The very last line from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off popped into my head when finishing to write this newsletter, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The reason being that here in these fine, early days of spring, I’m usually all set to release the latest Croatia Report which this year, is accompanied by an extensive, Dalmacija Report. More than just my having familial links to these regions, I find them very exciting with a constant drive to innovate given that they had to completely rebuild after the collapse of Yugoslavia. There were many key people in this work and sadly, one of those heavily involved in this work and who I knew very well, Alen Bibić, died last week. (*)

But this year of tastings and visits proved no different in terms of uncovering innovation. In addition to the stalwart reds of the coast from Dalmacija and Istra being exciting, I’ve really taken to the whites of these regions, as well as the sparkling wines. It’s the latter that seems to have seen a great deal of development in the past year as they’re literally trying to make sparkling wines from any grape variety there is. Some of it doesn’t work and some of it does very well. A rosé sparkling wine from: Trnjak, Vranec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah? Why not?!!

Regardless, I’m sure it will continue to evolve and all of it will sell if priced well as there is a very thirsty audience during the blustery summer months.

That isn’t however the reason to choose the nuclear option and invoke a Ferris Bueller quote as the same day I was preparing to send this out, an event came to pass which has upended the sparkling wine scene in Spain, yet again. Juvé & Camps, one of the most esteemed producers in DO Cava, has announced that they are leaving Cava to join the Corpinnat. (*)

Is this news at the level of the original five leaving DO Cava back in 2019? In many regards, yes, as the production of Juvé & Camps will nearly double that of Corpinnat and it will lend even further strength to the association in terms of being the quality sparkling wine name to remember in Spain. At the same time it pulls a huge segment of quality sparkling wine away from DO Cava. It is, Big News.

I had actually scheduled to do a new tasting for this year’s Corpinnat report towards the end of March, but quite suddenly the directors of the association asked to postpone it a month and now I can see why. While that delays the report slightly, it also is a tremendous step in terms of the evolution of sparkling wine for the territory and it’s clear to see why these wines are such an economic driver for Catalan wine. (*)

Thus, April is already moving “pretty fast”. I swear I’ll look around any moment now.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Croatian Wines 2026

An engaging and ever-evolving country in terms of its wines, this is the latest look at what’s going on.

Dalmatian Wines 2026

Always a tremendous lure for tourism, the wines are changing each year and the embrace of native varieties continues to go well.

Drink It or Sink It

A look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Cellers Unió Profecia Rosat 2024 - IG | YT

And now this

If you’ve not had the bubbles from Slovenija, you’ve been missing out as shown by this fine selection.

What’s the difference between 2013 and 2015 in DOQ Priorat? As it turns out, quite a bit!

Also in Slovenija, there’s a fine “golden hill” that’s worth getting to know just a bit more if you don’t already.

And lastly, another look at Priorat with a retrospect of the relatively unknown wine, Triaca.

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For anyone in the wine trade, spring is a sack of madness tossed into a swirling river of insanity.

Most everything important happens in the spring and seemingly all at once as this is the season of fairs, tastings, and various judging competitions. Thankfully, the immense body comprising European Wine Fairs Inc. have realized that they can’t all take place at the same moment and so, Barcelona Wine Week, Wine Paris, Prowein, and Vinitaly are kind enough to follow each other over three, hardcore months.

Most colleagues I know don’t go to all of them and in the past, the only one that truly mattered was Prowein. That is, until people got tired of staying in ‘popup’ Airbnbs that were little more than closets at exorbitant prices because all the hotels were exceptionally full as the fair is in the hot, hot prime European destination of… Düsseldorf.

Well, there’s clearly a new dominant player on the fair scene and officially, that’s Wine Paris. It only started in 2019 via the merger of Vinisud (formerly of Montpellier) and Wine Vision but looks as if the 2026 edition will be the most visited wine fair in all of Europe.

As an interesting aside, apparently Wine Paris was nearly Wine Barcelona at one point as the organizers were looking to move and in talks with the Catalan government to relocate. Unfortunately, just before everything was signed, there were elections, politicians changed and the interest was lost. It was unfortunately very shortsighted as while Barcelona Wine Week is a fine event for Spanish wine and probably the best there is currently, it’s just that, only for Spanish wine and an event with Vinisud as the underpinnings could have been so much more.

Wine Paris really took off once WineExpo joined in 2020 and they squeaked in the fair just before the world went off the rails. But, coming back in a post-pandemic world, the fair has gotten ever-more popular because… dunno… it’s in Paris, oui? But in addition to ample hotels, restaurants, and not needing to sleep on a boat ‘hotel’ (unless that’s your thing) the French also know how to do the ‘off’ like no one else and so the side events are tremendous as well with more each year.

They were also smart enough not to crash Wine Paris into other key events such as Grands Jours de Bourgogne which is happening right now. If you don’t it, this is an event only for Burgundy wines that’s intense, amazing, and if in the wine trade, it's one of those things you need to do at least once… if they let you in. The last time I was there, I was focusing on the sparkling wines of Crémant de Bourgogne as well as digging a great deal more into Aligoté, a variety which, like Wine Paris, has seen its star get ever-brighter in recent years.

Outside of the parallel existence of the wine fair world, reality continues for most people and in the case of the Ukrainians, this means a war that isn’t looking to reach a conclusion any time soon. This is why on the anniversary of the Russian invasion this year, I looked back at a mishmash of events (*) that have crossed paths in these last four years. Additionally, there’s a report on the Russians fully destroying a 19-century winery (*) that they’d previously looted in 2022, but apparently decided that just wasn’t enough war crime.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

An Aligoté Feature

Previously maligned and often forgotten, this under-appreciated white grape variety of Burgundy has very much been in vogue in recent years as the weather warms and people look for ‘affordable’ Burg.

Drink It or Sink It

An evolving look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Mar de Uvas Merlot - IG | YT

And now this

Have you ever thought, “I could use a good deal more Ribera del Duero in my life.”? If so, then this fine bottle is very much for you.

If looking to learn everything about the current state of Greek wines, then the 2026 edition of “Greek Wine Explained” (*) is what you’re looking for.

There’s essentially nothing bad to say about Malvasia de Sitges (except that there should be more) and this wine is yet more proof of that.

And lastly a look at a fine family winery in the Campania region that are making great versions of pretty much everything, especially Taurasi.

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The wine press trip.

I feel there are few people that don’t salivate when hearing these three words together. It’s a completely justified reaction as all who are invited to attend do their damnedest to paint the trip in as glowing a light as possible. I think anyone can understand why as getting a free trip to very pretty places in the world with excellent food, and of course, le vin, is incredibly appealing.

There however exists a general omertà amongst those in the wine media circles when a trip goes sideways, which, given the amount of moving parts to one of these events, can and does happen. Why the code of silence, or at least being light on sordid details? It’s simply that no one wants to upset this particular economy given that it’s now an exceedingly crucial component in the slim profit margins comprising writing about wine these days. Also, many assume there is some point in the no-so-distant future where these trips may very well go the way of the dodo.

Despite appearances and no matter how many times my fellow colleagues mention it, such trips are an insane amount of work. No one amongst us would dare to ask for even a milligram of sympathy in the matter (again, excellent food and, the wine) and no one wants to be on a trip with others treating it as a free vacation. I can speak readily to that as there’s at least one individual I’ve encountered recently that clearly can’t smell and evaluate wine anymore (probably due to a past Covid infection) but whose hubris sees them more than happy to hop on a free trip and fake it, which is simply insidious.

I know in the past that they’ve been painted as drunk fests and it seems they were in another era long before my time. But now, they’re serious affairs with a group of focused people absorbed by the twelve-hour days which see many of those hours spent bouncing around in very uncomfortable vans. Only Sir Robert Parker was ‘limo-ed’ around when doing Bordeaux reports and that’s because he shelled out for it. Likewise, it’s only when I’m on my own, non-press trip, trips to wine regions that I have a chauffeur, who also happens to arrange my travel plans and meals—amazing fellow if I do say so myself.

So, why keep doing it, if it’s so ‘awful’?

No matter the size (and I’ve experienced trips of 50 attendees down to just myself and two others), you need to cover a huge amount of ground in a limited time in order to present anything of value to your readers. Minus one or two individuals, in doing this for 15+ years, no one is getting shitfaced as there’s simply too much to do, see, taste, and write up. Many people are abstaining from alcohol completely which should further crumple any image of these being free drinky trips. To be the least bit effective, you need a clear head as it’s something of an overload for all the senses.

I make mention of the wine press trip as late last fall I found myself in Campania, Italy, bouncing around small roads, in one of those ubiquitous nine-seater Euro vans. It wasn’t an easy trip, but I came away with the feeling, after three days visiting for this new report on the region that Campania is perhaps not the easiest place to visit. The producers seemed to admit as much as they’re very aware that everyone heads to either Naples or the Amalfi Coast and little of that tourism gold dust seems to blow their way.

This is a pity as the region, despite not really being developed for tourism, is very pretty and the people, very friendly and welcoming like most everywhere in the interior of Italy. In terms of the wines, there’s something for everyone as while the red wines from Aglianico grape can be very hearty, they also produce excellent white wines from Greco di Tufo, Fiano, and Falanghina.

I say this as I definitely want to go back someday and soon.

There was however a much easier trip recently as it only meant that my chauffeur had to drive me an hour from home to see and taste the Brandy of Torres. I feel like people might only know the Torres wines, but this side of the business produces some excellent Brandy and at wonderful prices for the level of quality. I rated and reviewed their entire line for the article.

Also of note from Torres is their new Casals Vermouth which they produce in both a regular version as well as a non-alcoholic 0.0% version. Torres has been working on non-alcoholic wines looooong before they became a trend (since 2008!) and I have to say that while the 0.0% version didn’t have the fuller body of the regular version, it was still quite pleasant. As for the regular, it’s more bitter leaning than most Catalan Vermouths and nearly Italian in style, thus for me, it’s a winner.

Lastly, a couple of weeks ago, Janina Doyle of the Eat, Sleep, Wine, Repeat Podcast reached out for me to come on as a guest and have a chat about Croatian wines. The full episode just came out and you can give it a listen, (*) which I highly recommend unless for some reason you don’t want to know ‘everything’ about Croatian wines ;)

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Campania & Taurasi 2026

A unique, inland land with a very, very wide variety of wines, some ageless, some fresh, but all very much Southern Italy.

Drink It or Sink It

An evolving look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

362 Negre - IG | YT

Ponce de Albayda Blanco - IG | YT

And now this

If you’re going to go “Top Shelf” when it comes to Croatian wines, then it means you’re going to go for none other than the Stina – Stipančić from local grape star, Plavac Mali.

Do you want a “chilled red”? Of course you do! Even if it’s not currently warm in your hemisphere, a light, red wine like the Tenuta Cavalier Pepe – Rossochiaro will treat you very well.

And of course it’s time to have a look at how the wines of the DOQ Priorat 2018 vintage are standing up. A complicated year that’s always in need of a clear analysis.

Priorat wine tours

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In the wine writing world, it seemed that January has always been the month to write about/bemoan natural wine.

It’s a rather reasonable choice when you think about it given that headlines post-holidays and pre-Burgundy tastings have always been slow or at best, bland listicles, and the ensuing natural rage bait has always fueled much-needed traffic. The beginning of September was also a keen moment for similar post-vacation reasons, but I digress.

Given that natural wine, much like Dry January and the Kardashians, doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon, a new rage bait has been sorely needed. I state the obvious as it’s the only reason I can come up with as to why there’s been a group of articles bemoaning… tasting notes.

Are they stupid? Yup. Will we keep doing them? Yup.

As is the case with Bordeaux en Primeurs, there is an established order to the wine world that I assume will just continue on until something comes along to disrupt its meaningless existence. And by ‘something’, I mean an Extinction Level Event such as every beleaguered spouse collectively washing all red trousers in an ‘accidental’ bleach cycle.

Suffice to say, all the back and forth is why I’m readily fascinated by wines such as this one called, ‘Pica’ that I recently reviewed. It is for all purposes, an absolute aberration. Who in their right mind would take higher-alcohol grapes from Grenache in the Priorat region and infuse their juice with very, very spicy chili peppers?

I will firmly state that it most definitely works and it is part of a growing number of wines that I call, “Post Points”.

There will be claims otherwise, but for me, there’s just no way to score a wine like this. It falls outside all of the boxes as to what a wine is ‘supposed’ to be with our “medium plus everything”, and high boredom. It also blows up the extremely-outdated wine pairing concepts which state that with something spicy, you need sweet… unless of of course you’re a soul that does enjoy the spice which is the majority of the world.

But the thing is, these Post Points wines are iconoclastic and reinventing themselves and I doubt there will be ever be larger categories for them other than, “drinkable”. Often they’re interesting because they’re novell or it’s like in last year’s Priorat Report where there are wines which don’t necessarily blow up the points, but are exceedingly pleasing to drink all the time, like we’re seeing in the “chilled red” category that a lot of wine drinkers are enjoying as it’s sans la bullshite.

But let’s state that while tasting notes are numb and dumb, I would never say this applies to the giving of points. These do indeed serve purpose to act as a shorthand to the wine consumer for everyday wines while the tasting note (should) be doing the same for the wine professional—albeit usually coming up very, very short.

Points have also served as a manner in which to value wines for collectors. There are however two flaws in this. The first is that the collector class is aging and/or has bought all the wine that they need for the rest of their lives. And second, scoring of top wines is completely unneeded at at this point. Will there ever be a vintage of Screaming Eagle or Romanée Conti or the five First Growths of Bordeaux that won’t sell out at their insane prices? As long as people are drinking wine, I seriously doubt it.

So there are these, for lack of a better word, ‘subversive’ wines** coming out now that blend wine and non-wine, different fruits, take wines from disparate regions, use untraditional blends, or are just different from the classic norms and will escape all the reason and system of points-based scoring. Points will be with us for some time yet, but I’ll only give their longevity a score of ‘85’ as a class of younger wine drinkers (who are indeed drinking wine) comes of an age to appreciate this fine beverage, albeit in a form that deviates from what we’ve previously established.

I have seen the wines of the future and I don’t know how to rate them, but I like ‘em.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

** Note that I’m not globally lumping natural wines into this lot as there are scads of Trash Natural in there that’s just bad wine, no scores needed, only a sink with a good drain.

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Drink It or Sink It

A never-ending look at the lower end with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’ in this land of sub-5€ wines. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Clos d’Encís - IG | YT

Nits de Boria - IG | YT

Fidencio Tinti - IG | YT

And now this

Have you not been drinking well? That’s understandable which is why you’ll need this latest installment of the series that looks at Kraków, Poland.

In case you missed it for pre-Christmas, it’s still a fine time of the year to enjoy a bit of Port, like these fine wines from classic producer, Kopke.

Here’s a look at the larger portfolio of Vins Petxina, a negociant that producers Catalan wines in several DOs.

And lastly, while the largest celebrations may have passed, you never need an excuse to open a sparkling wine, especially one this good from Celler Viader in Corpinnat.

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Nearly 20 years ago, with my tourist setting dialed up to the maximum, I was driving out to Cadaqués, the most northeastern corner of Spain and the Iberian Peninsula.

As fate would have it, I stopped in at a winery at the top of the very curvy road leading to this lovely coastal town as it seemed like a fine view. More critically, there were other cars parked out front, so in Spain, that means an establishment is clearly open—Google Maps be damned. Unbeknownst to me, I was to end up crashing the launch of the new DO Empordà winery, Martín Faixó.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that it was a mighty fine party. After apologizing for my faux pas, the family (once done with media interviews) was very gracious to let me attend despite my timing. It proved to be a crucial inflection point as from this moment on, I would begin writing about the wines of Catalunya, publishing three books on the most prominent regions and, nearly 15 years ago, moving from California to live permanently.

Following on from the creation of the books, I’ve been publishing yearly reports on all the DOs and wine bodies of Catalunya for the last decade on Hudin.com. Given the turmoil of the wine industry throughout 2025 as well as the extremely variable recent vintages, it seemed that now was the moment release my first, full Catalunya Report for 2026 which is available for annual subscribers, right now.

Within the 8,000 words and over 900 wines tasted, I take a look at the connective tissue that binds together all these regions while at the same time showing how each individual part is unique. There’s a review of the most-recent vintages on the market as well as how the 2025 vintage appears to be shaping up post-harvest and what everything means, at this moment, as we step on the gas and accelerate into the vast unknown of 2026.

Additionally, there’s a good deal of new, insider information which, as an unsurprising spoiler, is mostly about the Catalan world of sparkling wines, but not only.

Anyone who know me knows that I’m quite passionate about Spanish wine in general and especially Catalunya, but at the same time, I’m also willing to give a critical eye to what needs improving upon. That said, Catalunya probably has one of the better positions in Southern Europe for the choppy seas that we find ourselves adrift upon these days. I’m very happy with the final format and to be sharing this very lengthy report about the region with my readers.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Catalunya 2026

One of if not the only regions in Spain with literally something for everyone, at least on a wine front. Dynamic and progressive, there’s a tremendous amount to take in and this report is key for anyone who loves these wines.

And now this

It wouldn’t be January without trying to figure out a way to slog through it, so, as has become the tradition, we present La Cuesta de Enero as a selection of affordable, excellent wines to see you through these, the darkest of days.

White wines of winter are always best when holding an edge of something extra like the Fonoll from Torre del Veguer, a fine mix of the two wonderful Xarel·lo variants.

And of course, the year wouldn’t be off to a proper start without having a look at those first wines out of the gate. Yes the Catalan Vi Novell 2025 wines are ready for your enjoyment!

Priorat wine tours

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Once all the olives are pressed and the oil runs free, winter has officially arrived to Spain.

Sometimes this arrival is in kind, gentle ways, such as the graceful fog seen above when visiting Raventós i Blanc recently. Or then, it’s the 213mm (8.5in) of rain that arrived to Priorat, unleashing nearly half the annual rainfall in less than half a day. Unlike what happened in València last year, we all seem to have survived this thankfully, but these events are constantly getting more extreme with the last one in 2019 at ‘just’ 160mm in half a day.

It seems that we can’t change the weather however, so why not pair it with with a fine sparkling wine, like those of Raventós or another savory bottle of bubbles like the Gran Torelló.

Such fine wines helps us through these dark days, although, as of today, it’s only getting lighter from here on out and in case you need additional suggestions, do have a glance at the Top 100 for 2025. (*)

Please note that we’ve updated the formats (*) for subscriptions to make them much, much clearer. There’s also the introduction of a new Commercial option that has a special offer right now for those interested in either a new subscription or upgrading their current one.

I also want to mention that this will be the last newsletter for the year as we take our winter pause. There are a wealth of exciting new items coming early in January, so as always, please stay tuned. Do note that the videos shall keep coming while the articles take a breather. Continue following the new and very fun to produce, “Drink it or Sink it” series which you can find on YouTube and/or Instagram Reels depending upon your preferred media poison.

Thus, we hope your celebrations see you in fine spirits as we head into whatever might be waiting for us in 2026.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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And now this

The Catalan authorities have released a new slate of Vi de Finca wines which is always worth having a look at, given that they’ve now grown to two dozen in total.

For those in need of a last-minute gift for enotourism lovers or perhaps for themselves, have a look at these new guides for Switzerland as well as the Rhône Valley.

How about a fun sparkling wine to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a small Cava producer from the Penedès region?

And there’s nothing quite like a ‘fresh’ wine from Ribera del Duero that offers up a great deal of pleasure and the inability to stop drinking it!

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‘Tis the season for the Hudin Top 100!

Culled from the thousands of wines tasted this year, everyone can read the entire list ordered by winery name. Subscribers have access to the the full scores, tasting notes, price/quality ratings, and the entire 41 reports released this year from Spain, France, Portugal, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and even as far as California.

It’s never easy to choose from so many good wines in the world but the #1 wine on the list this year in terms of scores was the Ferrer Bobet - Selecció Especial Vinyes Velles 2021. This winery in DOQ Priorat has consistently produced excellent wines, but this specific wine goes above and beyond to be what is probably their finest bottle to date.

For this selection, the colors of wine are: 58% red, 41% white, and 1% orange with 7% of the wines sparkling. The lowest-priced wine on the list ended up being 8.50€ which goes to show that it’s much more about assembling an interesting, inviting list rather than slapping together the top-scoring wines. After all, subscribers have access to see those whenever they want as well as sorting for price/quality.

We hope you enjoy this edition and find something new or have it reconfirmed that yes, you are indeed drinking some of the best wines there are ;)

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Hudin Top 100 2025

This edition has been culled from some of the finest wines across the sunny shores of Europe (and a touch of California!)

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Spain is only a little larger than California geographically, albeit in a form that’s more of a block than a rectangle with an elbow. More important than respective shapes is that Spain has a much larger population than California at just about 50 million, compared to the ‘Golden’ State’s 40 million.

To me however, both places seem rather crowded, at least from a certain vantage and that’s because the majority of the populations live on the coast. For California, various sources stolen compiled by AI state that 68% of the state lives along the coast.

For Spain, the figures get a bit wonky and run from 30-60%, but the lower number appears to be based upon older statistics. Any total however is skewed a great deal by about seven million of those people living “not on the coast” being based in or around Madrid. Thus, the coast is person heavy and 80% of the 97 million tourists that visit Spain each year (a record…!), go to the coast.

However you slice up this chunk of Iberia, the truth is, there’s a lot of space in between population centers and it’s in these spaces where you often find the wine regions.

Take for instance where I’m based in Priorat. The county officially has about 9,000 residents in total, but its location is part of this Mediterranean Magic wherein while the immediate strip of the coast holds oodles of people, you step back 25-40km and there’s no one. No one except the vines that is and the excellence of losing the coastal humidity paired with a rise in altitude, making for excellent viticulture.

These wine regions are however pockets that are, in a very Iberian fashion, quite removed from one another. Catalunya’s bookend to Priorat in terms of quality for me, is Empordà, way up by the French border. I’ve long-been keen on this region which is why I was happy to release a new report (along with Pla de Bages & Alella) as there are some excellent, yet often overlooked wines up there.

In the middle of the vast 225km space in between these Priorat & Empordà is Penedès and I fully admit that for some time I covered the region more or less out of obligation. The reason being that in Catalan wine, the reputation for many years was that of large and often uninteresting production, the exact kind of wine people are buying far less of now.

This has changed so, so much in the last few years with the upheaval in the sparkling wine sector and the movement of craft producers away from the dump trucks of bottles produced by DO Cava. But when it comes to the still wines produced not in the massive DO Catalunya (check out my YouTube videos) but in DO Penedès, things have evolved even more.

My latest report for DO Penedès has been in the making for all of 2025 and includes tasting notes for nearly 200 wines—the largest to date. Why so much attention? Simply put, there have been so many changes that have come to the region. Additionally, it’s now more uniform, cohesive and the level of quality has risen tremendously in the previous decade+ that I’ve been covering the wines. I highly recommend checking it out, or if in Barcelona at some point, pop out as they’re only a half hour away from the metropolis.

Suffice to say, Penedès is no longer simply a space in between, whether geographically or conceptually, but one more constellation in the galaxy of Catalan wine.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Penedès 2025

So many changes and such a large tasting undertaken throughout all of the year. It’s been invigorating to see so much fruit come from so much labor and it’s worth reading about the differences in this crucial axis to Catalan wine.

Eastern Catalunya 2025

While the wines of Empordà, Alella, and Pla de Bages might not be well known, they all have their strengths which they play to a great extent and recent vintages have shaped up very well for these three regions.

And now this

There have been some fine new additions to the Viña Salceda project in Rioja, namely in their single-vineyard lines.

And of course, life isn’t interesting unless you take chances such as with this bottle of Merlot & Caladoc from the Southern Rhône.

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As much as everyone loves to tout some random tourism destination as being the, “Tuscany of ______”, when it comes to wine region comparisons, all roads lead to France. Don't believe me? Let's give it a whirl in terms of Spain.

You see for me, Rioja is the Bordeaux of Spain. It just so happens that there are many historical links between the two, but the fact is that they’re both red dominant regions that (still) adhere to aging in barrel and are very advanced technologically. Additionally, they’re suffering similar fortunes in the current wine market, but I feel that Rioja will eventually pull out of it if for the reason that people will come back around to sun-kissed red wines as they are, bliss in a bottle. Also, there are oodles of new producers making wines in very exciting ways and ignoring the whole “oak thing” as mentioned by in a recent article.

Cava would like it very much is we were to say that it’s the Champagne of Spain, but at best, it’s the catch-all Crémant of Spain. It’s Corpinnat that’s proving to be the Champagne of Spain and not just because they both start with a ‘C’ and are spelled with the same number of letters, but because there’s a direct correlation to the high-quality of wines from Corpinnat that are a southern analog to the Grower Champagnes.

As we continue along, is Rías Baixas the Muscadet of Spain, or is that Rueda? And where is the Limoux? Or for that matter, the Irouléguy? Inquiring minds must know.

Maybe we just stop this list as there’s that center piece on the French banquet table of wine which everyone always wants to be. You know, what is the ‘Burgundy’ of Spain?

My money says that’s it’s Priorat given that it’s a small, terroir-driven region that has successfully implemented the same classification pyramid and it’s full of people making some of the finest red wines in the world. Obviously there are vast differences as they’re working from a Grenache base, not Pinot Noir, although the latter is fully authorized for use in Priorat—yes, wha?

But there’s one issue here in that while the argument for Priorat being Spain’s Burgundy for red wine can be made (and yes, I do hear the grumbling in the galleries) it’s simply not Spain’s Burgundy for white wine as while there’s been 400% growth of whites in the region over the last 15 years, they’re tremendously different wines in approach compared to a Mersault, Montrachet, or Corton-Charlemagne and I don’t they’ll ever be similar.

So, what is Spain’s Burgundy for white wines? I will tell you where I now realize it exists, as it’s 800km from Priorat and it may surprise you to learn, that it’s the region of Jerez/Sherry. You can read all about these wonderful discoveries in the lastest report on the region that includes a tasting of over 110 wines both in the classic style as well as the unfortified, ‘new’ style.

We’re clearly in a season of change as others have been arriving hot and heavy as well, such as 2025 being the first 100% organic harvest in DO Penedès. This is an event that started either three years ago, or 46 depending upon how you look at it, but it’s been a great thing that’s come to pass.

And, as it often seems is the case, there have been a lot of tastings and trips recently. Locally, in addition to rounding up my tastings for the region of Catalunya, I also managed to fit in a visit to the exciting project of Can Sumoi that’s pushing new frontiers while being both in and out of Penedès proper.

Lastly, a big item on my wine region bucket list has finally been checked off with my visit to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for the 250th anniversary of Bodegas el Grifo. That was an excellent, unforgettable trip to what is the moon of winemaking.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Sherry & Jerez 2025

One of, if not the oldest of Spain’s delimited wine regions, Sherry has seen ups and downs, being in and out of fashion to arrive at the point now where it’s just on the brink of tremendous change with some excellent new kinds of wines to back it up.

And now this

There is a unique place in Morocco where wine vines can thrive and it’s worth having another look at what they’re doing.

Alella in Catalunya may be a bit unknown to most people, but that isn’t stopping Can Matons from making some great white wines.

Also in Alella, the artist formerly known as Alta Alella is releasing wines under their new name of Art Laietà.

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I once paid a visit to a winery in the hinterlands of Roussillon, France and, as I arrived, their picking team was coming in, wrapping up for the day. They started a cooking fire right in the front of winery with some retreating to the tents they’d pitched by the entrance. While the winery was more functional in look and didn’t have the grounds of some multi-million dollar estate in Napa, it still seemed like a scene of occupation by protestors. And then they started grilling meat on the fire.

“Well, that’s a curious assortment you have there?”

“Yeah, they claim to be from Spain, but only one seems to actually speak Spanish and good god they’re slow.”

“Too much weed or… not enough?”

“Not enough of something, that’s for sure.”

I was reminded of this as we come to that time of year when the, “irregulars” who have descended upon wine regions for the grape harvest, all take off for either another kind of harvest or, perhaps back to the carnival circuit, I guess.

People will often ask me where these workers come from as anyone can see that’s a very mixed bag. Where I am in Priorat, the force is largely local given that the mix of grape varieties allows for a long (albeit tiring) picking season and so you don’t need a massive force all at once. This year it was spread over 6-8 weeks.

There are a few migrants from sub-Saharan Africa that are usually employed year round. Same goes for the Romanians. And then you have this irregular group of oddballs making up the difference of which I was one when I worked my first full harvest back in 2014.

A winery needs people who know what they’re doing though and the more irregular a group you get, the more sorting you have once all the grapes come in. This was the case when visiting the winery where I did my first harvest the other week and while chatting with the owner we looked at the boxes of their small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon that had just come in. Many were raisined and some even had fungal damage—par for the course with a variety poorly adapted to the Iberian Peninsula. The owner wasn’t amused.

“Why did they pick some of this shit? The sorting group isn’t going to be happy…”

But, as of the week before last, it’s all wrapped up for everyone, just as the weather has started to become fall-ish and difficult for those random irregulars to crash in a tent at the front of a winery, grilling various dead animals over an open flame.

If however one is to wander about the Catalan countryside this time of year, one will find wonderful things, including grilled animals if so inclined. This change of season is why I use it as the time to visit the wineries of Costers del Segre & Conca de Barberà. This latest report took me out to the countryside in Central Catalunya which is always wonderful, especially for eating.

And while some may drink their sparkling wines with grand pleasure during the summer, as the fall rolls into gear, I too roll into sparkling wine. This has been no better shown than the release of the Corpinnat Harvest Report. They’ve had a great deal of movement lately, including many new cellars joining in 2025 as well as new wines such as l’Infinit from Recaredo.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Costers del Segre & Conca de Barberà 2025

Two very interesting DOs in the center of Catalunya which are both working to carve out their own identities in very similar and very different manners.

And now this

When is a wine more than the “little brother”? When it’s the Dido from Venus la Universal.

It’s never not the right time to take a look at the very fine gastronomic offer in Priorat, such as that of Restaurant Amics.

Do you want a little ‘follador’ in your life? If it’s a Prosecco quite possibly and maybe even if it isn’t ;)

And lastly if there was more DO Toro like this, then we’d be hearing even more about Toro.

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There’s nothing headline grabbing anymore in stating that wine has a few problems these days. But, when it comes to Substack and those writing about this fine alcoholic beverage, there’s a specific problem that their ´Stacks are categorized under Food & Drink. This is ridiculous as one can very much have drink without food, or vice versa if need be as we’re not savages.

This doesn’t seem set to change which means that the wine bits of Substack are cast adrift on the vast sea that is food writing on the plaform. Thus, those wine types in the Drinks department are a lot like Icelandic folk techno metal being grouped under ‘music’ when K-pop exists. In other words, good luck finding the ‘WineStack’, which does indeed exist in its very special way.

I say this as when taking a new look at the state of wine media (*), I reached out to find as many Substacks about wine as I could. It’s grown massively as a medium overall in recent years and I think we’re finally to a solid round up of all the wine Substacks that have a paid subscription. This grand group is, after several revisions, now totaling 44 in number. So yes, most definitely the Icelandic folk techno metal of Substack’s Food & Drink category.

All of these Substacks (along with those in ‘legacy’ media) are included in an updated version of The List (*) which is free for anyone to peruse and hopefully find new reads, concepts, wines, and dare I say, ‘hope’ for this bizarre age in which we live.

In addition to finding new WineStack folks, something else that was new to me recently was the concept of the ‘North’ Adriatic.

For anyone who follows my writings, you’ll know that in addition to Spain and Southern France, I cover the wines of Croatia, Slovenia, and a ‘spritz’ of Italy, as much as is possible. Given this, I was asked to join a trip that sliced off a chunk of these three to create a rather fine way to comprehend what is overall a spaghetti of smaller regions, names, and grape varieties that are often the same, but with different names.

You can read this in the North Adriatic Regional Report as well as the combined Tasting Reports which see 260 wines rated and reviewed.

And of course, it wouldn’t be fall without some kind of recap on the 2025 harvest, but let’s make it bit different and take a look at what’s happening on the island of Santorini, Greece. (*)

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

North Adriatic 2025

While seemingly a random slice of Eastern Italy as well as Western Slovenia and Croatia, there’s tremendous commonality between all these regions and this grouping makes for an easy-to-digest serving of fine wines and culture.

And now this

Not enough harvest business for you? Fine, let’s about have a look at what’s happening in Rioja as there have been some rather significant changes heading into 2025.

While it might not be earthshaking news for everyone, the buyout of Bodeboca by Decántalo (*) will change the online wine retailing space a great deal in Spain and perhaps beyond the Iberian borders.

A Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon?! Why yes, there are quite a few in fact and this one happens to be one of the best.

And let’s have a look at the hour-long film that is Wine Masters Priorat (*) that features a great deal of Álvaro Palacios.

Yeah, fine, let’s have a bit more harvest juice for the hell of it and close with an update from the Terra Alta region in Catalunya.

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This article was also published on Hudin.com.

It’s time for a new look at the current state of wine media, taking into account the large upswing in people creating their own, independent newsletters, which has resulted in very new version of, The List.

If you’ll recall, back in 2022, I wrote about the rise of independent wine media platforms which just that short time ago, was something rather novel. I know it very well as like several others before me, I’d taken the plunge back in September, 2019 thus making this the 6th anniversary for Hudin.com!

The reasons for various individuals launching their own sites were due to the crumbling state of wine media and the need for independence in a changing landscape. Spoiler alert, that specific sack of cookies continues to crumble and the landscape is more landslide than having reached any degree of stability.

There are some seemingly safe publications at the moment such as Decanter and Club Oenologique which always have the backing of lucrative awards behind them.

Others, aren’t faring as well and since the last update in 2024, we’ve said goodbye to three: The New Wine Review, Wine & Spirits, as well as JeremyOliver.com, although it seems like that will be relaunched under a different name. Chris Kissack was close to folding his long-lived Wine Doctor into The Wine Independent when he took over editorial duties, but then backed out shortly after. As for The Wine Independent we’ll see how that continues to fare as we only need so many publications covering Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Napa…

A drop of growth

This means that the only new publication in the list is The Wine Palate from Lisa Perrotti-Brown (formerly of Robert Parker and The Wine Independent). It’s a new angle, but it’s also yet another entry in what is a crowded field with a diminishing audience.

So, this means that the current 2025 iteration of The List sees 48 publications with a total price of 4,313€ and an average price of 90€. While the total cost has decreased from 2024’s 4,521€, that’s mainly due to losing the 275€ annual fee of The New Wine Review. There have been some price reductions with Club Oenologique being the largest along with Winemaker and Winemag.

Despite this, the overall prices have continued to rise and this despite the publications priced in USD becoming cheaper when converted to Euros due to a depressed dollar. Thus, prices have indeed gone up overall with the average rising from 82€ to 90€, nearly a 10% increase.

I recently read a forum where people were talking about the rise in prices for Jeb Dunnuck. As someone pointed out, he had never raised his prices and now everything (especially travel for wine regions) is more expensive. More importantly, if you have a dwindling audience (this is across the board, not just for Dunnuck), then you need to charge more to attempt to earn the same.

Undoubtedly, there will be more consolidation in the sector, especially with the rise of those Independent Independents who are using Substack.

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Helloooo (again) newsletters

And this is the most important aspect in revising The List, the Substacks.

It’s impossible to know just exactly how much those dedicated to wine have grown in the last few years (I encountered two dozen I didn’t know before when compiling) but it’s become substantial and as of this moment, there are 38 in this list with one omission. 1

In creating this, I set the criteria that any Substack on the list needed to be set up for pay subscribers. This knocks out excellent ones such as that of , but a line needed to be drawn as having a pay component and pay subscribers creates an obligation for the author to update frequently and to maintain high standards. A small technical note in that all prices are tabulated in Euros as there needed to be a singular currency. What was interesting was to see how many came out at 43€ as that’s currently about $50 USD, or more or less the default amount for Substack when signing up.

It was obvious when compiling this list as to why someone would want to start up a Substack as one of the tremendous dividing lines between the, let’s call them ‘legacy style’, and the Substacks is that the latter aren’t covering the classics. There are no Substacks devoted to Bordeaux or Burgundy. There was one focusing on Napa, but didn’t have a pay component.

Instead, people are taking chances, covering niche topics like for Galicia or marketing wine with . Or then they have their own voice on a range of topics like who has been a favorite of mine ever since he was writing in his blog in addition to legacy publications.

And then there’s the natural wine crowd which has taken to Substack like a proverbial insect to a proverbial substance. It’s worked out wonderfully for many of them given that natural wine writing is much more ‘lifestyle’ than it is ‘wine’ and thus those subscribing are more devotees than traditional wine drinkers. There’s one who the Substack system says has “thousands of subscribers” which, at 43€ a subscription means he’s making a solid living, so more power to him even if I agree with little that he writes.

I was however curious as to when, how, and why several writers who have long-written in legacy style publications made the change.

A technical advantage

A key item I noticed in terms of websites from the legacy group is that it’s exceedingly hard to subscribe to most of them. It’s amazing to note that you must actively search out where to pay, which isn’t optimal when that’s how you make a living. By comparison, Substack is right up there, in your face about both subscribing to the mailing list and eventually converting that into a paid subscriber. This ‘funnel’ aspect is all taken care of for the writer.

summarized the advantages very well:

WordPress is expensive, time consuming, and brittle, or at least vulnerable if you don’t do all of the above, and I needed to simplify my life. Substack’s platform isn’t as feature-rich but I wasn’t using all of the features of WordPress, anyway. And Substack is far cheaper […] I managed the conversion in about ten days, moving the feature writing into Substack…

And Jeffreys summarized the advantages succinctly:

I can write what I want, I don’t need to look for hooks and angles and get paid on time. Also you can break stories instantly.

This was picked up by as well:

I decided to start a Substack because both the wine and the publishing industry are in a state of incredible turmoil and change. I wanted a place where I could share both serious and silly stories that wouldn’t get published anywhere else. I wanted a place where I could talk to fellow creatives, members of the wine business and devoted wine lovers. […] The advantage is I can tell the story I want to tell, and share the piece when I’m ready to publish it.

The right moment

For myself, I moved my newsletter over to Substack in May of 2022 as it seemed like a fine platform to run it, but I’ve kept the pay subscriptions (which includes thousands of wine reviews and articles) on the main site as there was no way to integrate that on the platform. This is an inherent problem with a newsletter system which Maker noted as well, stating, that when moving, she was, “…leaving behind about 1,200 wine reviews…”

But when was the right moment for others to join?

Again Jeffreys:

My wife had been telling me to do it for years but I thought only specific interest wine sites like Jane Anson on Bordeaux would work. In the end I gave it a go out of curiosity and because I had a lot of ideas that wouldn’t work for conventional publications. I just thought why not. [I was] a little too late. If I’d started in 2022 I’d be in a very strong position but 2023 wasn’t bad.

Willcox had a similar feeling:

I think I was pretty late in the game, but I’m okay with that! I’m enjoying it immensely.

Heather Daenitz, who works in social media, felt differently:

I think just about right. I had vaguely known about Substack for a year or two before I started publishing but I didn’t quite see the potential or use-case for *me* until last year.

Going forward

It’s clear, given the sheer quantity of wine Substacks ( has two!) that it’s been a welcome change for a great many people, but is it worth it and what will the future potentially hold? At the moment, it would cost over 2,300€ to subscribe to all of them, so obviously people are going to pick and choice and is the technology correct for this particular kind of platform?

In asking people about subscription numbers, it’s clear there are massive gaps with a group comprised of only single digits, ranging up to about 50 at most. Then there’s a jump to those in the low hundreds. Neither of these groups arrives to that natural wine writer’s ‘thousands’ and what’s more, it’s not a lot to live on. As Henry Jeffreys rightly said, “It’s just enough to pay the mortgage.”

When asked about the future and disadvantages he elaborated further:

You have to work very hard for not much money, at least initially, with no guarantee that there ever will be any coming in. […] At the moment, I think there’s too many people fighting over not enough readers so honestly I’d like to see fewer writers on there. I’m not sure anyone beyond people fulfilling a particular niche, like natural wine or industry news, are making a living. Having said that, if you spot a gap in the market, go for it.

Meg Maker had a similar view:

It’s difficult to untangle this question from the future of wine in digital media generally.
Asking readers to pay for self-published wine content isn’t new, but Substack leans into the commercialization potential for self-publishers, which does feel like a different approach for both writers and readers. I would like to think this will help us make back some of the time, money, and effort we put into our wine research and writing, but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough to call a living for any but a small handful of wildly successful writers.

But Kathleen Willcox was a bit more upbeat, framing things as just having gotten started:

I think there is a huge opportunity for small winemakers, big brands, unknown writers and experienced journalists—not to mention somms, drinks directors, retailers, importers, et al—to connect, share insights and tell cool stories. Wine should be about community, and we have the opportunity to create a symbiotic one that helps both members of the media AND the industry, while still speaking truth to power. Does that exist in the standard media these days?

A new type of wine news?

Much like how Coravin was pitched as the ‘solution’ to drinking only a glass at a time over a long period of time, it’s clear that anyone claiming Substack is the ‘solution’ to the ills of the wine world’s media (or any media for that matter) is a bit hefty of a claim.

To date there simply isn’t the subscriber base for most of the newsletters to support the writers. Does it give additional income with little technical effort? Definitely. But at the same time there are tradeoffs in what you can do with the platform and for those who haven’t registered their own domain, relying on the *.substack.com address, you’re very much embedded in the platform.

Additionally, it’s also clear that people are getting subscription fatigue. Then there’s the usage issue that ‘follow’ vs ‘subscribe’ is cutting into potential, long-term subscribers given that people don’t understand the difference and it’s clear that Substack is trying to position itself more as a social media platform as opposed to being focused only on writers.

It’s also quite difficult to find people and topics. A search for ‘wine’ will yield a wild array of results that probably won’t let you find what you’re looking for. Thankfully, in searching for people to add to The List, I received a lot of recommendations via the Notes portion of the platform. This in fact has been the most useful moment I’ve experienced with that portion of Substack, so that is definitely a plus.

Ultimately it seems that Substack is a stopgap while wine sorts itself out. Will there be something of a burn off period given all the headwinds against the wine and media worlds? Most probably which is why it’s important to revisit these again in say… a year?

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While the dinner was a pop-up, the location was anything but clandestine being set at Mortimer House in London. The food wasn’t secret, radical, or some weird fusion thing served off the back of an endangered animal or naked reality TV star. It was instead, modern Ghanaian dishes by Zoe Adjonyoh. A delicious menu, it covered the greatest regional hits I’ve had the pleasure of eating from roadside restaurants throughout the country. The only hint that it was a pop-up format was that upon arrival, we were whisked up to a sixth-floor study set up with 12 total seats between two large, “communal” tables.

We sat in between two couples at one of these tables for six. To my left were an irrelevant local couple as keen on not talking to anyone else at the table as they were on only ordering cocktails with their meal, yet having no idea what St~Germain was. To the right were a Nigerian/Azerbaijani couple who epitomized a modern London. What was more notable about this far more interesting couple was that they represented the “modern” British wine drinker in their bottle choice: a bubbly that wasn’t Champagne with a retail price around £12. And of course, while blissfully happy with their wine, they wished they knew more about wine.

This couple would most definitely not represent the “typical” British wine drinker as the average bottle price hovers around £6 these days. But, in talking to them about what they usually drink, it showed what I simply love about the wine scene in Britain in that you can pretty much find whatever you want. They further emphasized this aspect when saying that there was no one wine or style they adhered to.

British wine buyers are masterful at providing wondrous options and at scarily-affordable prices–The Wine Society being the most amazing entity in my opinion. The forgettable couple to the left dryly finished their cocktails, said nothing, and left. We continued to talk with this couple to the right however and, given that they worried about their perceived lack of wine-choosing ability, asked us for advice on finding the best wines in London to which we both said, “It’s simple: pay more.”

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During a week stay up in “Old Blighty”–which actually had quite decent weather with little rain and mild temperatures–I attended tastings of top wines from: France, Bordeaux, Rioja, Barolo, and had a slew of various wines when out with friends and colleagues. Some were traditional. Some were “natural”. Some weren’t amazing, but they were few and far between.

Stepping out of professional settings and donning my well-worn as well as oft-preferred “drinking hat”, I picked up a number of bottles from Waitrose in the £6-10 range to see how they were. Sadly, they were all quite drinkable and even downright decent.

Why do I say sadly? Because cheap wine isn’t sustainable despite the fact that 1/3rd of the British claim that they won’t spend more than £5 on a bottle of wine. Ironic given that they’ll often spend that on just one pint of beer.

For a £5 bottle of wine, once you strip it down to the actual cost of wine, all that’s being paid to the producer is £0.30. Where I live in Catalunya, a kilo of grapes costs more than that, even in the skintiest of regions like Cava this is the lowest price. So, I have never understood how actual finished wine can be produced for these prices. The simple answer is that it can’t, at least in a long-term, sustainable manner.

That article linked to above about the cost of wine is quite illuminating in that if you spend £10 instead of £5, you actually get nine times more wine (yes, niiine tiiimes) and if bucking it up to £20, you get a whopping 23 times more wine than that £5 bottle. This is not insignificant and it’s why, just before leaving, I stopped in at an Oddbins [RIP…] to pick up wines such as The Milkwood Shiraz Viognier at £9 (HT ) and a Morgon Côte du Py at £15.50 amongst others which have proven to be exceptional wines, even without taking their price into consideration.

What was curious is that in chatting briefly with the store clerk about a Tinta Barroca from the “Western Cape”, the discussion quickly devolved into talking about the WSET at large as when I asked for more information about the wine he said that in the classes, they just “breeze past South Africa”.

More interestingly, was that he continued to talk about how the WSET was in fact failing. Their rapid growth outside the UK in recent years was to contend with the fact that overall their growth is flat and there is a lack of wine knowledge interest by the public at large.

I’m not sure as to his source for this information but I have seen first hand that the WSET continually promotes this perception that the wine education business is booming, so you need to get qualifications so that… you can then teach more people. Obviously, there’s a saturation point that will or perhaps has already been reached so I can understand the overall gist of the clerk’s points, albeit citable facts would be beautiful.

This all gets back to the couple I met at the pop-up in that I so often hear from people that they “want to know more about wine”, but are often at odds with how much work one needs to undertake. People in the Britain are definitely not the exception in this which is why books offering a quickie shortcut to wine knowledge sell well despite the fact that there are no shortcuts to proper wine knowledge and this thing called, “life” usually gets in the way.

And this is the ultimate genius in the British wine trade in that it gives people exactly what they want while offering them options if they want them but in a manner that’s understandable. This may seem like a simple premise but it is in fact exceedingly complicated with many moving parts that ultimately make wine drinking the pleasure that it is in the UK. This is why I take on the expense of going there given we simply don’t have anything the least bit comparable in the southern latitudes of The Continent.

Want something easy to drink and tastes decent? There’s a £5 bottle at Waitrose waiting for you in red, white, rosé, or bubbles. Want something a touch nicer that even a “regular” wine drinker will taste the difference of? There’s a £10 bottle waiting for you. Want to get the leg up on your drinking exploits? There’s the option of WSET at various levels to delve into. This last stage is clearly a big commitment in terms of time and money so just buy that £15 or £20 bottle and leave all the wine knowledge work to the very capable hands of others [ed. minus when “the trade” is trying to push overpriced Bordeaux 2021 or Burgundy 2022/23.]

Whatever the case, while the British wine trade can at times be very old school and creaky, there is a certain structure and approach that’s worked well for the last few decades which I admire greatly. At the same time I’m very, very curious to see how it goes from here given climatic and political changes that are most definitely afoot and that average bottle price is and will continue to keep climbing.

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Once upon a time, I was having lunch in the seaside town of Palamós on the Costa Brava—an activity I don't recommend for people who hate good food and a beautiful, wild Mediterranean coast.

It was a set lunch menu with local products and it included wine; a white wine as this is fish and seafood land (look up the gamba vermella de Palamós). However, when the bottle arrived, I was exceedingly dismayed to see that it was a Verdejo from DO Rueda…

I’ve nothing against Verdejo nor Rueda, but if one is in a wine-producing region that has plenty of whites (as is the case for Palamós being in DO Empordà) then there’s no reason to drag a light, young white wine across the entirety of Spain.

I took issue with it and the owner readily took issue with me as I could see he just wanted a cheap white wine given that the retail price for this Rueda wine was only 4€.

After grumbling about, he came back with another bottle of white. It wasn’t from Empordà nor even DO Penedès where 80% of the production is white, but, from DO Terra Alta. The retail price for that wine? 4.50€. I hope I didn’t destroy the restaurant in my bold request to drink local…

This was an interesting event however as I would have assumed the owner would have turned to Penedès or DO Catalunya, the latter a ‘DO’ that shouldn't exist as it allows massive cross-regional blending. The selection of Terra Alta was intriguing as it shows that the winemakers of this region are able to have reach these days given that Costa Brava is three hours northeast, at the opposite end of Catalunya from Terra Alta. But the issue of price is tricky as while it allows them to apparently compete with a dirt cheap wine from Rueda, is this the kind of Cava-ing they want to be doing?

It’s timely to mention this as I’ve just released the yearly DO Terra Alta report on the site. It and the nearly 100 wines tasted are fully accessible for subscribers right now.

The wines of this mostly-white and mostly-Garnatxa Blanca region continue to show very well. Additionally, the prices, as shown by this restaurant adventure, remain quite affordable as well. And, more to the point, despite recent hot vintages, the wines are showing much better than many regions in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

In an unrelated recent trip to the Costa Brava region, I had the pleasure to attend the always-brilliant ‘Festival’ from the winery of Perelada which really rounds out the excellent Perelada Experience (*) as this, is an actual exeperience.

And of course, things just keep rolling for the top-tiered sparkling wine group of Corpinnat as they added their 16th member (*). This latest addition is the well-established cellar of Kripta, who were previously with Cava before realizing that that ship has a mighty and rather unseable hole to it.

But now it’s time to check out this “beach” thing that so many people talk about. Anyone up for an island rosé?

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Terra Alta 2025

Coming from the “heights” of Catalunya, these are some of the most exciting wines in the region and, shockingly, are majority white!

And now this

The wines from Luca Leggero in the northern reaches of the Piemonte in Italy are as dynamic and interesting as the young winemaker himself.

If you think you know Rioja and you haven’t tasted the wines of Sierra de Toloño, then my friends, you have not tasted Rioja.

Let’s have a look at something a bit different and see two sides to the Wagram region in Austria.

And of course it’s time to take another look at the latest offering of wines from Hispano Suizas in València.

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It shouldn’t be any surprise that Spain is more than a touch exposed to the downward sales trends in wine given statistics show red wine consumption has been hit the hardest. To get a sense of the issue, for every one hectare of a white grape like Macabeu that’s planted, there exist five hectares of the red grape, Tempranillo. And, at 5% of the total, Macabeu is the most planted white with all the other largest plantings of grapes for wine in Spain being reds.

Of course, this isn’t just a Spanish problem as no segment anywhere in wine is immune. Even the historically-bulletproof Champagne has seen the 2025 vintage set with the lowest harvest yields since 2020 when there were no parties to pop corks. Suffice to say, if the bubblemakers are worried in what is now a ‘normal’ year, there’s reason for Spain to be very worried in general.

This is why it’s an important moment to look at the latest Priorat Report as despite massive growth in white wines, it’s still a region of 90% reds. This new report is available now for subscribers at the Classic & Pro levels. In there I look at the continued rise of the single zone/vineyard classifications which are now in their 8th year and continuing to develop. It’s an exciting segment of the wines which is seeing producers push themselves to make finer and finer wines that do indeed “express the terroir” to use an overused phrase.

I also talk about how 2025 is potentially an exciting vintage as well given that after four years of drought, rainfall has been very good. The vines as well as the region overall are looking very healthy. What’s not healthy is again, market outlook and after publishing the report, I got word that several of the larger producers have “pulled a Cava” in that in addition to cancelling grape contracts (just a month before harvest starts) the price being offered for the grapes still desired is about 15% less than the previous year.

It was bound to happen as Priorat is not an easy region to make wines in. This is afterall why the wines are so expensive. (*) But, it seemed that the generally-small production totals and a very specific demand for the wines had, to date, seen producers navigate these unsteady waters upon which we currently sail. Unfortunately the whac-a-mole economics of a certain, very large wine-consuming country are just too much uncertainty for some producers to want to risk exposure and they’re premptively pulling back on 2025 production.

The month of August is probably the longest month for anyone in Europe producing wines, so we’ll see where things come out on the other side. For now, enjoy reading up on the very fine wines being produced and I hope you also find yourself in some form of a fine summer.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

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Priorat & Montsant 2025

Never dull, always exciting and always redefining. The Priorat wine region is one of those that’s an absolute joy to taste each year.

And now this

Why eat in Logroño? Because you’ll lose part of your soul if you don’t as shown by this latest entry in the Food Through Wine series.

The wines of Viña Vilano in Ribera del Duero are always worth a new look and this time around they’ve included some of their side projects.

Heading to the island of Madeira? Then this is a book (*) that you will most definitely need!

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To take things into context, Spain’s Rioja wine region is bigger than about ten countries in Europe. So, if it were an independent country, then what would be its equivalent of ‘Vin de France’? Well, that would be its ‘Genérico’ wine classification of course as what you find in Genérico is broad in offer and thus it’s the main focus of the lastest Rioja Tasting Report.

Full, immediate access is available for Classic and Pro subscribers.

In some ways, the name Genérico feels like a very unsubtle dig at producers who have decided to eschew the traditional aging labels of, ‘Crianza’, ‘Reserva’, and ‘Gran Reserva’. It’s as if to say, “Ah, so you don’t want to join in this fine barrel party? Okay, then you’re ‘generic’!”

Make no mistake, there are many excellent wines in the traditional categories, but by no means are these the only wines to search out in Rioja. I say that as at this point these categories feel more like an afterthought than having the meaning they once did when ripening was an issue some… 200 years ago? In fact, with a previous report where I focussed on the ‘Reserva’ category, a winery admitted to me that they just use the name solely as a sales reference for consumers. I have to assume it’s the same for others who are less outspoken about it.

There is a flip side to this however as another winery in this current report showed me that for their domestically labelled wines, they don’t use ‘Reserva’ at all despite meeting the requirements. But then for exports, they do slap it on the label. The domestic choice makes sense as there are admittedly a lot of ‘Reserva’ wines on the shelves in Spain (and not just Iberian ones) so I can’t blame them.

And this is why Genérico has become so interesting as it’s where people try everything from zero oak to concrete to even aging for five years in very new oak but without bothering with Gran Reserva. It’s these producers that are forging a very different path from the grand universe that has to date defined Rioja.

These ‘rogue’ celestial bodies most definitely have their own inertia however and as such you’re seeing more and more of the larger Rioja producers making a line that also steps just to the side of tradition. Concrete aging is the rage as well as monovarietal, non-Tempranillo wines, and of course the Viñedos Singulares and Vinos de Pueblo which are also talked about in the new report.

I can’t help but note a bit of the ‘Kvevri Effect’ in this where when researching my Georgian wine book, I saw that very big producers in the country had started making a few kvevri wines as a ‘small’ line of wines on the side that could be 10,000 bottles. They did this given the inertia that was being gained by those making wines in the traditional vessels which was unstoppable at the time.

I will admit that despite being six hours ahead of Washington, I have no idea what the news of tomorrow will be and likewise I fully admit that I have no idea where these changes in Rioja are headed, but they are fantastic and exciting. I do give my sympathies to the vast majority of winedrinkers who make use the traditional aging categories as a way to pick out a bottle from the literal thousands of references that are released from Rioja each year. Such a system just isn’t there with these newer producers who I suppose all wine writers should be giving thanks to as we’ve perhaps a few more years of usefullness for sorting through it all.

The change in Spain doesn’t stay mainly on the plain however and looking to another larger wine region, it’s worth delving into Penedès and their peaches. (*) Yes, peaches. Okay, sure a bit of wine as well, especially as the soon-to-arrive harvest will be their first that’s 100% organic (*) which is pretty amazing as they’re the first DO in Spain to put this into place.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

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The Featured Report

Rioja 2025

It’s the biggest and mightiest region in Spanish wine, but it’s amazing how much Rioja is changing and just how gorgeous it is to visit.

And now this

There’s another important report that’s just out, which is that of Great Greek Wines. It was worth having a chat (*) with the founder Yiannis Karakasis about everthing they do.

It’s always good to have a new look at the vintages from Bodegas la Horra in Ribera del Duero.

When’s a good time for a bottle of Assyrtiko from Santorini? That’s a trick question as it’s always a good time for a bottle of Assyrtiko from Santorini!

And lastly, a unique project in the very, very north of the DO Alicante region called Les Freses which is working exclusively with native varieties.

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It was Max Weinreich who said, “a country is a dialect with an army and navy”—except of course when it isn’t. Given that this is attributed to him at the end of WWII, he would have been very aware that the boundaries which make up modern Europe are in fact, ridiculous.

There are plenty of prominent examples across the continent which show this, such “Russia’s” Kaliningrad exclave plunked down between Lithuania and Poland. That’s a big one, but more subtle is the frontier between France and Spain. After all, Basque Country and Catalunya are mostly in Spain, but still having meaningful pieces across the border in France. Why? Because these are where borders were drawn centuries ago and we’re stickin’ to ‘em.

Thus you end up with a piece of France that I’ve long-been fascinated with which is Roussillon or in Catalan, “Catalunya Nord”. While the Treaty of the Pyrénées put it in France in the mid-17th century, when you cross the border from Spain, you still feel like you’re in Catalunya. The buildings generally look at the same. The cuisine is the same, albeit the croissants are a vast improvement. And of course, despite all the time that’s passed, there are still a good number of people that speak Catalan distinctly tinged with French.

One remarkable difference is in the wines however. When compared to south of the border, there is much more production on the French side. Their history of winemaking has remained uninterrupted during the 20th century which the famed (albeit now unfashionable) dessert wines of Maury and Banyuls show perfectly.

To date, the branding has all centered around the wines coming from the Roussillon region (called Pyrénées-Orientales officially) of which I’m happy to announce the release of the latest report for the top producers from the region.

But, in this France without France region, things have been a bit in flux and Roussillon is no long one singular entity as the Collioure & Banyuls producers having broken off (*) from the main, CIVR entity to go their own way in terms of promotion.

The upside to this is that it’s allowed me to release a new, separate report that focuses solely on Collioure & Banyuls which have always been very different from the larger Roussillon wines anyways.

They’re a much smaller group of only 50 or so wineries which pales in comparison to the 350 in the rest of Roussillon. They’re very aware of this however and have a lot of ambitious items in the works to gain attention. Most importantly though is that it’s simply a gorgeous location that I look forward to visiting again in the future.

Both of these reports and rated wines are available immediately for subcribers at the Classic & Pro levels on Hudin.com with Casual subscribers having access to the written reports.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

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The Featured Reports

Collioure-Banyuls 2025

This tiny little sliver of the “vermilion” coast has been producing some great wines for years now which means it’s very much time to take a deeper look.

Roussillon 2025

The original region for the deepest south of Southern France. Here we take a look at a select group of some of the finest producers.

And now this

There really is no winery that better shows the excellence possible in Lebanon like Château Musar. Their current releases are, as ever, delicious.

So, Franciacorta is Italy’s best sparkling wine region? Hmm, maybe, definitely food for thought on that one.

Heading out to the Balearic Islands this year? You might very well need this recent book that profiles the wines of Mallorca. (*)

And here’s a surprising discovery in the Southern Rhône that’s worth having a look at!

Lastly, as an added bonus for this newsletter, have a read of a different, more deep dive technical take on the wines of Madeira for Guildsomm. (*)

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Recently, I’ve been re-reading Slavenka Drakulić’s excellent non-fiction book, “Café Europa”.

Drakulić, a Croatian who grew up within the confines of Communist Yugoslavia, wrote this book in 1995 and offered up an exceptionally deep and insightful look at not just former Yugoslavia, but all of the former Communist countries in Europe. Her text hones in on this post-Communist period when these countries dismantled the political and economic systems which had been in place for most of the 20th century. While it may seem dated 30 years after publication, so much of what happened still has a tremendous effect on the modern day.

The transition was, to use the technically term, “wobbly”. Some countries such as Slovenia have a GDP per capita now nearly on par with Italy. Others, such as Romania or Georgia are constantly on the brink of sliding into a very deep, undemocratic hole with a not insignificant percentage of the population living in poverty.

But when it comes to Croatia, the stumbling from command economy to that of free market was seen exceedingly clearly via their wines. Various Communist Era cooperatives initially boomed post-Yugoslavia to only then collapse as various private operators rose to produce considerably better wines, despite being at higher prices.

I first read Café Europa 20 years ago which also happened to be the same time I took an interest in Croatian wines and I’ve watched them evolve tremendously over the last two decades. That’s why it’s been very interesting to compile this, the Croatia 2025 Report as it shows what seems to be a country that has finally reached a level of stability.

A great many of the current winemakers have come of age not at the end of Yugoslavia nor the beginning of an independent Croatia, but seeing most of their lives connected to, or fully within the European Union. There are always detractors who build up their straw house podcasts via bad mouthing the bureaucracy of Brussels, but the difference between pre and post-joining the EU wines in Croatia is like night and day, and we’re most definitely seeing the fruits of this effort now in 2025.

As always, this report (as well as that of Bizkaiko Txakolina and the other 160+) is available for subscribers. Those at the Casual level have access to the main report, while Classic and Pro levels have access to the scores and tasting notes as well.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

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The Featured Reports

Croatia 2025

A country with very distinct regions within it and always, constantly evolving. So much so that this report shows some of the biggest changes to date.

Bizkaiko Txakolina 2025

If you think txakolina is just a fun, zesty, low-alcohol, often-fizzy wine, think again. These are some serious wines from Spain’s Atlantic Coast.

And now this

We all know that Twitter/X sucks, but it’s finally officially that when it comes for wine, it’s the suckiest! (*)

Unfortunately, there seems to be at least one region in Spain hit hard by hail each year. So far, that’s been Jumilla (*) who saw massive losses from a storm that blew through recently.

And as a manner to understand the wines of the Mediterranean, Perelada presented a selection of ‘five levels’ to deepen the understanding of those who attended the first Mediterranean Wine Symposium.

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Having lived north and south of Barcelona (as well as ‘in’), I’m always intrigued by the fact that no matter which direction you’re heading, when going to Barcelona, you’re always going ‘down’ when speaking to locals. I’m on a one-man mission to change this as well as introduce the much-needed idiotic/idiotico to Catalan and Castilian as only having idiota to use, pales in the face of stupidity which is now upon us.

My efforts to date on all linguistic fronts have unfortunately been futile and thus everyone still goes ‘down’ to Barcelona. That is, they did until Monday, the 28th of April where no one was going anywhere in all of Spain and Portugal due to the massive power cut or apagón in Spanish. If not trapped in a Metro or elevator, people dealt with the blackout reasonably well as it was thankfully less than 24 hours. We’re still waiting to hear what the hell happened given that current explanations seem largely based on it being a “disturbance in the Force”.

If you want to read a ‘mostly true’ take on how the day well, please have a read of ‘The Iberian Cut’. (*)

Of course what helped a great deal, as it often does, was the weather. That was a glorious spring day in April so we were neither too hot nor too cold and whiled away the day like 50 million Goldilocks, sans mobile coverage. The majority of people simply took an unexpected day off, having beers with friends by mobile phone flashlight.

Like everyone, I was a bit shocked initially, as those running things love to say, that Spain has “one of the safest and most advanced” electrical systems in the world. Looking back, the warning signs had been there in the days leading up as when there’s instability in the grid, my solar array cuts out for safety reasons. As I pointed out on Bluesky, I had enough electricity that day for myself and 2-3 neighbors, but couldn’t use it. Instead, while there was daylight, I caught up on some books I still need to review. Ultimately, the outage delayed but thankfully didn’t derail publication of the four reports from my annual trip to the Southern Rhône this year.

Now available as the reports for: Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2025, Gigondas 2025, Cairanne 2025, and Southern Rhône 2025. This is my largest coverage to date, totalling nearly 500 wines tasted and rated during a very busy week. It was so busy in fact that next year I’m definitely going to lengthen my time spent in the Provence region in order to adequately cover it. I readily admit that this is probably one of the most wonderful ‘obligations’ anyone can have.

The overall reports are available to all subscribers, but to access to scores and tasting notes, one will need the Classic or Pro levels.

Hopefully the power continues to be on wherever you are in the world and the spring (or fall for my Southern Hemisphere readers) is being tremendous to you.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2025

The original French appellation (no, really!) that’s still producing incredible wines during changing times.

Gigondas 2025

Don’t call it CdP Junior under any circumstances as they’re now making their own style of wines these days and doing it very well.

Cairanne 2025

A softer side of the Southern Rhône, there’s a great deal to enjoy in these delicate wines which were elevated to ‘cru’ status only nine years ago.

Southern Rhône 2025

A grab bag of rather interesting bits and pieces that don’t fit into the larger appellations, but are still very interesting for a myriad of reasons.

And now this

When on an island and you want a cocktail, sometimes you just end up enjoy a mainland Portuguese sparkling wine, right?

And of course if you missed the debate, there’s always time to catch up on how a wine writer might not need credentials, but most definitely needs a wine education. (*)

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This article is also available on Hudin.com.

My good friend and well-respected drinks writer, recently wrote an engaging post titled, “Do wine writers need qualifications?”

It rightly gained a great deal of attention given that both the “writing” and “education” aspects of wine are hotly-discussed amongst winedrinkers.

I’m always quick to read anything Henry writes, but right from the start, this piece caught my eye with the tagline:

After 15 years as a wine autodidact, I am wondering whether it would help to study for some professional qualifications.

What’s interesting is that he and I share a great deal in common as we’re the exact same age (“youthful” GenXers), hold degrees in English Literature, and have been writing professionally about drinks for nearly the same amount of time. Despite this, we each came at the profession in rather different manners.

Henry, being English (thus, European), arrived to writing about drinks and specifically wine via a more self-taught manner. Myself as an American, I actually followed some prescriptive courses and sat exams (some passed, some not) to arrive at my current state of wine knowledge.

This is important to note as the most well-known wine certifications—Wine & Spirits Education Trust, the Court of Master Sommeliers, and the Institute of Masters of Wine—are British institutions. It’s unsurprising given that Europe-wide there is a strong emphasis on earning an excessive amount of degrees and certifications in order to appear qualified to do things. In Spain, where I’m based, this even has a name, “diplomitis”.

In what is a sharp contrast to Europe and, despite having a wealth of universities, Americans usually learn through trial and error paired with the accumulation of collateral damage. There is no better example of this recently than, “Tariffs!” “Um, that’s a horrible idea.” “No way, let’s do it!” “Fine, what’s the worst that could happen.” […] “Oh.”

But to answer Henry’s initial question via my decade and a half in this zany landscape, while the “writing” part is the absolute most crucial element to wine writing, the qualifications aren’t the means to an end, usually.

Separated by a common language

Again, much like Henry, I started with a personal blog but also a bit of writing for a Central & Eastern European wine importer. I could already see back then that I was having to come up for air quite often in terms of wine knowledge and thought about better informing myself.

The reason being that there were a lot of us at that moment, writing about wine in this casual manner, which has to some extent been replicated on Substack as of late. But I could see that there were limits to what was possible in this approach which is why, back in 2011, I pitched a story to the editor of a now-defunct publication in San Francisco on becoming a sommelier.

While Bianca Bosker would ultimately write a book on this exact subject in 2017, I never managed to get my article off the ground as I discovered several issues: it would require far more time than what I had to write an article (I was preparing to move from California to Spain), it was going to cost a tremendous amount more than what the article would pay, and lastly, I didn’t understand the difference between the CMS & WSET. The Court of Master Sommeliers was something I didn’t know about (this was a pre-“Somm” world) and as I was looking into WSET courses, this would not have afforded me the frothy title of “sommelier” in the end.

The whole idea was shelved and I reverted to the “learning through the accumulation of collateral damage” method that we Americans do with such great abundance.

Once I was firmly installed in Europe, I was seeing this lack of foundational knowledge in my own writing and especially in that of others who had self-taught their way through wine knowledge. Those who have a family background in wine drinking and/or are inherently good writers can scoot around this lack of knowledge, but it’s still there and it’s going to create gaps and holes where there shouldn’t be in your writing.

It’s for these reasons and more that I decided to revisit the topic and, for reasons that did actually make sense at the time, I chose the Court of Master Sommeliers.

The melding

Now, why would someone who’s a writer go down the service path of sommelier when in fact WSET would make more sense?

My initial investigation into WSET courses in San Francisco had left a bad taste in my mouth. After I’d contacted the schools, they kept “following up” to get me into the classes. It felt a lot like a beach restaurant with a guy who keeps pushing you into the restaurant if you stop to glance at the menu. If the place is good, I don’t need to be cajoled. If you cajole me, I have doubts as to the quality level and I run away.

So, as this was about a decade ago, the CMS reasons were: much cheaper, independent study, and most importantly, “sommelier”.

Spain runs about 5-10 years behind the US in terms of what’s trendy (natural wine has just reached its all-time high) and thus, being able to call yourself a sommelier meant something in a way that WSET simply did not at the time. Most Spaniards can’t even say that acronym correctly, pronouncing it, “vizzet”.

But is this to say that credentials do in fact matter for wine writing? If you need to be called “sommelier” wouldn’t that infer there’s a need to earn this title? For a brief moment in Spain, yes. But everyone, from salespeople at wineries to PR people to social media influencers to enologists to yes, wine writers were dropping “sommelier” into their bios until it had no more meaning. It didn’t actually matter where the qualification was from as long as it was “sommelier”, but this has receded again.

I did both Level 1 & Level 2 of the CMS exams and then attempted Level 3, the Advanced. The problem with the CMS Advanced is that it goes into Bonkers Land. For example, amongst many questions I failed, there was one specifically about Limoux in Languedoc, France as it asked, “What is the main red grape variety for Limoux was and what percentage?” I wrote, Merlot and 50%, which was wrong, it’s Merlot and 45-70%.

Nobody needs to really know these kinds of things as they’re insanely easy to look up in seconds.

But something interesting happened when studying for the Advanced exam as there was one day when suddenly, everything just clicked. I call this, “The Melding” as via dogpiling and processing information in my melon for years, it all finally came together and I understood how to connect all the related points of the wine world together with little effort. It seems simplistic to explain it this way, but once you arrive to it, everything is much easier.

For some people this might happen a lot earlier and for others, a lot later, but the fact is, unless you force yourself to study and gain an actual education of wine, you simply can’t reach this level. Will it make you a great wine writer? That’s definitely not guaranteed in the slightest as there are people with the absolute top qualifications in the industry who can’t write at all. But, this melding allows a plugging of the holes and an ability to be more fluid in what is an exceedingly vast topic.

Ditch the creds

There were other reasons I didn’t pursue any higher credentials. I attempted the Advanced in February of 2020. With the arrival of the pandemic, I lost a great deal of motivation to try it again, especially once I had stumbled into The Melding without realizing that that was what I was after the whole time.

Then of course there were The Somm Seven that were part of the CMS-Americas sex scandal which put myself (and I assume a great many others) off the organization. “Sommelier” doesn’t have the sheen that it once did given the succession of ethical failures the CMS-Americas has accomplished in such a short time.

I’m not alone in throwing in the towel on higher credentials as I know a lot of people have done various phases of wine education and stopped for various reasons. My good friend Kelli White is one of the best examples as she did all the parts of the WSET Diploma, but didn’t finish it and then went on to start the Master of Wine program, but didn’t finish it either due to the pandemic disrupting all the exams. This hasn’t hurt her in the least as she’s been very successful and I don’t think there’s a soul alive that would say, “Oh yeah, what does she know?” as she’s the Director of Education at the Meadowood Center in Napa Valley. Also, check out her latest book.

Henry mentioned only doing the WSET I which he put wonderfully as, “being shown a map of France and pointing out where Burgundy was”. British wine writer, also didn’t finish his WSET. And, if memory serves, was much like Kelli in doing all the parts of the WSET Diploma but not finishing it. I’m sure there are countless others I don’t know about as for a long time it was the consensus that if you didn’t accomplish these levels of study you were somehow lesser for it, which isn’t the case at all. There’s a personal level that’s different for everyone, but needs to be reached in order to have fluency in the language of wine and ultimately, your words as a wine writer become your credentials.

There’s there other issue at stake in that, a wine writer may also need to check out at some point as you run the risk of being yet another person writing: “this is a white wine with a clear rim, no evidence of gas, silver sheen, aromatic notes of lemon, green apple…”

Via a recent chat with Kelli, she brought up a salient point which is, “The concept of so many wine education systems is that there’s a singular manner in which to understand wines which simply isn’t true.”

And this would be one of the big failings in the current education systems is their rigidity. After all, why in the hell are still taking visual aspect into consideration? That’s at least two if not three decades out of date. It’s for this and many other reasons that, once reaching a certain level of education, checking out of some credential trajectory might be the best thing any wine writer ever does.

Breaking out of the box

One of the more interesting aspects that people brought up in the comments of Henry’s article was that you learn to taste and think about wine in a manner needed to pass an exam that the studies are designed to pass. Creativity is not rewarded.

It was that mentioned,

“You do become regimented because you need to pass a tasting exam. Some people retain that way of tasting and talking about wine. Many find their own voice. More disturbing, for me, is the flood of WSET-trained conclusions that align with institutional expectations and assumptions about traditionally lauded regions/producers.”

And ,

“Does getting a wine qualification actually alter how you evaluate wine?”

I would counter that the dogma of wine education is like studying acting, dancing, or really, any art. There’s a base manner and form you need to master, but you’ll eventually need to break free from this and create your own approach. But again, this isn’t an excuse to skip some kind of wine education altogether as, like with foreign languages, I’ve met plenty of people who have gone the American, “accumulation of collateral damage” method and simply can’t function as the core of the language just isn’t there.

A couple of books, a couple of bucks

So if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s quite clear from countless examples that a wine writer definitely doesn’t need a jumble of letters after their social media bio in order to write. It might get stupid people to stop questioning one’s ability every do often. But, once I was having a glass of wine in London with a female MW once and the sommelier still handed me, the man, the menu despite her company distributing wines to the restaurant.

Ultimately, it was a great point by ,

“No one cares but those that have them. People outside of wine have zero idea what WSET is, they don’t even understand someone works in wine but isn’t a sommelier.”

There isn’t any alternative to the time needed to invest in some form of wine education but you don’t need to spend thousands and thousands to arrive to a stable bed of knowledge.

If you’re someone who’s a self-starter and doesn’t need the loaded barrel of an exam pointed at your head to study, here’s what you do: buy a copy of World Atlas of Wine and read it from cover to cover, studying the maps. Then, if you want to know how to taste wine, pick up The Concise Guide to Wine & Blind Tasting and read it cover to cover, buying some of the wines to taste and understand. If you want extra points, get the Oxford Companion to Wine as well as Beyond Flavour, but both of these are quite advanced and not really all that necessary to build your wine education foundation.

And that’s it. If you can cover these texts in depth on your own, go to tasting events in your area, and ideally visit some of the famous wine regions at some point, you too can achieve this “melding” effect.

If however you need the classes and more defined study parameters, you can read more about the WSET, CMS, etc. to see which is right for you.

Now you must excuse me while I go and change all my social media bios to, “With Merit”. Make of that what you will.