Weekend Nibbles with Spanish Wine – Over the last weekend we enjoyed some sunny weather in North Wales again, so we took advantage of having a couple of aperitifs with nibbles outside, before Sunday dinner, along with a couple of bottles of Marqués de Cáceres Spanish wine before and during dinner.

Celebrating the start of Spring “Al Fresco”

We’ve been really lucky with the weather over the last two weekends here in North Wales, my birthday weekend, which was the bank holiday weekend of the 5th, 6th and 7th of May was glorious, and last weekend was also sunny and warm enough to sit outside! And about time too, as the winter has been never-ending, long and cold, so it’s time the sun shone on us. We invited close friends over, whom we’d not seen for a while to share our Sunday lunch, and before I served dinner, we sat outside with some nibbles and a bottle of chilled white wine, from Marqués de Cáceres. The white we started with was their Verdejo White – this lovely aromatic white wine from the highly regarded Rueda region, is full of character and has an excellent balanced acidity. Expect nutty, herbaceous and citrus notes, which pairs well with fish and seafood, as well as spicy food and terrines etc. The wine is available at Drink Supermarket in the UK and retails at £8:99 a bottle.

We enjoyed the Marqués de Cáceres Rosado Rosé with our main meal, which is an attractive pink wine with floral, berry notes, made from a blend of of 96% Tempranillo and 4% Grenache grapes. Both wines were very “drinkable” and were the perfect chilled accompaniments for our nibbles and our main meal, which was Curried Roast Chicken with Chickpeas and Courgettes, served with Basmati Rice, Naan Breads and assorted Sambals. Our nibbles comprised marinated olives with freshly picked wild garlic from our garden, and a duo of terrines on salted crackers, with a wild garlic blossom garnish……..all very simple, but just the ticket before the large meal that was to follow. I’ve shared a couple of recipes for marinated olives, pate and terrines below, and suggest that if you have access to seasonal fresh garlic, to add that in place of chives or normal garlic whilst the wild garlic season is in full swing.

Bay, Ginger and Orange Marinade for Olives

Replace the Bay leaves with Wild Garlic

Coriander, Lemon and Sun-Dried Tomato Marinade for Olives

Add chopped wild garlic to these olives

Poulet Nomade – Nomad’s Chicken

(Herb Poached Chicken in a Jar)

In place of thyme, add chopped wild garlic to this, when it in season.

Pork Sausage and Orange Terrine

In place of garlic, add chopped wild garlic

*Collaborative post with Marques de Caceres Spanish Wines*

History of Marqués de Cáceres Wines:

In 1970, Enrique Forner founded Marqués de Cáceres, Unión Vitivinícola, S.A., a historic Alliance between a region (Cenicero, La Rioja Alta), an enterprising family that has been devoted to the wine trade for five generations, the best vine growers and vineyards in La Rioja and a Bordeaux concept which revolutionised the production and business model with a single objective: the quality to obtain the best wines, an obsession that today continues to be the leitmotiv of Cristina Forner, the fourth generation of this distinguished wine family.