Articles

An update on Terra Alta & the 2025 harvest

by  |  24-09-2025

Near the border of Catalunya and Aragón, I was walking out into the vineyards with Ramon Roqueta of Celler Lafou. Once standing amongst the rows, we came across a rather bizarre sight: the drip irrigation... more »

The wines of DO Terra Alta 2025

by  |  20-08-2025

With the release of the accompanying Tasting Report, it’s time to have another look at the wines of DO Terra Alta. As always, please review last year’s report for additional background. While the most southern... more »

Lafou – Els Amelers 2022

by  |  14-10-2024

I’ve often wondered if being fascinated by the origin of words is a truly academic pursuit or merely laying the groundwork as a future creator of “dad jokes”. For instance, I get a chuckle that,... more »

The wines of DO Terra Alta 2024

by  |  07-10-2024

Given that DO Terra Alta can have a completely different climate in some years than the rest of Catalunya (or even Northern Spain), it was very much time to build upon the previous report and... more »

Herència Altés – La Serra Blanc 2020

by  |  24-04-2024

People are often of the opinion that the concept of assigning a score to a wine is at best a parlor trick and at worst, utter bullshit. How can something that’s supposed to be “alive”... more »

Largest expansion of Catalan ‘Vi de Finca’ wines to date

by  |  13-12-2023

At the stately Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona, INCAVI, the Catalan Wine Agency, presented the latest wines approved for the Vi de Finca classification. With a total of five new wines entering the list, it’s... more »

Catching up with Herència Altés

by  |  03-05-2023

It was shortly after Herència Altés fully moved into their new cellar that I paid them a visit to see what they were working on in this sleek, modern space just off the N-420 highway... more »

Food Through Wine: Sibarites, Gandesa, Terra Alta

by  |  20-02-2023

A regular series that reviews dining through the lens of wine both good… and bad. Any wine region in the world worth its salt has some place that’s a destination to not only be able... more »

A new look at Garnatxa Peluda… in Alella

by  |  14-11-2022

Whatever you do, don’t call it, “downy” Grenache. Much like how the peppers from Cuba are often misspelled as “habañeros” in the US or the Georgian aging vessel for wines is incorrectly transcribed as, “qveri”... more »

DO Terra Alta brings “brisats” to the forefront

by  |  08-02-2022

DO Terra Alta, in Catalunya, Spain has been quite busy recently. In their regulatory council’s last board meeting of 2021 they approved a long list of changes. The most prominent was their making a very... more »