Members of the jury and finalists of the Chef and Waiter of the Year contests visited Bodegas Valdubón (DO Ribera del Duero) in the Burgos municipality of Milagros yesterday. The visit is part of their journey to compete at the L’Hospitalet de Llobregat fairgrounds in the grand finals of a competition that turns 20 on March 12. This year it will be celebrated on March 21 within the framework of the Alimentaria event
Those classified for the grand final of the Best Chef contest are Mario Montero from the UltimAtun Tapas restaurant in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Pedro David López from Ramsés Kitchen (Madrid), Aitor López from Citrus del Tancat de Alcanar (Tarragona), Toño Rodríguez from the Pyrenean La Era de los Nogales from Sardas (Huesca), Sergi Palacín del Hiu from Cambrils (Tarragona) and Carlos Alberto Prieto from La Barra del Indiano (Valladolid).
And Marta Echevarría from the Galley Pub in Candás (Asturias), Albert Ureña from the Sucapa restaurant in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Miguel López from the Garena in Dima (Vizcaya) and Marta Charro from the Seda Club at Hidden Away Hotels (Granada).
In two decades, the Best Chef contest has discovered more than 70 Michelin stars in Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And they are already negotiating to be able to export the contest to the United States and Canada. This year, up to 48 Michelin stars participate in the Spanish contest. Alimentaria-Hostelco is the founding sponsor of these contests and heads the list of brands that complete Bodegas Valdubón, Welbilt, Pascual Profesional, Cafés Mocay, Bonduelle, Loomis Pay, Nocilla, Cola-Cao, Juver, Cirio, Cerveza Alhambra, Solan de Cabras, Roldán Netya, Duni, Gary’s and the Murcia Tourist Qualification Center.
From the organization, Alfonso Pastor, the CEO of the Caterdata Group, highlights the “brutal bond” that exists between the participants, the juries and the sponsors. Joaquín Baeza Rufete, the winner of the Chef of the Year Competition in 2014 and currently head chef and owner of the Baeza restaurant
Ferrer Wines, the family group that owns Bodegas Valdubón, has stated that “it is a real pride to participate in these events by proposing pairings and tastings.” They did it by sending wines to the applicants and yesterday offering products such as the Vionta Conde de Fuscallo 2020 (DO Rías Baixas); the Valdubón Crianza 2019, the Valdubón 9 Months, the Valdubón (DO Qualified Rioja), Brut champagne from Abelé or Brut Nature Reserva in liter and a half format from Cavas Hill.
It was also possible to taste for the first time a new top-of-the-range red wine that is in the aging process and will be named Palabras Mayores. At the same time, a new series of wines was announced under the Pedro Ferrer Noguer Collection label. All these products were paired with a menu of select tapas prepared by the Nacho Rojo team, a chef who assures that he proposes “a personal and scoundrel cuisine.”
The Ferrer Wines group, chaired by Pedro Ferrer Noguer, emerged with the acquisition of different wineries. In 1990 they landed in the DO Calificación Rioja (Solar Viejo/Orube), in 1997 in the DO Ribera del Duero (Bodegas Valdubón) and, later, they entered the DO Rías Baixas by acquiring Vionta. Finally, they invested in a winery and vineyards in Gualtallary (Finca Ferrer in Argentina) and in Cavas Hill (Penedès). Pedro Ferrer revealed yesterday that, as Freixenet’s former export director Bernd Halbach told him, he has two souls, like Goethe’s Faust. One is Freixenet, the world’s leading DO Cava company of which he is vice president and co-CEO and which has managed to produce 110 million bottles annually, and the other is Ferrer Wines, which he has defined as “a very exciting adventure” with productions small special wines.
Bodegas Valdubón is located on the outskirts of Milagros, next to the Riaza River, which flows down from the Sierra de Ayllón to its confluence with the Duero at the bottom of the valley. Its vineyards are located on lands where it was already cultivated more than 2,000 years ago. They are divided between the DOs of Ribera del Duero (for reds) and Rueda (for whites). In La Ribera they manage 155 hectares in different municipal areas, such as Milagros, Pardilla, Fuentelcesped, Vadocondes, Aldehornos, Anguix and Pedrosa. In this riverside winery they have opened up to wine tourism, offering wine tastings harmonized with tapas or tailored events. Yesterday they showed the new image that the reception of this riverside winery presents and announced the construction of a space with a double selection table in which to produce microvinifications of high-end wines.
