Spain makes a lot of wine. Overall, it’s the third biggest producer in the world. One problem the country has is that many of the country’s wines sell at low prices–don’t get me wrong, th...
https://www.drvino.com/2019/05/10/exciting-times-spanish-wine/
I’m in Rioja attending the Digital Wine Communicators’ Conference. I got to stop by Lopez de Heredia, the shrine to fine wine in Haro. As the sun set and the last grapes of the 2013 harvest a...
While he was pouring bubbly at the spring tasting of his his NY distributor (Skurnik), I spoke with Pepe Raventos of Raventos i Blanc. Late last year, Raventos announced that they had decided to ...
https://www.drvino.com/2013/03/13/pepe-raventos-on-leaving-cava-and-making-the-new-conca/
A reader writes in: I have just seen that Robert Parker has tasted the wines for Jorge Ordoñez and given points instead of Neil Martin. What is going on? I thought after the No Pay No Jay scan...
https://www.drvino.com/2012/11/13/parker-selective-spanish-wine-reviews/
Mosel winemakers love to talk about the blue slate of their soils. A discussion of Chablis couldn’t be had without mentioning Kimmeridgian. Coonawarra has its terra rossa and Rutherford has its...
Telmo Rodriguez was in full cry when I met him in New York City recently. Although the 50-year-old “driving winemaker” studied enology in Bordeaux, worked a vintage at J.L. Chave in the Rhone...
https://www.drvino.com/2012/04/10/telmo-rodriguez-terroir-rioja-remelluri/
We all know that Spanish wineries looooove critics, so much so that they would pay extravagant fees for a “master class” by a point-wielding critic on “a freelance.” The good folks at Tor...
https://www.drvino.com/2011/12/21/wine-scores-labels-whats-the-point-torres/
After so much discussion of the Parker-Miller-Campo imbroglio (see a thorough recap from Monday here), it’s refreshing to read about the wines of Spain again without thinking of “no pay – n...
https://www.drvino.com/2011/12/14/finest-wines-rioja-northwestern-spain/
During the recent, week-long power outage, we sought refuge in an undisclosed location that may or may not have been the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We found a bottle of “brut nature” cava...
This week, our “set of titanium corkscrews” award goes to Jose Pastor. The 30-year-old Bay Area resident has a difficult business life selling Americans on the virtues of wines from such litt...
https://www.drvino.com/2011/09/30/wine-importer-jose-pastor/
A group of friends that know each other through their sons’ school has a tasting every so often. I’ve been fortunate enough to lead the smart and fun group in about ten tastings over the past...
https://www.drvino.com/2011/06/23/spanish-wine-albarino-txakoli/
Why pay en primeur prices for young Bordeaux that won’t arrive for two years? A case against en primeur certainly comes in the form of the traditional Riojas from R. Lopez de Heredia. One of th...
https://www.drvino.com/2011/04/15/traditional-rioja-lopez-de-heredia/
I keep meaning to do a comparative tasting of wines made from the mencia grape. But every time I get a bottle, I drink it! Case in point: D. Ventura’s Vina do Burato, 2008 (about $19). Weighing...
https://www.drvino.com/2010/08/06/ribeira-sacra-d-ventura-almalarga/
So the King of Spain, 18 bottles of Grenache, and a man wanted by Interpol walk into a conference in Rioja. Sound like the start of a bad joke? Welcome to the reality that is Wine Future! The two...
https://www.drvino.com/2009/10/08/wine-future-rioja-opening-pandoras-grenache/
In August, I dropped by the Manhattan studio of the public radio show Marketplace studio and chatted with reporter Caitlin Carroll about sherry. She was interested in it since apparently the Sher...
https://www.drvino.com/2009/10/01/retro-sherry-fino-possible-makeover-public-radio-marketplace/