A 90-point wine for $7? You can find that kind of value in Spanish wines nowadays. That’s because, in recent decades, many growers and vintners have successfully adopted modern viticulture and wine making practices.

Robert Parker has fans and enemies, people who love his voice and people who fear it. Regardless of your emotional take on Robert, his voice is influential throughout the world of wine, and when he makes a statement like the one above, people listen, or at least we hope they listen. With his new career of columnist for Business Week, it was a pleasure to hear him relate some of his favorite Spanish wines that won’t break the bank.

Viñedos de España: new designation to go ahead over regional objections
is the title of an article at Tempranillo about the new quality wine designation that seems to have some winemakers a bit upset. They seem to think that DO status wines will lose stature if this new Spanish wine designation goes ahead.

Although this particular segment of news is not directly wine related, it is, however, a testament to Spain’s willingness to find solutions to old problems. The region of Extremadura, one of Spain’s poorest wine regions and coincidentally an up and coming wine region, has switched its computer infrastructure to Open-source alternatives. I applaud them on this move and from what I understand from the article, they saved approximately 18 million Euros in the end! Maybe a small portion of this money can help expand and renovate some of the new and exciting wineries in the region!

Now here is some good news for all you travelers out there. Evidently, Iberia Airlines has won a wine award!

Iberia airline awarded for best wine in Global Traveller magazine’s “Wines on the Wing” contest. ‘Viña Arnáiz Reserva 1999’, under Ribera del Duero appellation, was chosen by the panel in a contest that selects the best wines served by commercial airlines.

I personally have not had this wine, but I would guess it’s better than some of the screw top mini bottles I’ve consumed on my trans-Atlantic flights! Iberia claims that 150,000 bottles of red wine, 60,000 bottles of Cava and 52,000 bottles of white wine are consumed in Busines class on long-distance flights each year!

Last minute addition! The Wine Doctor recently posted an informative and interesting profile of Marques de Murrieta.

Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta was founded by Luciano Francisco Ramon de Murrieta, a man born in Peru, of all places, in 1822. His life in South America was short-lived, however, as in 1824 the battle of Ayacucho saw Peru secure its independence from the Spaniards, and the Murrieta family left for a new life in England.

So starts the article and it goes on to give a full history of the wines and Bodega. Great reading!

Hope you enjoy the links,

Ryan Opaz