Want a proven fact? Food needs wine and wine needs food. As sure as the sun rises in the east, you can count on these two playing well together. When it comes to pairing food with wine, you do you! Enjoy what you want with what you want! However, there are some people who are all about the perfect pairing. On this muggy summer night, you could find two such professionals, our friends Gary Burner of the supper club Moonfish and David Robinson of Artisan’s Cellar Fine Wines, serving up a menu of Spanish inspired food and complementing wines from the region as well.

David began our night with an appropriate starter: a sparkling rosé. The Bodegas Via de la Plata Rosado is a brut Cava made from a blend of garnacha and pinot noir. At 10 grams per liter, this light pink charm presents drier than expected with fresh strawberry and raspberry in the glass. A solid choice to accompany Gary’s collection of pintxos – boquerones, olive-piquillo tapenade and an adventurous crostini of crispy morcilla, cured egg yolk and pickled guindilla peppers.

To follow, David brought in an Albariño from the northern coastal region of Galicia. This organically grown wine represents its terroir well with its salty character and lemony notes. It seems like it was made to accompany the seafood you’d expect to find in this coastal community. Hence our next food: spiced rice stuffed calamari. Grilled then braised along with littleneck clams and lemon-parsley salsa verde, the squid was served with crispy Bayonne ham.

The Basque region is a melting pot, and a damn delicious one at that! A long history of wine and food inspired the third pairing for the night. The Ulibarri family, mostly known as shepherds and cheesemakers, grow grapes biodynamically alongside their sheep. Additionally, they utilize natural vinification and avoid adding CO2 to their Penedès Artzai Bizkaiko Txakolina, yielding a round, naturally acidic wine. Enjoy it we did along with another Basque tradition, albeit with a bit of an update. Poulet Basquaise is typically braised with potatoes, tomatoes, onions and peppers. Instead, Gary opted to slow-roast chicken roulades, lending a crispy outer layer.

What’s a trip to the Old World without a little cheese? The Ossau Iraty hails from the Pyrenees Mountains, the border range between France and Spain. This creamy, nutty gem is 100% sheep’s milk and is rather melty (hint: grab your favorite country bread and cue up some grilled cheeses). The Montealva Curado is a goat’s milk cheese that comes from a nearly extinct breed of goats living in the mountainous parts of Andalusia. Feeding off of the limestone enriched pastures, the goats yield a dank, mushroomy cheese with a hint of citrus. Lastly, we have a blended cow-goat blue by the name of Valdeon. If you haven’t really tried blue, this is the deep end, as Gary called it. Bold, salty and spicy, it held up well to the sherry David provided. The Oloroso from Bodega Robles is made from 100% Pedro Ximenez. Naturally fermented, this dessert wine is delicately sweet with subtle green apple and hay on the nose.

For dessert, Gateau Basque awaited us. This light, lemony buttermilk custard pie was universally the crowd’s favorite and featured a black cherry jam made by a 90-year-old woman on the French side of the border. Coupled with this amazing finale was (gasp!) vermouth. While most Americans might look at vermouth as a mixer for your favorite spirit-based cocktail, our friends across the Atlantic will simply sip it neat or on the rocks. Grab a bottle of DeMuller Iris Durado Vermouth and you’ll be convinced to do the same. Rumored to have over 150 botanicals according to David, this robustly flavored aperitif will surely become a staple on your home bar.

You can stop by Di Bruno Bros. to say hi to Gary as well as purchase some of Artisan’s wares. You can also find all of the cheeses mentioned above!