I remember being in high school and seeing Carlin’s Jammin in New York at a friend’s, girlfriend’s house. He was making the analogy that the earth created humans so that it could have plastic; and it was in that moment when I realized that through laughter you can also make a strong statement, while making people think differently. George Carlin pushed the envelope, and I’ll always have him in the back of my head when I stumble across something that makes me wonder about human nature and its stupidity. His seven words you can’t say on television/radio are a testament to how silly and arbitrary we moderate our populaces.

So today, we’ll celebrate his existence through a day of silence. He was someone who was not afraid to say what he thinks or tell us how he feels. Gabriella and I were fortunate enough to see him live in Minneapolis in 2005, and while it was not his best show, he none the less made us stop and reconsider. I know there are some great lessons that wineries could learn from George, but right now, I can’t…don’t want to think about it. Rather I just want to say thank you George. We appreciate what you did for comedy and for the thinkers of the world. And beyond all else, we wish to say shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits; a small tribute to George and my one chance to type these words here at Catavino.

Enjoy this short favorite of ours and raise a glass of Cava to this comedy legend.

Gabriella and Ryan

UPDATE: Last Interview with George Carlin can be found here.

Officially, we are melting into the Catalunyan soil. Temperatures have risen up to 94 degrees F, which may not be that hot many of you suffering in 100+ degree temperatures, but after 2 months of rain and chilly temperatures, this seems like a sauna to us poor folk.

Yet, despite the toasty weather, its exciting to finally ring in the season with our first bottle of Manzanilla. La Bota De Manzanilla #8 “Las Cañas”, by Equipo Navaras, is from the oldest manzanilla in the house of M. Sánchez Ayala, situated in the Barrio de la Balsa in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. This much I know to be accurate, but if you look at the bottle, listing the number “8″ and “Las Cañas” on the left hand side of the bottle, with “La Bota de Manzanilla” on the right hand side of the bottle, it tends to get a little confusing as to what this all means. Let’s see if I can sort it out a bit to give a little clarity to their story.

First off, Equipo Navaros is comprised of a group of sherry lovers who happened by a dozen old, and especially tasty, butts of amontillado in Sanlucar that had been left to age flawlessly without being sold. Seeing an opportunity in the making, they bottled the equivalent of one “butt” and sold it under Edgar Allen Poe’s famous short story, “The Cask of Amontillado” (highly suggest reading this wonderfully creepy story!). After experiencing the success garnered from this small 600 bottle production among friends and family, they continued seeking more rare sherry treasures, which resulted in two additional selections in 2006. Clearly, their success extended outside the bounds of their immediate circle, …

You can’t do it all at once. Life is a series of small steps. And if you believe that any project that kicks off today will have success tomorrow, well, be prepared for disappointment. This is my mantra to every client we take on, “Start your blog today, work on it, and eventually, if you invest enough of yourself, people will reward you by paying attention.” Clearly, our friends at Adegga, a Portuguese startup, are firm believers in this philosophy.

Bootstrapping is when you start a business without venture capital, or a heavy investment, building instead, from good old elbow grease and a bit of self sacrifice. You look for help where you can find it, and you trade services with others who are in a similar position. Catavino is an exercise in bootstrapping, and we are proud to call ourselves friends with the Adegga team - united disciples of this philosophy. Over the past few months, Andre Ribeirinho, Andre Cid and Emídio Santos, have paved the way in exemplifying how a little vision and lot of persistence can eventually lead to success.

So what is Adegga? Well at its core, its a social tasting note site. In Adegga, you can leave notes on wines, manage your personal wine cellar, and participate in a community that is growing daily. Granted, we know there are plenty of social tasting note sites out there, and trying to keep track of them all is an exercise in futility. That said, this post will not attempt to answer the question on which one is best, but rather why Adegga is useful.

In truth, we at Catavino use three different tasting note sites for 3 separate reasons: Cellartracker, …

I love home cooked meals, especially when I’m in a foreign culture, enjoying their traditional cuisine. I love the anticipation as exotic aromas float in the air, the great conversations that lead up to the first bite and the fervent energy that zips throughout the room as glances are stolen into the kitchen wondering how much time is left before the oven timer goes “ding”.

On this particular night, our friend Beatriz cooked up a feast for six in her Lisbon apartment overlooking the Vasco de Gama bridge. Moses and Eddie from Algarve Buzz, myself and Ryan, Andre Ribeirinho from Adegga and his girlfriend, Beatriz, scheduled a “get to know you” dinner during our quick 2 day tour in Lisbon a few weeks ago; sadly however, we only got a few hours with the two man grew from the Algarve Buzz, as they needed to make their long journey back to Faro in the southern tip of Portugal. So although they couldn’t join us for the meal, we did make the most of our time by tasting three new wines, while aromas of mushroom risotto and red wine drunken pears wafted into the dining room. As I’m sure you can relate, on an empty stomach, there is nothing more dangerous than tasting wines in such delicious conditions

We tasted the 2004 Quinta de Paços Arinto Reserva, 2005 Casa de Paços Loureiro and Arinto and the 2006 Planalto Douro Reserva.

The Casa and Quinta de Paços most likely owes its name to an ancient court (or vilae), at a time when the parish of Rio Côvo (Santa Eulália) was a roman thermal resort. What exactly is …

Ideally, we try to limit our posts to the subject of Iberian wine. That said, our small consulting company has gained traction over the past year, giving us hope that it will continue to develop and excel well into the future. With growth, however, comes welcomed attention from both Spanish and Portuguese wineries alike. And with their keen focus upon us, we feel it is our duty to provide them with a bit of extra marketing knowledge that we’ve accumulated over the past three years of writing for Catavino. And to be honest, some of you Iberian wine nuts may find these blogging tips interesting and we hope that you as readers will feel the need/desire to add in a few of your own! So without further ado, please read on with booming voice and dramatic pauses!

I. Thou shall not use Flash. Flash is pretty. Flash is for games, movies and art projects. Flash is not for wine blogs, nor is it for wine sites. Flash takes a long time to load, contains no information for Google and is annoying to watch/look at when trying to read text. Plus if I have to wait more than 10secs for it load, I’m gone and off to your neighbors site!
II. Thou shall enable comments. A blog without comments is not a blog. Don’t be afraid of them they are positive tools, and even when you get a bad comment, which is rare, you’ll be able to troubleshoot and respond to it in an honest dialog; whereby, putting out any fire before it spreads.
III. Thou shall not talk about your &$#!!?! awards all day! Please tell me about your awards once in …