Wine tasting and Pinchos at Roja Pinchos...

Last night I went along to a restaurant which will always be very special to me, Roja Pinchos is located on Berry Street in Liverpool and specialises in Pinchos (also known as Pintxos) and a great selection of wines and gins served in their downstairs Abajo bar. Roja Pinchos was one of the first restaurants I reviewed here on Coco Cami and I have remained good friends with the proprietors Edward and Clare who are very hard working, lovely people. When I received an invitation to the launch of their new wine selection, I knew that I would be in for a treat. After a warm welcome, we headed downstairs to the Abajo. Roja Pinchos has two levels, the restaurant upstairs and the Abajo beneath which is a cool bar which has a hideaway feel to it with low lights, candlelit tables and of course the all important bar area at the back. Wine experts from Matthew Clark Wines were on hand to talk us through the selection for the evening and there was quite an array with a wide spectrum of both red and white Spanish wines to choose from. We started off with white wines and worked our way up to the reds!

We heard all about the origins of the wines and the stories behind each one as well as a little about the tasting notes. These wines are not widely available, which made tasting them even more special. Each wine was accompanied by a selection of Pinchos and we enjoyed brie and onion, date with cream cheese, seafood and meat varieties during the evening as well as an artichoke heart variety and one of my favourites, Manchego cheese topped with quince jelly. The mild and creamy Manchego cheese paired extremely well with the many outstanding wines we sampled during the night.

If you have not tried Pinchos yet, they are essentially similar to tapas the key difference being that they are served on a wooden stick. These are very moreish and they deliver such a wide variety of flavours. These snack style morsels are often served with drinks in bars especially in the Northern region of Spain, and I can see why they are so popular as they make an ideal accompaniment to drinks.

Some of the amazing red wines we tasted included Maquinon Casa Rojo, Contino Rioja and Portia Sierra del duero. The Maquinon was one of my favourites and it has a slightly spicy taste as it is made using the best Garnacha grapes from Priorat in Catalunya. The Contino Rioja was one of the more expensive wines we tried and it had a very deep and rich flavour which paired beautifully with some of the Pinchos. 

It was a great night and we learned so much about wine and each choice complemented the different flavours of the Pinchos, making the wine tasting much more of a gourmet experience. 

I had a wonderful time and it was so nice to catch up with Edward and Clare and to enjoy irresistible Pinchos paired with such an exquisite choice of wines.

Roja Pinchos

50 Berry St,

 Liverpool 

L1 4JQ

0151 378 9563

http://rojapinchos.co.uk/

What do you all think, do you like the idea of a wine tasting evening paired with Pinchos and have you ever eaten Pinchos before? As always I cannot wait to hear your thoughts and thank you so much for reading this post.

 Until next time, 

Camille 

xo