July! You have slipped by so fast we almost missed out on our monthly edition of Taco Tuesday!

This month we are inspired by a fresh strawberries, lime, and shrimp recipe from the current issue of Edible Ventura County paired with three crisp, bright white Viura wines from Spain.

This simple menu let the wines shine– and brought out all of the various flavors in the food! MAGIC!

The crunch of the jicama with the bit of strawberry makes this taco a unique combination of flavor explosions. I loved the strawberry notes with these wines. This wine and food pairing for this evening was over the top, the food the wine, it all went perfectly. Bright acidity in wine, and bright acidity in the food.

Appetizer
Mexican shrimp cocktail with chips
Oysters from the Baja’s Jolly Oyster and Vons

Main course
Strawberry shrimp tacos with strawberry jicama salsa

WINES from Spain

All three wines wowed us — so good with the food! So refreshing for the price! All three $12 or under.

2013 – Monopole – Rioja – 13% alcohol $12

color – pale straw

nose – this has a bit of funk on the nose, maybe because it is older, it is more stoney or earthy, like ripe cantelopes on the beach

palate – Nice crisp acidity – all of the flavors in the taco make the wine jump out and shine. Everything about the wine becomes more appealing – salinity in the wine, with the salinity of the food, makes everything tangy and bright.  I liked this so much better with the un-fried taco shell.

Viura – Needs to be very chilled to enjoy

This wine was a sample for my review consideration.

2016 – Lopez de Haro – Rioja Blanco 12.5% alcohol $10

Viura

color – pale yellow

nose –  Sue did not find a lot on the nose, but John got barnyard and I got rich and  wet stone in a riverbed, funk of a moss as opposed to a barnyard, like a hot springs. green and grassy.

palate – lots of saline, salty complex, and goes very nicely with the wine. the flavors of the tacos are interesting and complex, and make the wines more interesting and complex. This of the four was Sue’s favorite.

this wine also went so well with the oyster…

Started this meal off with wine in a Sauv Blanc glass; it really enhances the beauty of this wine. In the Chard glass it does not have the intensity or brightness in the nose or on the palate that it does with the Savu Blanc glass.

This wine was a sample for my review consideration.

2015 – Ochoa – Calendas – Navarro 12% alcohol  $12

screw top  – makes it great for a picnic or day at the beach. Bring on the fish tacos.

You would not think this a Chardonnay when sipping it and not knowing,

50%Chardonnay – 43% Viura – 7% Moscatel de Grano Menudo

The brightness of all the flavors in the tacos, made the wine sing, vibrant and crisp beautiful and bright

The layers of lime and salt that is layered in the taco brings out the fruit in the wine.

color –  pale straw

nose – there is something on the nose that tells me that this is a chardonnay, but it is not a typical chardonnay nose –

palate – there is a very lime forward flavor on the front and mid palate of this wine

This wine was a sample for my review consideration.

Find the recipe here for the award winning Strawberry Jicama Salsa Shrimp Tacos  with Avocado Chipotle Sauce and/or Chipotle Lime Yogurt Sauce —  These tacos were semi-finalists in the 2017 California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard.

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