Terroir de FYÉ – Stairway to heaven

Ibiza is THE place to be, the leading light of the hippy scene of Europe and the rest of the world, where the best DJ’s pay their respects to the many (beach)clubs and entertain hordes of people with their newest sounds, beautifully wrapped in decibels.

But Ibiza is not only beaches and music, of course we must wine and dine too! And it’s rather funny that gastronomically we’ve been lacking behind a bit in comparison to the level of cooking of the big European cities. You’ll find that there the trend is to cook with local and honest products, simple and recognisable foods, no drops, foams or smoke, or even worse, balsamic syrup from a tube… One of the restaurants in Ibiza that keeps it’s eye on this direction is Bistro Sa Cova, located just after the Mercado Viejo, behind the Croissant Show, and run by Nico and Cyril and their chef Pablo.

Simple and honest, made fresh every day, from starters to desserts, without too much fuss, in two words: GOOD FOOD!

After a simple starter accompanied by a glass of bubbles (Veuve Doussot Tradition), we get onto our main, consisting of sea bream fillets with calamari stew.

The fish demands white wine and so does the calamari. The tomato stew is in need of some acidity and minerality, and in combination with the nuts and raisins of this amazing dish, I say Chablis!

And not just any, but a Chablis by Patrick Piuze, the God of modern Chablis making.

More mineral and fresh than it’s classic predecessors, this wine is the Chosen One to honor the products used and let this dish shine.

Patrick Piuze didn’t just fall out of the sky. This Canadian ski instructor with a passion for wine got his experience from working at the most famous Burgundy wineries and his wines are now highly desired and very hard to get.

It doesn’t help either that the Chablis region has been plagued in the last year by bad weather and a lot of the harvest was lost.

So a rare Nectar of the Gods, but it’s not that straight forward. Bistro Sa Cova lies in Sa Penya, just outside of the Old City walls with views to Dalt Vila, and you have to ascend a good few steps in order to get to the restaurant. A bit of a climb, but a Stairway to Heaven. Going down will be a lot easier but you can of course also take a detour.