A new year & wines to see you through it
Year 13, No. 01
Greetings,
Hello and welcome to a new year (according to the calendar)!
For anyone living in Spain, this is the second half of what is known as the "blackout". It runs from a couple of days before the 25th of December until at least the 7th of January or, because Three Kings is on a Friday this year, the 9th.
How do we get anything done? Oh, please.
Thankfully there's a great deal of excellent food and wine that abounds during this period which is why I always make sure to publish the list of Best Catalan Wines (*) before it hits.
I don't know how it is with the annual "Best Of" lists for others, but I really enjoy curating this list each year. It allows the opportunity to put forth a selection of wines that permit discovery outside the rather narrow range that platforms such as Instagram have ironically boxed us into.
If however, you're feeling a bit run down, don't worry, this is normal. It's also why I put out the other annual list of La Cuesta de Enero (*) This is another 'fine' tradition in Spain of finding January to be one hell of an uphill climb. Thus, a selection of more wallet-friendly, yet still high-quality wines is much needed.
FEATURED ESSAY
One thing is for sure in that few, if any people are visiting wine regions during the winter, or even early spring, or the middle of summer, or later fall. In fact, the time for the bulk of visits is quite focused. So, how does a region break out of this given that they do have wine available year round? I take a look at various approaches (*) within the Priorat region while at the same time talking in general about what people can do to expand the horizons of enotourism.
IN THE NEWS
Out of the blue last month, two new "Vi de Finca" wines were announced in Catalunya. What are these? What do they mean? Have a read and all shall be revealed in terms of this local "Grand Cru" system within the region.
DRINKING WELL
We pick up on the Drinking Well series with this guest-authored piece about how to keep yourself surrounded by pleasant liquids when visiting the Central American country of Honduras. No, you won't learn about a surprising wine region you never knew about, but they do in fact have very, very fine coffee worth taking note of as well as the developing coffee tourism enterprise.
AND NOW THIS
Did you think that it was only Beaujolais that did a "nouveau" wine? Of course not as there was never only one nouveau. Christmas may have passed, but it's still cold and there's still cheese which means there's still reason to pull out a fine Vintage Port. And lastly, it's always worth having a look at those wineries in Rioja that are at once old as well as new; a tradition reinvented.
LE CUL DE CUVÉE
Bits from around the drink world served up “mostly fresh”
José Andrés has said that drinking red wine in the morning (*) is perfectly acceptable. If you're in Spain, the only people who would disagree are those with a beer for breakfast.
And of course, the big question, is wine getting more expensive? (*) Yup. So go hit the Cuesta de Enero wines while they're still affordable!
Enjoy the whole "Cul" (*)
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) articles are free to read