If you weren’t already in the know, TAPAS are more than delicious little treats you savor with a glass of Iberian wine.  TAPAS is also the name of the Tempranillo, Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society, co-founded in 2006 by no one other than Jeff Stai, owner of Twisted Oak Winery, author of El Bloggo Torcido, and now acting Vice President of TAPAS.

How did we find out about TAPAS? A few years back, Ryan conducted a podcast interview with Jeff not only about Twisted Oak winery, but also about his, at the time, brand new venture. Being enormous fans of the preservation of native Iberian grapes, we love the idea of TAPAS, and even more so, the joining of like-minded folks who are passionate about working together as a team.

So imagine our excitement a few weeks ago when we received an invitation through the Open Wine Consortium for “the most extensive tasting of domestically produced Iberian varietal wines ever offered in America”. On August 8th and 9th, TAPAS is hosting a two day tasting at COPIA (American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts) in Napa Valley featuring wines made from Tempranillo, Albariño, Garnacha, Graciano, Mourvedre, the Tourigas, Verdejo and Bastardo; and produced not in Iberia, but in Arizona, California, Oregon, Texas and Washington. It is an incredible opportunity for anyone who is a Spanish or Portuguese wine lover, which I hope is all of you, to taste a wide range of Iberian grapes expressing a very unique terroir.

But rather than just give you the skinny directly from the invitation, I thought it might be fun to pin down the big guy himself to ask him a few questions about both his organization and the …

Editor’s Note:As many of you are well aware, Robert Mondavi died last week. Robert Mondavi was fundamental in helping to promote and define what California wine is today. Having read a dozens of wine tributes dedicated to his memory, Ryan and I equally wanted to share our thoughts too, but we didn’t feel as if we had anything new to add to the conversation. We never had the opportunity to meet him in person, nor did we have a memorable experience to share about his wine other than a few nice dinners. So we thought we’d pass the torch to a man who did know him both as a winemaker and as a friend. Fernando Melo is a well-known Portuguese wine journalist for both Blue Wine Magazine and a local weekly Portuguese magazine called Publica. Last week, while we were in Portugal, we met Fernando Melo for the first time in the Alentejo. In addition to Portuguese wine politics, and hearing about Fernando becoming a wine journalist, we shared our thoughts about Robert Mondavi’s passing. And after hearing his heartfelt story, we asked him if he would like to share it with all of you. We hope you enjoy the short piece he sent us, and we look forward to introducing you to Fernando in a future interview.

I interviewed Robert Mondavi when he turned 90, in Bordeaux, and we never lost contact ever since. He was sitting with his fantastic wife Margrit next to him, hand in hand, and it only took us 15 minutes – the actual time I was given by their PR for the whole interview – to switch places. Robert told the PR officer to cancel …