Dorianne and I went to a tapas dinner prepared lovingly by our friend Mary Stec. Attendance was based on bids at a charity auction and there were four couples plus our daughter, Grace, who is home from Boston University for the holidays.

Mary being Mary, there were a true plethora of dishes – about a dozen or so, from charcuterie featuring Iberico Jamon and goat and sheep cheeses, to marinated octopus, to, well, it goes on and on. The wines were varied – here is a photo of some of them:

Here is the charcuterie plate:

Oh, and some bread. And mussels and chicken and sausage and . . .

The wines ranged from very good to not so good. Spanish wines tend to be priced low compared to other European wines, but there is not a widespread familiarity and knowledge with most of them. In our sampling (I did not get the list, sorry!), the two best wines retailed in the low $20 range. Those at $10 or less were all disappointing to one degree or another. We did not open the Malbec.