The story of Priorat is one of the most amazing in wine. An isolated, deserted rocky wilderness to the south-west of Barcelona it has been transformed from a forgotten rural backwater to the home of Spain’s most expensive wine in just over 20 years…
Posts Tagged ‘Spain’
Apr
21
Dinastia Vivanco Reserva 2004 (Rioja, Spain)
It’s going to be a hot Easter, full of cloudless blue skies and the smell of barbecued lamb fat. Bliss. I recommend a butterflied leg rubbed with the holy trinity of garlic, rosemary and thyme and chucked on the coals until the outside chars and the inside is a juicy pink. It’s not the weather for roast tatties and mint sauce, but some punchy tzatziki and some flatbreads will go down a treat.
Mar
17
Bodegas Tomas Cusine Vilosell 2008 (Costers del Segre, Spain)
You really should never buy wine on the strength of the label. Books and covers and all that. Having said that, we all have our favourites; bottles that look fantastic on the dinner table, labels that always catch our eye…
Feb
16
Dominio de Valdepusa Summa Varietalis 2005 (Montes de Toledo, Spain) – #WBW70
Every good wine has a story worth telling and this one starts with a unlikely rebel: Carlos Falco, the Marquis de Grinon, a grandee of the Spanish aristocracy. Establishment figures don’t come much more established: Carlos’ family has been at the top of Spain’s social strata since the 14th Century…
Dec
02
Casa de la Ermita Organic Monastrell 2008 (Jumilla, Spain)
Pull up a chair by the fire. Warm yourself up. Have a glass of red. It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that it is snowy in the UK at the moment. We awake daily to an idyllic winter wonderland and no prospect of any public transport. The urge to retreat to the fireside with a glass of warming red wine is hard to resist.
Oct
20
Two days in Rioja with Dinastia Vivanco
By Beren-Dain Delbrooke-Jones, Q Hotels
The Journey There
The journey had a sense of a sleepy otherworld, seven strangers from across the country congregating in the easyJet lobby at Stanstead International in the wee hours. Shuffling through the terminal and aboard the Spain-bound plane, the anticipation of what was to come, what was to be seen and tasted was latent behind sleepy faces. Sleepy faces were soon …
Jul
29
Mar d’Amunt Carinyena 2007 (Emporda, Spain)
When wine trade folk get together you can be certain of one thing: there will be far too many bottles on the table. Everyone brings more than they could possibly consume and still remain sensible…
Jul
22
The harvest gets under way
By Andrew McCarthy, Bodegas Castro Martin, http://castromartin.blogspot.com/
We last heard from Andrew back in June when he reported that proto-grapes had started to appear on the Albarino vines. Here’s the lastest update from Galicia:
I imagine that today’s blog title might have grabbed your attention! Harvest? In July? What on earth is he talking about? Green harvest?
OK, so I confess, I don’t actually mean …
Jul
16
The Matadors of Toro
by Donald Edwards, sommelier and wine blogger at http://notesfromthedregs.blogspot.com
The Spanish idolise the bull, the Toro is hewn into their collective subconscious like no other nation.
1942 when Miguel Fariña started making wines might as well be in the era of the Aurochs for all the wines resemble those of modern Toro.
Harvest was on the 12th of October every year, no one stopped to …
Jul
14
Catalan Cooking & Wine in London
by Gareth Groves
I love food, I love wine and I love cooking so when blogger and cookery teacher Rachel McCormack invited me to come along to one of her Catalan Cooking classes to talk about Catalan wines, I jumped at the chance.
Rachel’s classes – held at the delightful Beas of Bloomsbury – are not an attempt to turn you into the next Ferran Adria, but a …