry Dawes ©2009 First Published October 19, 2009On Sept. 4th, 2009:, Decanter published Arrest warrant posted for Spanish Wine Academy director co-authored by investigative reporter, Jim Budd, and Decanter editor, Adam Lechmere.  And on October 2, Decanter published Pancho Campo resigns to 'focus on clearing name', this time also signed by Adam Lechmere and Jim Budd ..read more

* * * * * "Whether I am in front of (great?) porno or a great wine I (can recognize) either without difficulty". -- Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s The Wine Advocate's Spanish wine critic Jay Miller in an interview with Barcelona’s La Vanguardia, January 2011.   Jay Miller in Catalunya.  (Photo: La Vanguardia.) "For The Wine Advocate’s (just "retired") Spanish Wine Critic Jay Miller a ..read more