Allow me to start this post with my visit to the Bodegas Peñafiel stand at the Cata Vins Sabadell Wine Fair last weekend. Bodegas Peñafiel is located in the heart of Ribera del Duero, situated in the central north portion of Spain. The attendant for the stand, Emilia Marín Fornielles was a tall blond in her early forties with a wonderful, open smile and kind demeanor. José Manuel from Yvinos was a friend of Emilia and was kind enough to not only guide me through her wines, which all showed very well, but also begin a conversation with Emilia regarding our FREE PDF for wineries on Social Media. For her part, she listened attentively and professional curiosity, but was clear that she was a hands on type of person. Someone who prefers a sensory experience in life, versus a distant digital experience, but was very eager to learn more about this “blogging” and “social networking” concept.

I say this because upon visiting Bodegas Peñafiel’s website this morning, I was astounded to see that they had a “blog” button on their header. Unbelievably excited, and a little astonished that our friend Emilia didn’t bring this up in conversation, I clicked on the header button to find zero posts. Not one. It appears to have been originally created for the winemaker to share their thoughts, but sadly this incredibly cool function has never been played with. It sits idle, unused, lacking any information. Which only makes me think, what happened? Did your web designer sell you this feature that you weren’t really interested in? Did someone forget to teach the winemaker …

Last month, when my parents were in town visiting, I took them on one of my favorite local winery tours, the Manor House Museum Tour of José Maria da Fonseca. Easy to find on their website, this legendary Portuguese winery offers daily tours of the founder’s original estate and winery located in the town of Azeitão, just 40 minutes outside of Lisbon in the Terras de Sado wine region. For a small price, you can walk through the antique cellars that still hold their famous barrel-aged red, Periquita and their 100+ special reserve Moscatels de Setubal, while learning about their illustrious wine-making history. At the end, you offered a tasting of 2-3 wines, normally consisting of a white, red and Moscatel.

Being my second visit to the estate, and having already savored some of their whites and Moscatels before, I was looking forward to tasting a red. That paticular day, they had the 2004 Domini, their flagship Douro red produced under their Domingo Soares Franco label with the partnership of Christain Van Zeller of Quinta do Vale Dona Maria. This unfiltered wine aged three months in new oak is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinto Roriz (Tempranillo) and is a beautiful deep red-purple with the aroma of dark fruit, leather, earth and wild mushroom, which I love and have come to encounter in many Douro reds - reminding me of lovely right-bank Bordeaux reds. The palate is more of the dark fruit, plums and black currants with smooth but persistent tannins.

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Editor’s Note: As many of you know, we diverge from Iberian wine every now and again to give you new perspectives and experiences on wine from abroad. This week, our Chinese correspondent, Edward Ragg, of Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting gives his the first installment of his series on how he became a Chinese wine consultant in Beijing.

First off, a few qualifiers… I am not Chinese nor am I a consultant to Chinese wineries; although, for better or worse, I have tasted my way through multiple Chinese wines, if only a handful overall from a country that boasts several hundred wineries in Shandong province alone.

Sadly, I’m not a master of Chinese either; and currently grasp only enough of the language to get me into trouble or fool taxi drivers into thinking my linguistic skills extend beyond ‘Turn Left’, ‘Turn Right’ or ‘Please go to the end of the street’. These are the phrases most ex-pats here obviously have to learn; and, sadly, what most of us only have time to learn. After the usual practical banter, I typically fall at the first hurdle when it comes to intimate questions about my family, salary and what I’m paying on rent (apartment and office): questions just about every Beijing taxi driver will gladly ask.

So it’s with a sense of caution that I talk about anything ‘in China’ or indeed Chinese consumers’ responses to wine, relying as I do on my wife Fongyee’s far more competent language capabilities. Nevertheless, through team-work or otherwise, we have been hugely …

A bit of self promotion coming up. Ryan here, and come the last week in January, I will have the pleasure of speaking to a crowd of wine industry professionals about the Internets and wine, and more specifically, how to use the Interwebs to promote oneself to drum up some business. From the Wine Pleasures website:
1ST INTERNATIONAL WINE TOURISM CONFERENCE & WORKSHOP

Port Resort Sitges 24th - 27th January 2009

The first Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference & Workshop in Sitges next year promises to be very exciting. We plan to provide you with a Catalan flavour and a very memorable experience.
I’ll be focusing on some of the ABC’s of wine and technology. Here in Spain, we have Webblogs SL and a vibrant Beer and Blogs culture, but our wineries are woefully behind the times when it comes to harnessing the power of the Internet. Well, maybe not “behind the times”, so much as “before the times”. For most Spanish wineries, “web”sites are those annoying white lacy things found in your barrel room that either need to be removed, or in the case of Lopez de Heredia, support elements for the architecture. As my US “geek” readers will note, California wineries are waking up fast, and as witnessed by this last weekend’s Wine Blogger Conference, the industry knows they need wine bloggers to pay attention and I have seen a move to websites that function, rather than just flash.

Is there hope for Spain? I think so, but first let me rant a little bit more.

The other point I want to make is a bit more controversial. The best way for a Spanish winery to do something innovative and effective when it comes to optimizing their online presence …

Time to clear a few things up here at Catavino.net. This past week, we have received some emails that need to be addressed, and we think the only place to do it is here on our site. Lately, we’ve been receiving some odd emails. Evidently, there is a rumor circulating that Catavino is a winery/bodega. You see, this week I’ve received at least 5 emails from different countries, including the USA, asking to represent our wines in restaurants, export markets and country wide in the case of Canada. Being a couple of wine writers without a winery, nor with any connection to the wine making process, I’m not sure where this idea has come from. I have to say we’re quite flattered, though a bit befuddled. Is there something on our site that leads people to think we make wine? Do other wine bloggers find themselves being solicited in such a way? Inquiring minds want to know!

Trust us, we would love to make a wine. In fact, we tried to once, but with mixed results. We will try again, and if you are a winery who wants to help us in this project, we’re all ears. We’d love to put out a Catavino Garnacha Blanca, or Catavino Touriga Nacional, but sadly, they don’t exist. However, we’ll be sure to scream it from the rooftops if we and when we do create a Catavino wine.

What we do do is work with wineries to use the internet more effectively. Currently, we have 4 clients, and we are interested in helping a few more, but we are getting picky. If you are, or you know, a winery that understands …