Day Six Continued...Lunch today was at the famed Elkano, located in the small fishing village of Getaria. Chef Pedro Arregui opened the restaurant back in 1968. It serves traditional Basque cuisine, specializing in seafood. It uses only the freshest ingredients. Their fish is caught fresh every day. They are known for their grilled fish, cooked outside over charcoal, which you can see below.
As we waited for our multi-course lunch to begin, we sipped some 2004 El Nido Clio, from the Jumilla region of Spain. This is a superb wine that I have previously reviewed. It is a Monastrell blend and has luscious fruit flavors.
Our initial food course was a salad with lettuce, carrot, tomato, white asparagus and tuna. There was a light vinegarette on the salad and everything was very fresh and tasty. A simple but delicious course.
The second course was some cold lobster pieces, with oil, salt and tomato. The lobster was very sweet and the pieces were fairly large chunks of meat.
We then moved onto the first of our hake kokotxas ("gills"). We had kokotxas previously at the Medoc restaurant so were curious how they would compare. These kokotxas were fried in a little egg batter and oil. They were very good, much better than the ones we had at the Medoc. They were not really slimy at all. We were then brought a second plate of kokotxas, though this time they were just grilled. They are intended to be eaten whole, and do have a bit of a gelatinous texture to them. But, it was obvious that the sauce at the Medoc had made them seem far more gelatinous. Simply grilled, they were tasty, though I did prefer the fried ones.
Our next course was then grilled hake, a large piece of flaky white fish. Absolutely delicious! A very simple preparation, allowing the natural sweet taste of the fish to shine. This is why this restaurant is so popular, their fine grilled fish.
Dessert included cheese ice cream and rice with milk, both very good.
Presentation of the various courses was very nice. They definitely paid attention to the look of each dish, as well as its taste. The restaurant itself has a certain elegance to it though it is still a casual restaurant. Service was excellent. I would definitely recommend this restaurant, especially if you love seafood.
Talai-Berri is one of the leading producers of Txakoli, also called Txakolina. Txakoli is usually a white wine, with a slight effervesence, made from the Hondarribi Zuri varietal. It is only made in three main villages in the Basque region, including Getaria, Zarautz and Aya. Txakoli is considered a "Vino de Aguja", meaning there is a slight fizz to it but not quite sparkling. Txakoli wines are also very high in acidity and low in alcohol. After the creation of Txakoli de Getaria Guarantee of Origin in 1989, Talai-Berri became the first winery built exclusively for manufacturing Txakoli. Most Txacoli is drank in Spain though a small portion is exported.
For our wine tasting, Bixente had a table set up on his rear porch which overlooked the vineyards. There were plates of food including tuna and various ham slices. To sip wine, in that beautiful setting, was certainly amazing. 
The first wine was the 2006 Talai-Berri Oreka, a white Txakoli made of 90% Hondarribi Zuri and 10% Hondarribi Beltza. "Oreka" means "balance" or "equilibrium." The wine is only 11.5% alcohol. It is made to be consumed within one year of bottling. I very much enjoyed this wine. It is very crisp and has excellent citrus flavors. The slight effervesence adds an interesting element to the wine. It is a very refreshing wine and would be a perfect summer wine. It is also a good food wine, especially with oily foods.
Outside of the museum, they have a garden area where they have rows of grapevines, with a diverse selection of grapes. These are more to exhibit the different grapes than to use to make wine. Definitely check out this museum.
