Agustí Torelló Mata Cava Vinegar

Agustí Torelló Mata is a world-renowned cava maker from the central coastal area of Catalonia. The cava is aged for around 18 months (sometimes in French Oak), acidified, and then barrel aged for another 8 months. After that, it is transferred to American Oak for another year. This painstaking process results in an exceptionally fruity, effervescent vinegar with a perfect balance of sweet and tangy. Use it with your favorite seafood dish or add just a dash of it to sparkling water for a tasty beverage!

Castillo de Canena Arbequina

Castillo de Canena Arbequina is a solid favorite of mine because it shows how even mild, buttery olives can deliver a punch. Grown, pressed, and bottled in Andalucía, this family reserve is now shared in limited and numbered editions. Lightly sweet at first, the oil quickly evolves into a beautifully bitter leafiness and finishes with a definite spice. I love mixing it with a sweet white vinegar for salads, drizzling it over pasta with tomatoes and garlic, or just dipping a warm piece of bread in it with sea salt and fennel.

Marques de Valdueza gave bottles of their olive oil to some of our retail staff to experiment with at home. This is what they discovered:

The dish that I cooked that worked really well with the Valdueza was lake trout with thinly sliced lemons, salt packed capers, and brown basmati rice. I put a thin layer of oil in a pan and cooked the fish in that, skin side down. I rinsed the capers, soaked them for about 10 minutes, put them on top of the fish, and then put the super thin lemon slices on top of that. I can’t remember how long I cooked it, but I cut into it and the fish was white the whole way through when it was finished. I also cooked the basmati rice while this was going on and dressed it with tamari. When the fish was done, I drizzled the Valdueza over the top of it, and it was spectacular. I finished the fish first, and then I soaked up all of the extra liquid with the rice. It was the first time I’ve had olive oil on rice like that, and it was surprisingly good.

I think what made the Valdueza work with this instead of another olive oil (like Pasolivo or Maussane) is the lightly green quality, so that it has enough flavor to work well with pretty strong foods (capers/lemons) but it doesn’t overpower the more subtle foods it’s with (like the trout).