Rock, Rioja & Roger: A Musical Tour Through Spain
Date: Wednesday 17 June 2026
Venue: L’Escut Restaurant, Jávea
Presenter: Peter Keane
June delivered on all fronts. The terrace at L’Escut was in summer form, the company was in good voice — about which more shortly — and the wines, for once, were a complete surprise to all of us. Peter Keane had asked us to keep his selection under wraps until he revealed it himself, and we are very glad we obliged. What he served up was less a tasting than a small, affectionate journey through forty-odd years of rock and roll, with four well-chosen Spanish wines used as the milestones.
Peter opened with thanks to Mac, Roger and Sally — the usual suspects — and to Elizabeth and the L’Escut team. He noted, sensibly, that he and Vanessa had pre-tasted everything we were about to drink, and offered the rosado contingent a brief apology for sitting this one out. The full lineup was four wines, two whites and two reds, all from Casa del Vino, and bound together by a theme that he hoped would take us, in his words, back to our teenage years.
The Wines & the Music
First up was a white from a small Valencian outfit called Wine n’ Roses — yes, a deliberate play on Guns N’ Roses, and entirely characteristic of the producer’s sense of humour. All five of their wines, Peter told us, are named after rock songs, and this one — by way of the prompt “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name” — is called Sympathy for the Devil. A Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc blend from Toledo, organic and vegan, low yield, light and easy at 12.5%. The musical note that Peter pulled out is the gem of the whole afternoon: during the original Rolling Stones recording session for the track, a studio light fell over and set the entire room on fire, burning every one of the band’s guitars. The tapes, against all reasonable expectation, survived. So did the song. And, we’re happy to report, so did the wine. As the room finished its glass, Roger — with very little encouragement — took the microphone and gave us a verse of the Stones’ original. Warmly received, and the first signal that the afternoon’s musical thread was going to be a two-handed affair.
The second white, Soplo, came from Rafael Cambra — a small producer in Fontanars, practically a neighbour of Wine n’ Roses. A Malvasia (or, as Peter coached us, “Mal-ba-See-Ya”) grown at 700 metres in the Sierra L’Ombria, hand-harvested, partially oak-aged, and a clean, fresh, twelve-percent companion. The musical connection here, Peter pointed out with some delight, is that both bodegas sit within a twenty-minute drive of Villena — which every August hosts one of Spain’s biggest heavy metal rock festivals. As Peter put it: there must be something going on in them hills. Maybe it’s the wine.
Into the reds, and back to Wine n’ Roses. The first red, Born to Be Wild, takes its name from the 1969 Steppenwolf track best known as the opening soundtrack to Easy Rider. Peter shared the lovely fact that the term “heavy metal” — now attached to every band from Black Sabbath to AC/DC — was actually lifted directly from this song. “Heavy metal thunder,” as he reminded us, is the sound of motorbike engines. The wine is 100% Bobal, grown on poor limestone and clay at 700 metres, oak-aged nine months — generous, slightly spicy, vegan, and entirely respectable at 13%. It was, as Peter mentioned almost in passing, Casa del Vino’s wine of the month in May. And once the glasses had been tasted, Roger duly stepped up again and delivered a verse of Steppenwolf’s anthem — by now an established midway tradition for the afternoon, and another well-earned round of applause.
The finale took us north to Rioja, and a Santalba selección — 100% Tempranillo, hand-picked, naturally fermented, five months in American oak. Peter generously credited Jill Crabtree (who, you’ll recall, presented in May) for first introducing the wine to WAG. Fresh, fruity, with mouth-watering acidity, the strongest wine of the afternoon at 14%, and Peter’s personal favourite of the four. The closing musical note: La Rioja, like Villena, hosts a three-day music and wine festival every August — this one in Logroño. Peter is, by now, beginning to suspect that loud music and dancing feet are somehow good for vines. We are not inclined to disagree.
Birthdays, Food & a Summer Break
Birthdays were plentiful — five in all, with Julie Robson and Sally Smith arriving with the slightly suspicious coincidence of sharing the 10th of June, joined by Paul Pruden (13th), Alan Rutter (26th) and Pauline Speer (29th). All five received the full WAG treatment: the song, the applause, and the warm collective good cheer that this group does rather well.
Elizabeth’s kitchen, as ever, was outstanding — one of the quiet certainties of a WAG afternoon. The room wound down, as these afternoons should, slowly and in no great hurry.
A warm thank you to Peter — for four lovely wines, a generous musical thread, and the considerable patience of preparing all of it while keeping us in the dark right up to showtime. A thank you, too, to Roger — for two well-received verses, the willingness to step up, and the reminder that WAG is more than just a wine club. And to all of you for being such reliably good company. A genuinely successful afternoon by any measure.
WAG takes its summer break in July and August. Next meeting: Wednesday 16 September 2026.
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