I recently attended a special 6-course Spanish wine pairing dinner on 7 November that opened my eyes to Spanish wine with food at Bolonia, the newly opened all-day dining and tapas bar & restaurant. It is located very conveniently at Republic Plaza in the heart of Raffles Place and the CBD. I arrived a bit late on a rainy evening to find the Ambassador of Spain, his colleague, the rep of the Spanish winery Parés Baltà, and the restaurant owner and manager to be awaiting me to join. It was a lovely evening tasting and learning more about the organic wines from Parés Baltà, which comes from the Penedès region, 30km away from Barcelona. This special event is part of the Eat Spain, Drink Spain 2023 campaign, of which I have written about!
The Spanish bar & restaurant was not air-conditioned but had huge ceiling to floor windows that can be opened in the day and an open bar counter. It's casual yet comfortable and great for socialising.
Here's the wine pairing menu for the night featuring organic and biodynamic wines from Parés Baltà that is brought in by Donzère Wines . You can find Bolonia's regular menu on their Chope page.
We first started with some vivacious Pares Balta Brut Nature cava which was paired with the super refreshing Heirloom Tomato salad starter. I am wary of cava because the bubbles tend to get to me, but this was hard to resist on a muggy Singaporean evening. Really light, fruity and refreshing!
Then we tried the Calcari white wine that is paired with with Foie Gras Toast, which was one of my favourite dishes of the night. The wine was fruity and smooth and made for a great foil to the creamy foie sandwiched in the bread. What's more, all the wines being organic means that I am more likely to walk away from this dinner without a headache.
Ungh. This. was. so. good!
We then had the Amphora Brisat, which is an orange wine with the most peculiar method of fermenting in these "amphoras", which are clay vessels from the olden days that allows oxidation to seep in through the pores of the container. Because of this production method, there's a very limited quantity of these wine available.
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| Pares Balta has 13 of these. Credit: Internationalwinechallenge.com |
This clean-tasting orange wine was rejuvenating for some reason, and paired with the intense Turbot, which tasted like the codfish's cousin, on top of the ikura cream and salsa verde.
Then we tried Mas Irene, the red wine with Huevos Rotos. The wine was intense yet fruity and goes well with the dish. I also learned that this wine was named after the eldest daughter of the female winemakers, and is dedicated to women. What a great family of winemakers!
In the huevos rotos, the truffle bits are mixed with the roughly mashed potatoes and it was a bed for the onsen egg with jamon, making it an umami bomb that matches equally with the stronger tasting red wine.
But my favourite wine of the night had to be the Gratavinum priorat, the really difficult and labour-intensive red wine made in the Priorat region where there are pebbles on the floor making machinery impossible, but these pebbles also reflect more sunlight to the grapes that create that unique flavour. Therefore, if you see a priorat wine for too a low price, the rep tells us, you need to be suspicious of it.
I really enjoyed this ROUNDED (hence, 2 pi r) priorat red wine with a blend of grapes that creates a harmonious mouthfeel and satisfying sensation when drinking it. Especially when paired with the main dish for the evening, and even the dessert.
The gratavinum is paired with the main dish of Mogote, which I googled and found out to be Iberico pork loin. The thinly sliced pieces of pork was tender yet clean and succulent and what's more surprising was the chunk of fried bone marrow which instantly dissipated into a fatty explosion once I put it into my mouth. I loved it so much.
We ended the night with a lovely chocolate dessert. I must say, after the wine pairing I really did have a much deeper appreciation for Spanish wines, especially organic ones, that tries to respect the environment and history/heritage to create modern wines not just for their own people but for the world. I feel lucky to be in Singapore and yet have a chance to enjoy such beautiful food and wine. I strongly recommend Bolonia if you are looking for a Spanish food or tapas restaurant that also has an excellent wine list.
Bolonia
Republic Plaza, #01-03, 9 Raffles Place, Singapore 048619
Mondays to Fridays 8am to 11pm, Saturdays 11am to 11pm
Closed on Sundays
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| Credit: Bolonia Singapore on Instagram |
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| Credit: Bolonia Singapore on Instagram |
Thanks to Bolonia and Pares Balta for the invite!
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