Years ago, while conducting research for my book about gastro-pairing (Red Wine with Fish, Simon & Schuster, 1989),  I stumbled upon a freaky surprise: anchovies were just fine with a fruity, reasonably young red Rioja. And the more I tested the combo, the more the truth became clear: there’s something about the Rioja fruit combined with the normally excellent Rioja acidity that covers the fishiness, cuts through the salt, and leaves your taste buds in more harmony than they should have any right to expect. It offered a pairing alternative to a difficult food that was quite unexpected.

I thought of this distant taste memory just the other night in Bilboa, the Basque city slightly north of the Rioja region–where I spent most of last week touring and swirling and sipping, trying to familiarize myself with the new realities of a vastly changed wine area.

I arrived in Rioja with a smidge of cynicism about its now-famous modernization, because I really loved the way things were 20 years ago. But I quickly discovered something amazing. Red Rioja today is not a simple battlefield of traditionalists vs. modernists. Red Rioja today is a smorgasbord, where a very wide range of red-wine types is being generated. Sure, it ’s much harder to keep track than ever….but if you know what you’re doing, red Rioja is a very amusing playground.

And the play is especially amusing at table. For the major conclusion I came away with is this: virtually all producers of red Rioja today have made their wines a little riper, richer, fruitier. You can find traditional wines with a touch of gloss, traditional with a bit more gloss, wines on the cusp of traditional and modern, etc……in increments, all the way up to Riojas that would seem like California wines in a blind tasting. But fruit binds them all, and, at table, of course, fruit is a key matching factor.

This came rushing to mind at Restaurant Kate-Zaharra in Bilbao–an extraordinary place to have a good meal, a great time, and an amazing selection of Spanish reds. It is set on a hillside, high above the city–a Basque farmhouse recreation, recently built by a man who literally won the lottery and spent it on his life-long restaurant dream. The set-up is amazing: when you arrive, you are brought down to the wine cellar–all stone, wood, hefty tables and baronial chairs. To your right, as you descend, a skillful man is carving jamon iberico, of which you will consume much. He is also offering plates of excellent Spanish anchovies. You sit. You relax. You look over the staggering wine selection and choose a bottle (most parties choose magnums, it seems). Before being asked to ascend to dinner (the menu is upscale Basque steakhouse, with lots of good and expensive shellfish starters) you start working your “magnum” with the ham and anchovies.

I did, last week, with our magnum of 2000 Viña Alberdi from the venerable La Rioja Alta. The ham and the wine? Lock and key, of course; though most of the world drinks white with cured ham, Spaniards know what red Rioja can do. And you know the rest: not only did this Alberdi “go with” the anchovies, the extra fruit of a modern Rioja went with the fish extremely well.

I urge you to get to Bilbao, of course, and check out this unique, feel-good place, but even before you do, I urge you to pop a few modern Riojas to taste their expanded food-matching possibilities.

What’s your latest discovery in the food and wine pairing arena? Anything surprising?

Guest blogger David Rosengarten is a food writer, cookbook author, TV chef and wine writer. He is best known for his 2,500 shows on the Food Network, and as author of The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook.