For those of you who haven’t been keeping up on our sappy stories from the European Wine Blogger’s Conference that took place in La Rioja last weekend, allow me to catch you up. For three days, Robert McIntosh, Ryan and I gathered together several wine bloggers from around the world to meet and chat about…yup, wine blogging.

However, what you, nor anyone else, has known up until today was that we didn’t have a location set for the keynote tasting / dinner until a few weeks before the event - I kid you not. Don’t get me wrong, we were looking! But try as we might, from June to August, getting anything planned and confirmed in Spain is impossible. So with literally days remaining, we used one of Robert’s many Rioja connections - also known as the golden enchufe - to get us a reservation at La Chata.

Now mind you, none of us had ever been there, but the restaurant came on good authority as a wonderful place that would actually seat all 40 bloggers. But get this, they wouldn’t only make room our entire crew, but they even had a separate area where we could host our wine tasting consisting of cases upon cases of wine! This, my friends, was a miracle, and a reservation based on complete faith, because for all we knew, it could have been a mess!

So what made La Chata such an incredible find?

The Perfect Feeling

The historic restaurant is nestled inside the old part of Logrono on a tiny Gothic style street called, Calle Carnicería, just a stones throw away from the Plaza del Mercado and the Catedral de La Redonda. Stepping through the door, you enter …

Two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I decided to take a weekend holiday up North to Guimarães, though each of us seemed to have different intentions for going. I wanted to visit all the wineries of Minho and enjoy a series of tastings, while he just wanted to relax and take it easy. In the end, he won since all of the wineries were closed for the August holiday; but the very Friday night we drove up, I was able savor as dish that I have been waiting a year to taste and ended up enjoying one of the best meals I’ve ever had!

If you do decide to drive up north from Lisbon, mostly likely, you’ll be taking the Estrada National, or National highway, which is about the only major highway in the area. The highway goes right through the town of Mealhada in the region of Bairrada, a small town but popular throughout the country for its Leitão Assado da Bairrada. What is this? Well, its the most succulent suckling pig that you’ll find anywhere! Actually, it’s not quite a suckling pig; the piglets used are between a month and a month and a half old and have been weaned, weighing an average of 6 to 10 kilos. Originally from towns of Covões and Cantanhede, about 10km east, Leitão Assado has been regarded as the richest gastronomic traditions of the region and Mealhada takes pride in roasting their acorn fed piglets in brick ovens fueled by the aromatic eucalyptus bark. The result is a soft and intensely flavorful meat that flakes right off the bone, accompanied by very crispy, golden-orange skin. Additionally, they drizzle a very …