spanish wine and cheese (2)

Rioja with Sheep Cheese, A Little Piece of Spain!

LAN Rioja Crianza and El Pastor Castellano Sheep Cheese 1

We were inspired by a #WiningHourChat to give Spanish Rioja wines a try. We’ve seen them in the stores before but we’ve noticed they usually cost more than the other wines. Here in Panama, the wines are significantly less expensive than we have found in other parts of the world so it was our chance to pick up a bottle. The cheese we chose to pair with it also hails from Spain. We didn’t know much about it other than the fact that it would be harder cheese. Sounds good to us! Have you tried pairing wine and cheese by country before? Why not give it a whirl next time you are in the store?

Petit Verdot Rosé and Manchego

Pagodel Vicario Petit Verdot Rosado and Manchego

Pagodel Vicario Petit Verdot Rosé

During our time in Florida, we’ve been on a search for a place to buy some lesser known wines. A friend in the wine industry suggested, West Palm Wines, http://www.westpalmwines.com, in Ybor City. We finally had a chance to get over to Tampa, since we don’t have a car, to check out the store. It was exactly what we were looking for, I didn’t know any of the wines! After about an hour of searching and roaming around, I spoke with Mark, the owner, to learn about some of the the wines. We talked about their large collection of Sicilian wines, rosés and old world wines.