Rozas Albariño. "Maybe the greatest Albariño I have ever tasted - - kaleidoscopic minerality, blazing purity." - - John B. Gilman, View From the Cellar

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Bodegas Rozas, Meaño (Pontevedra)
Bodeguero Artesano Manolo Dovalo
 Rozas Albariño 2013 13.5% 12/750ML $25.99

The 2013 Albariño from Adegas Rozas has blossomed beautifully since I last crossed paths with a bottle during my visit to the region in October of 2014. Manolo Dovalo farms the family’s 6.3 hectares of very old vines in Meaño and his 2013 is drinking beautifully today. The bouquet is still a touch youthfully tight when first poured, but blossoms nicely in the glass to offer up scents of grapefruit, lemon, gentle leesiness, salty minerality, lemongrass and a nice top-note of citrus peel. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and zesty, with a fine core, a lovely girdle of acidity and fine length and grip on the minerally finish. A lovely bottle with years and years of life still in it. 2016-2025+.

92+. – John Gilman, View From The Cellar

Adegas Rozas Albariño 2013 Rías Biaxas $27.99 12.5% (Sold out.)

Adega Rozas is located in the village of Meaño in the Val de Salnés and is run by winegrower Manolo Dovalo. This family estate goes back several generations, and its 2.5 hectares (6+ acres) of vineyards are loaded with old vines - many dating back more than two generations! Señor Dovalo insists that it is the very high percentage of old vines in this very favored section of the Val de Salnés that allows him to make such outstanding Albariños. The 2010 Rozas is simply stunning, soaring from the glass in a complex blaze of lime zest, tart orange, kaleidoscopic minerality, lemongrass, gentle leesy tones and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very racy, with a rock solid core of fruit, brisk acids, laser-like focus and simply stunning length and grip on the very minerally and magically complex finish. This is as magical a glass of Albariño as I have ever had the pleasure to taste! 2012-2020+.  96+. - - John Gilman, View From the Cellar

@JohnBGilman of View From the Cellar on Twitter: "Rozas Albariño.  Maybe the greatest Albariño I have ever tasted - - kaleidoscopic minerality, blazing purity."

“Gerry’s  albariños, from Rías Baixas, were notable, especially Manolo Doval’s Rozas: a great floral aroma, feather-light, grace, a swirl of subtleties.” - - Howard G. Goldberg

"Rozas Albariño ($26).  If I'd tasted this blind, I might have thought it was a particularly lean and stylish viognier. It has a wonderful, intense aroma and real complexity of flavor, with plenty of acidity and a beguiling finish that is part mineral, part floral. I don't think I've had a better albariño."  - - Colman Andrews, The Daily Meal.  Read more: Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop:  Godello, Mencía, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes

Manolo Doval, Producer of Rozas, Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas.

 All Photos by Gerry Dawes©2016.

Manolo Dovalo farms just over 6.3 acres of well-drained vineyards that get ample sunlight enabling him to produce one of the greatest Albariños of Rías Baixas.  Dovalo says the secret of the quality of his wines is that the majority of the vines are very old.  Some of these vines have been producing grapes for generations. 

The bodega was founded by Dovalo’s ancestors, who made wine for the family’s own consumption.  Over the years, the winemaking gradually evolved into the modern era, where Dovalo says that his family has succeeded in integrating tradition with modern elements such as stainless steel and including the latest techniques for thermic stablization. 

The winery has limited production, which allows Dovalo to carefully monitor his vineyards during the growing season.   The albariño grapes are picked at what Dovalo assesses as the optimum point of ripeness–never overripe–for making a great white wine.  

“The first time I tasted the Rozas I was stunned.  This is serious Albariño - chocked full of minerals, not too fruity, dense but not in a spoofy way.  Just pure with insane length.  This shows similar old vine intensity to a top Do Ferreiro or Pazo de Señorans Albariño.  Highly recommended!” - - Chris Barnes, Chambers Street Wines, New York City.

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What They Are Saying & Writing About The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections (Click on titles.)

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Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes - - Colman Andrews, Editorial Director, The Daily Meal

  

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Spanish Artisan Wine Group Stars from Ribeira Sacra: The most awesomely beautiful wine region on earth. "Tasted the new Holy Grail of Ribeira Sacra producers yesterday - Don Bernardino, Decima, Sabatelius, Toalde, Cazoga - just insanely good, low octane fireworks." - - John B. Gilman, Publisher of View From The Cellar

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In Spain, the Promise of Godello by Eric Asimov, The New York Times

Excerpt: ". . .Some people have already made up their minds about godello.  Gerry Dawes, who has been writing about Spanish wines for decades and who recently went into the importing business, has called godello “Spain’s emerging hope as an equivalent to the great white Burgundies.” 

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Waiting for Godello: The New Wines of Spain by Rozanne Gold, Huffington Post

"There's a "new kid" on the wine trail. After hawking other importers' wines for 30 years, Gerry Dawes is now selling his own discoveries. And discoveries they are!"

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The Vinos of Gerry Dawes: To Some Americans, Mr. Spain by Howard G. Goldberg

"Gerry’s knowledge of Spanish culture is so encyclopedic that Don Quixote paid him a travel consultant’s per diem.  Zurbarán painted his portrait (as a saint, which mystified his  friends). Ferdinand and Isabella allowed him to run sherry, stored in the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, to the New World; all that sherry so impressed Dawes’s first customer, a Jewish merchant named Lehmann, whom the Inquisition had expelled, that he took the whole line and named his store Jerez-Lehmann."

Valdeorras: Spain's Great White Hope in The Valley of Gold

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Glass of Godello at sunset at Adegas D. Berna, Valdeorras.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com
(None of the photos here were a part of The New York Times article.)

 In Spain, the Promise of Godello by Eric Asimov

The New York Times, Saturday, May 26, 2012

Excerpt: ". . .Some people have already made up their minds about godello.  Gerry Dawes, who has been writing about Spanish wines for decades and who recently went into the importing business, has called godello “Spain’s emerging hope as an equivalent to the great white Burgundies.”

Godello grapes, Valdeorras.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

The consulting enologist for both D. Berna and O Barreiro is José Luís Murcía, who has more than 20 years experience making Godello in Valdeorras and consults to eight other wineries, including the stellar Casal Novo, and somehow manages to capture the essence of their grapes and vineyard sites and transmits that in the bottle like few others. 

Gerry Dawes at Chef Paco Roncero's Estado Puro in Madrid with a glass of Godello. 

Photo by Harold Heckle©2009, Associated Press, Madrid.

Adegas D.Berna, Córgomo, Villamartín de Valdeorras (Ourense)

D. Berna Godello 2010 Valdeorras 13.0% 12/750ML $24.99 

"Adegas D. Berna Godello 2010 ($25). If I were a producer of white burgundy, a wine like this, from Valdeorras in Galicia, would make me nervous. It's big, authoritative, lush, and full of fruit (peaches come to mind), but beautifully structured, with plenty of acidity and a trace of flint — just delicious."  - - Colman Andrews, The Daily Meal.  Read more: Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop: Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes
 
“The 2010 godello, a white from the small-production Bodegas D. Berna, in Valdeorras, was splendid.  Pointillistic, lithe, long, delivering visceral and cerebral pleasures, it was reminiscent of white peaches.  The property, Dawes wrote, is advised by “a great local, enologist, José Luís Murcía, who may know more about godello than anyone in Galicia.”  Murcía, he went on, “advises nine wineries” but “does not mark the wines with a one-fits-all winemaking stamp.” - - Howard G. Goldberg, who writes for The New York Times, Decanter and other publications.

Berna Guitián and Elena Blanco, Adegas D. Berna, Valdeorras.
Photo: Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

This is the first vintage of this wine by the young couple, Berna Guitián and Elena Blanco, to reach the U.S. market.  The consulting enologist is the great José Luís Murcia, who probably knows more about Godello than anyone in Valdeorras.  

Brilliant white gold.  Intriguing nose of white peach and racy minerals. A gorgeous mouthful of silky sweet white peach fruit with a long mineral finish laced with attractive hints of peach pit and almond.  No oak.  Excellent value.

Consulting enologist at Casal Novo, D. Berna, O Barreiro and a number of other wineries in Valdeorras 
is José Luís Murcía, who, somehow manages to capture the essence of their grapes and vineyard site 
and transmit that in the bottle like few others. Photo: Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Adegas D.Berna Mencía Tinto 2011 13.0% 12/750ML $19.99

A lovely easy-drinking Mencía with smooth pomegranate fruit-laced with minerals.  

Reminiscent in style of a village Burgundy, but somewhat more akin in taste to a good Loire valley Bourgueil. 

Adegas O Barreiro, Seadur (Ourense)

Electric power line builder 'Pepe' Rodríguez retired from his own company and now, with hired help from the 140-person village of Seadur, farms his vineyards in this isolated village of Seadur, which looks down on some spectacular views from its perch some 1700 feet above sea level and 700 feet above the Valdeorras wine town of A Rúa and the Sil River valley. Seadur is reachable only by a pair of serious cork-screw secondary roads.
  

Gerry Dawes with Pepe Rodríguez, owner of O Barreiro, Seadur, Valdeorras, Galicia.
Photo: Basilio Izquierdo©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Pepe Rodríguez  farms .5 Hectares  (1.25 acres) of 30 year old Godello vines and  .25 hectares  (.6 acres) of 15-year old Mencía.   Depending upon the year, Pepe produces  500-700 6bt. cases of Godello and  just 330-500 6 bt. cases of Mencía.

Pepe Rodríguez, owner of O Barreiro, Seadur, Valdeorras, Galicia, in his vineyards. 
Photo: Gerry Dawes©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

O Barreiro 'A Silveira' Godello 2010 12.5% 6/750ML  $19.99

Pretty, brilliant green-gold.  Whiffs of white peach.   Fine, racy, acidity with restrained white peach, stone fruit and bitter almond flavors.  Its tartness is balanced by lovely fruit and moderate alcohol, which makes it an exceptional food wine.  In the third glass, it's raciness is somewhat reminiscent of great Savennières and the quality, flavor and finish is as good as many white Burgundies.

"O Barreiro "A Silveira" Godello 2010 ($20). Another splendid godello from Valdeorras, a little lighter than the D.Berna, but also a touch more elegant, again with an abundance of fruit but enough acidity to balance out the opulence."  - - Colman Andrews, The Daily Meal.  Read more: Spanish Wines — A Seductive New Crop: Godello, mencia, and other less-than-famous Iberian grapes shine in a new selection from Spanish wine expert Gerry Dawes

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Godello Article by Gerry Dawes Sommelier Journal January 15 2012

Looking Back at Galicia’s Green Gold: White Wines from Native Spanish Grapes (Article with photos on Galician wines in The Wine News, 2007 by Gerry Dawes

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Décima Amandi Mencia Tinto 2011 Ribeira Sacra, "one of the finest examples of Mencía I have ever had the pleasure to taste." John B. Gilman, View From The Cellar

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Décima, José Manuel Rodríguez, Vilacha (Lugo)

José Manuel Rodríguez, President of the D.O. Ribeira Sacra and producer of  Décima, showing
California chef Michael Chiarello around his precipitously steep Ribeira Sacra vineyards on the Sil River.

Photo: Gerry Dawes©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Décima Amandi Mencia Tinto 2011 Ribeira Sacra 12.5% 12/750ML $21.99   

José Manuel Rodríguez is the head of the growers’ association and regulatory agency of Ribeira Sacra, and makes one of the finest examples of Mencía I have ever had the pleasure to taste. Like the Don Bernardino Mencía, these two lovely vintages of Décima hail from very steep vineyards overlooking the Sil River in the village of Amandi. The 2011 Décima weighs in at a very classic octane of 12.5 percent and roars from the glass in a sophisticated and utterly classic nose of pomegranate, lead pencil, slate, a nice touch of gamebird, coffee bean and a gentle medicinal topnote that is vaguely reminiscent of Hermitage. On the palate the wine is fullish, complex and very intensely flavored, with laser-like focus, fine mid-palate depth, tangy acids and great length and grip on the very softly tannic finish. Utterly classic Mencía! 2012-2020+.  94. - - John Gilman, View From the Cellar

“My favorite tinto (red wine) was the sophisticated 2010 Décima made from the mencía grape in the Ribeira Sacra region.  Beautifully structured,  quietly scintillating, almost poetic, it requires a patient, careful reading.” - - Howard G. Goldberg

Thomas Carter, Wine Director of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, pours Décima Ribeira Sacra Mencia 2011,
Manuel Formigo Finca Teira Ribeiro 2011 and Viña Catajarros Cigales Rosado 2011 by the glass. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com

The unique, rich, pomegranate-like fruit-driven Décima Mencia (with 10% garnacha tintorera) from Amandi is underpinned by a graphite-like slate minerality that comes from the preciptiously steep pizarra terraces on which Décima’s vineyards grow. The vineyards are owned and farmed by José Manuel Rodríguez, who in addition to farming his own vines, is also the President of the Consello Regulador de La Ribeira Sacra.  This wine is a masterpiece, reminiscent in style and quality, if not in Pinot Noir flavors, of a wine from Burgundy’s northern Cótes de Nuits. 

I have been visiting vineyards and bodegas with José Manuel for nearly a decade and count him among my best friends.  He has not only introduced me to the bodegueros and wineries we are bringing in, he has lead me to nearly three dozen other bodegas and tasting of hundreds of wines, which helped me immeasurably in the research for my articles on the region, but also in finding this particular set of unique wines.  - - Gerry Dawes

Articles and Comments About The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

It has been just eight months since The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections entered the market and this is what food and wine writers are saying and writing about us.


Waiting for Godello: The New Wines of Spain by Rozanne Gold, Huffington Post, March 15, 2012

"There's a "new kid" on the wine trail. After hawking other importers' wines for 30 years, Gerry Dawes is now selling his own discoveries. And discoveries they are!"

Gerry Dawes conducting a tasting of The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selection Wines at a tapas luncheon at Despaña Soho, March 13, 2012. Attendees (clockwise: Director of Wines From Spain Katrin Nalaepaa, author Robert Spitz (biographies of Bob Dylan and The Beatles and a major book on Julia Child coming this fall), blog author Rick Fisher from San Diego, CA (Bodega: Adventures in Spanish Wine and Food), cookbook author Rozanne Gold (Huffington Post), wine and food writer Philip Kampe (The Wine Blog), Michael Whiteman of Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. International Restaurants Consultants and Conrad Adillon, owner of Ole Ole Imports (NJ). Photo: Dana B. Staley©2012 / gerrydawes@aol.com / http://thespanishartisanwinegroup.com / http://gerrydawesspain.com.

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"The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections wines are, like the man, unassuming, sophisticated, and constant source of joy. . . Those wines you left were delicious, Dawes.  you're an amazing man" - - Dan Barber, Chef-partner, Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

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"Thank you so much for your visit and kind words about what we are doing here! It really means so much coming from you.  It was our pleasure and a true honor to have you come by, and I very much look forward to having your The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections wines at Estadio in the near future, as well as spending more time with them myself!" - - Max Kuller, Wine Director, Estadio, Washington, D.C.

Slide show, Estadio, Washington, DC

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The Vinos of Gerry Dawes: To Some Americans, Mr. Spain 

by Howard G. Goldberg

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 on Facebook

"The word “aficionado” was invented to describe my old friend Gerry Dawes. In his veins the blood of Spain flows at perpetual flood tide.


Gerry’s knowledge of Spanish culture is so encyclopedic that Don Quixote paid him a travel consultant’s per diem.  Zurbarán painted his portrait (as a saint, which mystified his  friends). Ferdinand and Isabella allowed him to run sherry, stored in the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, to the New World; all that sherry so impressed Dawes’s first customer, a Jewish merchant named Lehmann, whom the Inquisition had expelled, that he took the whole line and named his store Jerez-Lehmann.


No one is likely to call Gerry a shrinking violet. He is a man of opinion, strong opinion, strongly expressed; he does not tend to invest in understatement. If he had been a matador, Spain would have run out of bulls.


For Dawes, Iberia’s food universe is nearly as important as its multiple wine regions. He has crisscrossed Spain seeking out, relishing, photographing and publicizing small but stellar restaurants and their chefs --- un trabajo de amor (a labor of love).


All this explains why I welcomed spending a few hours in early April tasting Gerry Dawes Selections, imported by his new company, the Spanish Artisan Wine Group, at Despaña, a SoHo cafe and grocery steeped in Iberian specialties aromas, flavors and atmosphere. The 22 wines sampled, all of  character and interest, were well worth the detour." (Click here for the whole article.) 

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Arthur Lubow on The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections

"The wines that Gerry Dawes is importing from Spain are appealing because they are affordable and yet have individual character. They haven't been smoothed out to be merely drinkable or, even worse, just to make a big first impression.


They go brilliantly with food, which is the right place for wine. And they speak of of the land and the winemakers that gave birth to them.


I was delighted by the multi-layered Hermano Merino Catajarros Rosado 2010 Cigales, which is a rosé that conjures up a perfect summer afternoon.

Among the reds, I particularly enjoyed the peppery Viña Cazoga Tinto 2010 Amandi, the lighter, nicely balanced Décima Mencía Tinto 2010 Amandi, and the complex Toalde Tinto 2010 Ribeiras do Miño.

The whites that stood out for me were the crisp, stony Manuel Formigo Finca Teira 2010 and the peach-and-almond redolent Adegas D. Berna Godello 2010 Valdeorras."

 
Author Arthur Lubow (The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Inc.com) 
and Chef Ferran Adria.  
All photographs by Gerry Dawes©2010. 
Contact: gerrydawes@aol.com / www.gerrydawesspain.com.

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From George Faison, CEO Debragga, New York's Butcher":  The extraordinary wines from Ribera Sacra and the beautiful tapas for Mani Dawes's Tia Pol made for a brilliant afternoon.  

Your Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections wines  are unique and vibrant, whether alone or in combination with the food.  They truly stood out as expressions of exquisite fruit, distinctive "terroir" and talented winemaking, a combination all too frequently missing these days. Thank you so much for having me."

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Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg, authors of The Food Lover's Guide to Wine, about the No Paraskevidekatriaphopbia - No Fear of Friday April 13th The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections Tasting & Tapas Luncheon at Tía Pol Restaurant & Tapas Bar in New York City: "With heartfelt thanks for the personal pleasure and professional insights you've shared with us - - including today at Tía Pol." 

"Gerry, Andrew & I loved having the opportunity to taste such a consistently impressive array of well-selected Spanish wines with you -- and we have to congratulate you on what you're doing with The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections. We're already looking forward to next time!" - - Karen Page on her Facebook page.

Karen Page & Gerry Dawes schmoozing at the JBF Awards 2012.

    

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"Thank you for the great The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections wine recommendations - they are so delicious and my guests were awed and impressed. Several asked where they could purchase them. You made me look good!!" - - Jenifer Lang, wife of the late, great George Lang and former co-owner of Cafe des Artistes, NYC  May 2012.  

Wines for a Jenifer Lang dinner party for 14 people on May 11 in Manhattan.  Festis Silver Label Brut Nature Cava 2009, Viña Catajarros Cigales Rosado 2011, Toalde Mencia Tinto 2010 Ribeira Sacra.

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Carol Berman, wine radio personality (Martha Stewart and Arthur Schwartz radio shows) Class in a Glass, The Traveling Sommelier:"  "It was more than a pleasure meeting you and tasting through your splendid The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections portfolio. Really, really special wines and I think that I was still tasting a hint of them last night. Perhaps it was wishful thinking . . . or wishful drinking!

I get many invites to these luncheons and honestly in the past few years, I have declined the invites because I simply was not interested in tasting the 'commercial' crap that was mostly being poured.  Not interested.  Your stuff is right up my sipping alley. . . and I do have one! The wines and your philosophy are one and the same as mine, so I felt energized and refreshed at table, and still.

There is not a bad wine in the entire collection. All were wonderfully balanced and as I said yesterday after tasting the Ribero whites: "I feel like I just walked through a beautiful springtime garden and took a bite!"  We the purely passionate want "REAL wine, not REALITY wine!" It's that simple, and these truly fit the bill."

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Janet Cam Consulting (a top restaurant consultant in Washington, D.C.): "You have been the lone voice of Spanish food and wine for many, many years.  Finally, the people in the United States heard you about wine!  I’ve known you since your early beginnings in the wine trade and always appreciated your fine palate.  Now you can truly share your wine discoveries in your portfolio The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections.  I am thrilled for you.

You had introduced me to a rosado which is my favorite rosé and I have purchased yearly since I tasted it with you.  Now I will need to look at your rosados!   Congratulations to the most deserving person of heroic efforts of a lifetime."

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 "Enter Gerry Dawes. Gerry is the antithesis of Parkerization. He is a highly opinionated and an extremely passionate Hispanophile who has been living and touting the good life in Spain for decades. He is also just the person I would expect (and want) to champion the cause of the “little guy” (smaller, undiscovered wineries) in the ever-changing and competitive world of Spanish wine. 

Fortunately, that is exactly what he is doing with his new venture: The Spanish Artisan Wine Group – Gerry Dawes Selections. The project’s aim is to introduce “Artisanal wines from talented wine makers who respect the delicate balance between tradition and innovation, while remaining true to their unique terruño (sense of place).” 

It is also an opportunity for him to rail against “sledgehammer” (as he refers to them) wines – heavily (over) oaked, high alcohol wines which many Spanish wineries have now gravitated towards.” - - Tasting the Future (and Past) of Spanish Wine - Rick Fisher

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Report from Docsconz and some opinions from John Gilman, Andy Pforzheimer and Chef Jeremiah Tower.

"Robert Parker’s opinion has held sway in the wine world for a long time, first coming to prominence with his pronouncements on Bordeaux’s famed 1982 vintage. His palate is attuned to “big” wines. Full throttled okay monsters and high octane “fruit bombs” have tended to rule his influential roost since that time. . .

Fortunately, alternatives to Parker styled wines managed to survive his onslaught and wines with nuance, character and little oak still exist. The world, thirsty for variety and individual personality is starting to take notice again. These wines are easier to pair with unique and nuanced dishes and the lesser amounts of alcohol add pleasure rather than fatigue. . .One person who has been at the vanguard of those battling Parker’s extensive homogenizing influence has been the noted American food and wine writer, my friend, Gerry Dawes. . ." - - Read the rest of John Sconzo's extensive report on Docsconz: Musings on Food and Life. 

Spanish Wines with Character from Gerry Dawes – Part One: Reds

 
Spanish Wines with Character from Gerry Dawes – Part Two: The Glorious Whites of Galicia

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And John B. Gilman, Author-Publisher of View From The Cellar, on Twitter after The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selectionstasting lunch (described above by Docsconz) at Barcelona Wine Bar & Restaurant in Greenwich, CT on
@JohnBGilman on Twitter:  " 2010 Albariño - Rozas - Maybe the greatest Albariño I have ever tasted - kaleidoscopic minerality, blazing purity."

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Andy Pforzheimer, Chef-Founder-Partnerof the Barcelona Wine Bar & Restaurant Group:  "Great wines, Gerry. You really came through. I came down just to see you, but I stayed for what was in the glass. Can't wait to pour some."

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Legendary Chef Jeremiah Tower on The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections on Twitter after a dinner featuring a dozen of the wines on Tuesday night, March 6 at cookbook author and cooking class star, Gail Monaghan's stunning apartment on E. 30th St. in Manhattan.

"Spanish Artisan Wine Group, the new wines of Gerry Dawes. These are an affordable, delicious, 'must' for your table. Recommend highly. . . Fabulous dinner last night with Gerry in NYC, the new wines spectacular, real, affordable, and a 'must' on any table. Thanks. . .@PPXNewOrleans VintageOrleans @GerryDawes  Yes, those Aliaga wines were stars. Hope that Tia Pol gets the rose!  @TiaPolWonderful lunch, told Gerry Dawes he should call on you again for the rosados . . ."

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Gael Greene on Twitter "Gerry Dawes, guru of all things Spanish. launched Spanish Artisan Wine Group Feb1 Now at BlueHill/StoneBarns. Boqueria,wine shops. #fb"

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Chef-partner Michael Lomonaco of Porter House New York tasting the wines of The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections wines. "What an incredible experience!" Michael said after he sat down to taste a wine or two and was so intrigued that he continued, tasting more than a dozen wines. Porterhouse Michael Lomonaco 2-24-2012

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