An altar for rancid wine

"I don't want to be a wine restaurant or work here every day." It couldn't be more frank. Sommelier Quintín Quinsac and chef Ana Ruiz have been running the AQ restaurant in Tarragona for over twenty years. They've created comfort for the workers, but also an ecosystem that will soon allow them to spend more time traveling. It's a gastronomic temple where you drink the best you eat. Consistency. "The menu is a page long, but it holds up to a hundred items. We change it frequently. There are wines we like, from Tarragona, Galicia, and many Garnachas," Quinsac summarizes. On the day of the interview, he included unique wines from Mas Vicenç, Pallerades, and De Muller. Sherry is not missing. "We always have haunt", he warns. In fact, the character of southern wines is the link with the project he now has in hand: "Rancio wine had passed me by. It's a silent revolution. No one has paid attention to it." He is writing a book following the oral memory of a generation that has guarded it without boasting. At the AQ he also collects liquid testimonies from different parts of Tarragona. More than twenty samples of rancio wine full of age and expression. From the casks of Noemí Poquet in Vinebre, from the wisdom of August Vicent in Gratallops, from the heritage treasured in the Cooperativa del Masroig and from the empire of Elies Gil in Viñas del Convento, in Horta de Sant Joan. Writing the history of a unique, forgotten heritage. "Haute cuisine must bring these wines closer and remove them from the romanticism of dessert," he warns. "Rancio wine has an outlet in a tasting menu, like sherry. It reaches where still wine cannot. At the restaurant, we'll serve a gelled artichoke puree, asparagus, and anchovies, which would go very well; the pairings are wide-ranging, also with stewed oxtail," he confirms. "I grew up in an eighth-floor apartment in Valencia without a wineskin or a corner, but now I've seen the epic. Rancio is a reflection on time," he comments. These are wines marked by oxidation, aged in the sun and sunshine, and sometimes by the system of criaderas and soleras, with a very old first wineskin, the godmother.

"I explain to the customer that these are wines designed for children or clean ones." No one spares a thought at this statement. Whether dry or sweet, I'm interested in the rancios being many years old."