Oh, that strange-drinking season
Year 15, No. 04
Highlights: Corpinnat 2025
During my first years living in Barcelona, I came up with the ill-conceived idea that I should have a wine column in a local magazine as to establish myself in “The Scene”.
While bold thinking, my mistakes in this were threefold. First, it was in English so local PR people in Catalunya gave no rips about it and thus, few invites to events in The Scene. Second, it wasn’t a very popular publication in general, so there wasn’t really anyone giving any rips about it. Third, March & April…
Somehow I managed to write the thing for somewhere around two years. Despite this, the column continually shrank (wine writers shall nod knowingly here) and the space was largely taken over by ads for a local stripclub that definitely made the publication far more money than my three monthly wine picks for pleasureable, informed drinking.
When payments starting taking six months to arrive, I notified them that my tenure had come to an end and I assume the stripclub finally got all the page space it’d been dreaming of.
But about that, “March & April”.
I got to despise this process of dreaming up seasonal wine suggestions in general, but especially for March & April. At the time, I thought that there weren’t really any easy themes for these months in terms of wine (ie dessert wines for February or fresh somethin’ somethin’ for July). And, while they’re months that are still generally cool enough in temperature to see red wines be consumed without an issue, there’s all this “spring” thing happening which makes it feel as if you should have a wine with some zest to it.
Thus I’d often turn to light reds with a good deal of acidity such as Trepat or Trousseau (you know, varieties that everyone knows) or then whites with a bit of structure such as Garnatxa Blanca or Xarel·lo.
Thankfully this odd shoulder season only came around twice during my columnist stint as I’d more or less played my hand on it. Of course looking back on it now, I realize that March & April are actually brilliant times for wine drinking because they pair with everything.
That’s right, stop overthinking it and just run with whatever. This is why, despite the bulk of sparkling wine sales happening during the winter holidays, I’m going to be rebellious and am publishing the annual report for Corpinnat, now. Paid subscribers at the new, Casual level can read the report while Classic and Pro can get in on all the scores as well.
As has been the case for the last six years since these producers launched this initiative, I’ve been consistently wowed by the wines. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this given the fact that they’ve grown from five scant rebels willing to throw off the bottom-shelf mantle that adorns DO Cava, to there now being 14 wineries with more to come in the near future.
On the other end, DO Cava has done little to push back against this tide. The Corpinnat producers, while obviously needing to be profitable enterprises, are at the same time, wineries that care about craft. Cava, has simply devolved into a dividends sheet with 95% of the production controlled by three mega houses, two of which are owned by international consortiums.
The only thing I see changing in this situation is an evolution of the present which is: Corpinnat ascending and Cava, continuing to zombify.
So don’t be a zombie. Enjoy whatever wine you want during March & April, especially as it appears Mercury is in retrograde until the middle of next month, which sounds divine and just in time for American tax season…
Also, in case you missed it and are in need of a laugh, the Cul de Cuvée had its latest missive. (*)
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read