Spanish Vacation: Le Medoc Alavés

Day Four Continued...

After lunch, we checked into The Hotel Villa de Laguardia, located just below the walled city of Laguardia. After checking in, we did spend a couple hours wandering around the walled city. It really reminded you of a medieval city, with its narrow streets and architecture. There are a number of shops and taverns within the city, including some wine stores, bakeries and grocery stores. There are a couple of beautiful churches as well. Beneath the city are hundreds of wine cellars. In fact, the undergound has more land than the surface. A very intriguing city to explore.

Our dinner this evening, as well as the next evening, was at Le Medoc Alavés, the restaurant within our hotel.

For our first dinner, we began with a bottle of 1996 Miguel Merino Gran Reserva. A superb wine from a winery that is getting lots of positive press lately. A fine Rioja that would satisfy any wine lover.

We began our meal with the Grilled Prawns. They were large prawns, in the shell and seasoned with sea salt. They were good, though a bit messy as you had to remove the shells. Our entrees included the Tournedos Rossini and a Beef Tenderloin. The Tournedos was a filet mignon with foie gras and truffles, and vegetables. The filet was cooked perfectly, rare as requested, and was very tender and flavorful. The tenderloin was just as good. Both dishes were good-sized as well.

The only mistep is that we ordered a side of french fries which did not arrive until our entrees were finished. They actually were excellent fries when we did receive them. And the restaurant gave us a free after-dinner drink to compensate for their mistake.

For our second dinner (on the night of Day Five), we began with a bottle of 2005 Pazo Barrantes Albarino. A crisp, fruity white wine. Nice citrus flavors, with maybe a predominant lemon.

We did not have any appetizers. We both had Hake for our entrees, though different parts of the Hake. I had the Hake loin with a garlic and chili sauce. An excellent white fish, tender and flaky. It is similar to Cod in many ways. Hake is one of the most popular fishes in Spain and it definitely is tasty. My wife had the Hake "Kokotxas" which are "gills." The gills came in a bit of a slimy sauce. The gills were not cooked much so had a bit of their own gelatinous nature. They were ok and it was more the sauce that overpowered the gills.

This is a very good restaurant and I would recommend it to others in the area.