Articles

Bridging wine’s language silos

by  |  30-09-2016

Vinum is a wine shop in my adopted village of Porrera where it's usually the mother of the family that owns it, Cori who you'll find behind the counter. She's from the next county over,... more »

The new “institutional wines” of DO Montsant

by  |  08-07-2016 ~ 2 Comments

DO Montsant has just announced their new "institutional wines". In brief, these are a red and white wine that will be used for the next 1-2 years to demonstrate what is seen to be the... more »

Tasting the tops of Torres

by  |  24-05-2016

For the August issue of Decanter (which will be out at the beginning of July) I wrote up a profile about Miguel Torres Jr. who, since 2012 has been the General Director of the Torres... more »

In The Glass: Vinyes d’en Gabriel – Mans de Samsó 2013

by  |  12-05-2016 ~ 4 Comments

It takes visiting large production regions such as Rioja or Napa where they tout a wine as "small production" at 5,000 bottles to really appreciate the all-too typical story in both DOQ Priorat & DO... more »
Their tasting room in the farmhouse

The novel approach of Clos Lentiscus

by  |  16-04-2016

Since fully moving to Priorat, I've ironically been spending a good deal of time in Penedès. First was for the "Rebels of Penedès" article and then for the Clàssic Penedès follow up. Despite Clos Lentiscus... more »
A rainbow of wonderful wines

And the Porrera wine gang was all there

by  |  01-04-2016

As was usually when coming in from one of the trails around the village of Porrera, my dog had spotted a cat and ran off through the houses. We've been through this game many times... more »
Russell at his apartment in el Masroig

D. Russell Smith, a Texan in the vineyards of Montsant

by  |  29-03-2016

When researching the book for DO Montsant, I did everything I could to uncover every wine that was being made with any degree of seriousness within the appellation. This took me to all the far-flung... more »
Their dormant vineyards in Garraf

A further taste of Alemany i Corrio

by  |  24-02-2016

In my much longer article about the “rebellious” winemakers of DO Penedès, I made but a brief mention of Irene Alemany and her winery, Alemany i Corrio. They are to a large degree, the anti-Penedès... more »
Terrace overlooking the countryside

Riberach wine hotel, Roussillon

by  |  25-01-2016

To know the land of Roussillon is not to drive briefly through it, deftly avoiding Perpignan via the A9 highway either heading to adventures more northern in France or more southern in Spain. The real... more »

A new Celler Comunica

by  |  20-01-2016

While it is of course annoying when the profile of a winery changes shortly after you publish a regional wine guide, if it's a winery owned by people I like, then I'm happy to see... more »