Tapas and wine are delicious words many of us often hear on lifestyle programs and only read about in travel magazines. But only a few of us really experience. Tapas in Spanish cuisine, are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks. While the tapas experience are more common to places like Barcelona, us here in the Philippines can enjoy the same (maybe even better) experience without the need to travel far and long.
Wine and Tapas Night at Sofitel Philippine Plaza
As part of the ongoing Wine Days celebration at Sofitel which will run until the end of October, the luxury French hotel presented the Wine and Tapas Night featuring wines from Cadiz, Spain. Rate was Php 2,700 nett per person which is inclusive of free flowing wine from the Gonzales Byass wine collection and a selection of traditional Spanish tapas.
Sofitel Wine Dinner Experience
This must be my third or fourth wine dinner at the Sofitel. It truly is an experience to come out of our comfort zones, dress up, and break bread with new faces every time. There are familiar faces like Sofitel members who have made the hotel an extension of their home and already know the staff and managers by their names. Just like the gentleman we met, a retired composer who is a familiar face at all Sofitel Wine Dinners.
We also shared the table with a couple, both former radio jockeys and from the younger spectrum of the crowd – a couple of De La Salle students who wish to experience and learn more about wine appreciation. It would be interesting to note that in the olden days, tapas was really shared by travelers who might not really know each other. Sharing tapas with new faces make the dinner even more interesting because of all the new stories you will hear.
The Tapas & Wine Menu
A total of 9 kinds of tapas were served. Serving was done one at a time starting with the marinated manchego cheese with olives. Dining format was communal where the tapas are laid out on the middle of the table, intended to be passed around. The format was different to other wine dinners I’ve attended, here one can get as many or as little as you want.
My personal favorites were the croquettes aka croquettas which were very good with a glass of Villarnau Brut. I remembered the name because we were all provided with a wine dinner menu, this was helpful in remembering which wine we liked best – just so we could get more of it from the wine station.
No one had to be a wine expert, in fact we all shared smiles and laughter while figuring out our own favorite pairings of food and wine. We also talked about an app called Vivino which is like a digital cheat sheet to find out which food goes with what kind of wine, wine ratings, and even prices. All the 8 kinds of wine must have helped in relaxing and loosening up everyone.
Other pairings I made mental notes of are the following:
Boquerones (marinated anchovy) and Vinas del Vero Somontano Chardonnay
Sauteed Chorizo with Red Wine and Beronia Rosado
Tio Pepe Do Jerez Xeres Sherry tasted amazing with any food at all. It was my favorite of the night.
There were some food that I am not sure which wine went best with, maybe because I was too focused on eating them like the Mussels with Chorizo and the Seafood and Chicken Paella.
There’s room for dessert
Perhaps the most anticpated item in the menu (at least in our table) was the Spanish Dessert. We were served fresh Churros and it made our Spanish experience even more authentic. At this point of the wine dinner, everyone knew each other and by hand we each casually took one churros each and shared a dipping pot of hot melted chocolate.
This dessert experience makes me recall a travel show that featured Barcelona and how it did end with friends visiting a churros joint, as if all the tapas in the world were not enough.
Overall, the wine dinner proved to be another worthy and unique experience. I appreciate that for a significant fraction of a trip to Barcelona or other places, we can enjoy and learn about the other cultures in the world – including the art of wine appreciation.
The next Sofitel Wine Days activity is on October 16, Soiree a la Belle Etoile: Sofitel’s Full Moon Party. A white party amidst the picturesque landscape featuring free-flowing vintage Strait Wines and an opportunity to view the majestic full moon from a telescope.
