Yesterday to Moro

Telmo Rodriguez

One of the best restaurant atmospheres in London can be found at Moro in Exmouth Market where chef-proprietors Sam and Sam Clark have been cooking their own take on southern Spanish food since 1997. 80 members were privileged to dine at Moro in the company of one of Spain’s most passionate and innovative wine producers Telmo Rodriguez.

Six wines from Galicia, Rioja, Ribeira del Duero and Malaga each had a story that was communicated in a fascinating and entertaining way by Telmo – if you want to know all about the Duke of Wellington, muscat and massaging ladies in Malaga, then Telmo is your man!

The wines are all made from grapes grown on bush vines, rather than trellised vines, with minimum intervention with nature – all are cultivated along biodynamic lines.

We started with Gaba do Xil Godello 2010 from Valdeorras. While Rias Baixas’s albariño is grabbing the headlines in Galicia, we see godello from neighbouring Valdeorras as an exciting alternative to white Burgundy. This wine has just been bottled and will be appearing in our List in July. Elegant, ever so slightly creamy, zesty and with a crisp acidity, it was the perfect match with cuttlefish and baby broad beans in a mint dressing.

Next was Mountain Blanco Moscatel 2009 from Malaga, a dry white muscat whose crispness and grapey fragrance offset the scallops with crispy capers, smoked paprika and shaved fennel very well indeed.

Two wines were selected to accompany the slow-roasted lamb with new season’s garlic and mashed potatoes. Pegaso 2005 is 100% garnacha from the small village of Cebreros in Castilla y Leon. This version is grown in slatey soil (Telmo does a granitic version too from the other side of the village) and the freshness given by the 3,000 ft high vineyards, coupled with the natural rich spiciness of the garnacha grape and the concentration coming from low yields, was a great accompaniment to the softly spicy lamb. (This was my personal wine of the night.)

Lanzaga Rioja 2007 is made in the traditional way in large 1,500 litre foudres rather than the more current barricas maturation. This lets the fruit do the talking rather than the oak,  and it was refreshing to drink a Rioja where the taste buds were not being bombarded by overly-rich vanillins and tannins, but rather being caressed by gentle red and black fruits.

Of the two wines the Lanzaga had the more immediate appeal, but going back to the Pegaso in the glass an hour or so later the tannins had softened to reveal a previously concealed complexity of dark fruits and sweet spices.

Matallana 2005 (the 2004 is currently listed),  a big bruiser of a wine, came alongside the delicious ewes’ cheeses and its broodiness was attenuated by the lifted sweetness of the cheeses. Again, a wine that needed time to even start showing a hint of its true colours, but balanced absolutely perfectly. It’s a wine for the long-term – Telmo says 30, 40 or even 50 years!

The beautiful  yoghurt cake with pistachios and pomegranate was beautifully rounded off by MR 2008 from Malaga – the baby version of Molino Real, Telmo’s sweet, fresh, lemony, grapey and oh-so-not-cloying dessert wine from vineyards over 2,000 feet up.

A memorable evening indeed – it was the third time we have been to Moro, and we would go again to Moro tomorrow if we could .