Events

A taste of Alicante

by  |  15-03-2023

The Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid is one of if not its poshest. Fancy hotels, fancy restaurants, and fancy stores with few products in a large, expensive space dominate the horizon. Indeed there are fancy wine... more »

Pagos de Anguix – Costalara 2020

by  |  08-03-2023

In terms of the Tempranillo Intensity Index (if such a thing exists), I usually rank the dominant Tempranillo regions from lowest to highest in intensity as: Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and Toro. I’ve never been... more »
Photo by Rioja Alavesa

The Rioja Alavesa issue

by  |  06-03-2023

Making news lately has been that the Rioja Alavesa region is striving to create their own Denomination of Origin completely separate from DOC Rioja to be called, “Arabako Mahastiak/Viñedos de Álava” (using both names in... more »

The wines of Mallorca 2023

by  |  01-03-2023

Today I’m releasing the full Mallorca Tasting Report (with my scores), as well as the corresponding regional report as follows. This had been some time in the making, but for one reason or another, Mallorca,... more »

Maturana Buena, Maturana Mala

by  |  13-02-2023

Tracking down the relationships of vitis vinifera varieties which comprise the grapes from which our wines are made is no easy task. Back in 2012, the book Wine Grapes took an impressive stab at researching... more »

Spanish wine in numbers

by  |  03-02-2023

When writing about why the wines of Spain have lacked fame, I made mention that for 2021, Spain produced the second-largest amount of wine in the world of any country. Again, this begs the question... more »

Why no fame for the wines of Spain?

by  |  18-01-2023 ~ 17 Comments

A few months ago, a wine educator in Texas wrote to me asking who is "influential" in Spanish wine along the lines of writers and educators. Liking a challenge, I started to write up a... more »

Understanding DO Almansa through Piqueras

by  |  16-01-2023

I’m a rather big fan of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as, amongst many repeating bits within the LWT canon, there are the forceful geography lessons. He’ll start talking about Bolivia with Uruguay highlighted... more »
Photo from Bodegas Montecillo.

A deeper look at Bodegas Montecillo

by  |  14-12-2022

In what now seems like a century ago, I made a lengthy research visit to Rioja in November of last year. My goals were various, but the main one was to taste Garnacha wines in... more »

The tale of two Reservas: Rioja vs. Ribera del Duero

by  |  23-11-2022

Such an article could have easily been titled, “I drank these two supermarket Tempranillos so you didn’t have to” but in all fairness maybe one or the other of these two wines is actually very... more »