(TWR meaning 'tangentially wine-related').
This may be interesting to cured ham eaters; others please disregard.
Jamn ibrico, the ham from the black-hoofed Iberian pig, is the most prized type of ham in the world, particularly the 'bellota' version (animals fed with acorns, which spend several months a year roaming the holm oak-covered mountains of southwest Spain and eastern Portugal), and even more so in the long-aged Reserva and Gran Reserva varieties.
None was available in the US until recently due to the decades-long ban imposed because of the endemic character of African swine fever in the Iberian peninsula. After this was declared solved by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization in the 1990s, hams from USDA-approved slaughterhouses were finally allowed in to the US a few years back.
The problem was that only one, and not a very good one, producer was approved. This from the unerringly precise Wikipedia:
"Prior to 2005, only pigs raised and slaughtered outside of Spain were allowed to be processed in Spain for export to the United States. In 2005 the first slaughterhouse in Spain, Embutidos y Jamones Fermn, S.L., was approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to produce ibrico ham products for export to the United States.
The first 'jamones ibricos' were released for sale in the United States in December 2007, with the bellota hams due to follow in July 2008. The basic jamn ibrico is priced upwards of $52 a pound, and the bellota is priced upwards of $96 a pound, making these hams some of the most expensive in the world."
But Fermn provided very so-so hams.
Well, the news today is that Snchez Romero Carvajal announced just minutes ago that its hams will be available to the general public in shops, supermarkets and restaurants in the United States by next October. Now this is really more meaningful. SRC is considered as the best producer in the Jabugo appellation, and the second-best in Spain after the hallowed Joselito in the Guijuelo appellation.
Thinly sliced, ibrico ham goes well at tapas time with a range of wines, but surprisingly none of them work better than fino or manzanilla sherry.
This may be interesting to cured ham eaters; others please disregard.
Jamn ibrico, the ham from the black-hoofed Iberian pig, is the most prized type of ham in the world, particularly the 'bellota' version (animals fed with acorns, which spend several months a year roaming the holm oak-covered mountains of southwest Spain and eastern Portugal), and even more so in the long-aged Reserva and Gran Reserva varieties.
None was available in the US until recently due to the decades-long ban imposed because of the endemic character of African swine fever in the Iberian peninsula. After this was declared solved by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization in the 1990s, hams from USDA-approved slaughterhouses were finally allowed in to the US a few years back.
The problem was that only one, and not a very good one, producer was approved. This from the unerringly precise Wikipedia:
"Prior to 2005, only pigs raised and slaughtered outside of Spain were allowed to be processed in Spain for export to the United States. In 2005 the first slaughterhouse in Spain, Embutidos y Jamones Fermn, S.L., was approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to produce ibrico ham products for export to the United States.
The first 'jamones ibricos' were released for sale in the United States in December 2007, with the bellota hams due to follow in July 2008. The basic jamn ibrico is priced upwards of $52 a pound, and the bellota is priced upwards of $96 a pound, making these hams some of the most expensive in the world."
But Fermn provided very so-so hams.
Well, the news today is that Snchez Romero Carvajal announced just minutes ago that its hams will be available to the general public in shops, supermarkets and restaurants in the United States by next October. Now this is really more meaningful. SRC is considered as the best producer in the Jabugo appellation, and the second-best in Spain after the hallowed Joselito in the Guijuelo appellation.
Thinly sliced, ibrico ham goes well at tapas time with a range of wines, but surprisingly none of them work better than fino or manzanilla sherry.
