Gabriella and Ryan would like to welcome all of you who read the recently published article in the Star Tribune, our hometown paper from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bill Ward, the Star Tribune’s wine and food writer, was kind enough to meet with Ryan, while sending some additional questions to Gabriella, in order to profile our entertaining and unexpected journey.

Having just read the article, we feel that Bill did a great job overall, and despite some left out content and a few errors (such as the word el enchufe being misspelled as el enfouche), we’re ecstatic to have all of you join us from the Twin Cities. That said, we’d like to personally introduce ourselves and direct you to some of our favorite links, sites, and stories! Oh, and for those of you who only caught the article in the paper, continue on to Bill Ward’s blog to read some quotes from our lunch!

So welcome, one and all, and we hope that a few of you stick around and continue to follow us. If you know what RSS is, you can subscribe to Catavino here, and if you want to just sign up for our monthly newsletter (completely independent content) you can do so in the side bar to the right of this post.

About Catavino - General links to info about who we are

People - Who we are, and the various guest contributors we have pitch in from time to time.
The Story of Catavino (more or less) - A short recap of why and how we started blogging.
Ratings Policy - As Bill mentioned, we …

Seriously, we promise that this will be our LAST interview from the II International Conference on Climate and Wine. We realize that we may have exhausted your attention span with this, but we had to at least give you the opportunity to hear our recently edited video clip with Miguel Torres chatting about what Bodegas Torres is doing to be a more sustainable winery. We hope you enjoy the clip!

In January, for those of you who weren’t following our play by play of the II International Conference on Climate and Wine, Catavino spent three days cornering wine celebrities, in order to get a better sense as to how wine is being affected both now and in the future by the fluctuating climate conditions. Stubborn and wonderfully determined people such as Richard Smart, Bruno Prats, Miguel Torres, Pancho Campo, Carlos de Jesus of Amorim, Dr. Gregory Jones, and of course, Al Gore, all vented their fears and frustrations with the current lackadaisical attitude held throughout the wine world regarding the impact of climate on wine. Each passionate in their own right, but there was one in particular that I had been pining to interview for months.

Having been previously introduced to Oz Clarke through his books and articles, it wasn’t until I saw his charismatic nature in Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure that I was hooked. This BBC television program, first aired in 2006, and was undoubtedly one of my favorite wine programs, if only to see Oz flirt with yet another woman. His coy and passionate nature was fun and made learning about Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon entertaining, rather than intimidating. Therefore, to have the opportunity to not only see him in person, but to interview him, albeit a little daunting, was great fun. Add a camera and question that impassions him, and Oz will keep going for hours, interweaving personal stories and jokes with highly specific wine facts that will eventually leave your head spinning.

That said, we would like to thank Richard Gillespie for filming and producing our …

Last month, when we were in Portugal for Essencia do Vinho, we had the fortunate experience of meeting Paulo Amorim, Vice President of ViniPortugal. Well, to be perfectly frank, we didn’t just “meet” Paulo, we were required spend several days glued to his side, since he was one of the organizers of our press junket. For the whole of the fair, and many days on either end of it, Paulo literally breathed the event. Every moment was spent consumed with its creation, organization and completion. For many, an event of this magnitude would be self destructive, but for Paulo, it was ecstasy. Because Paulo is not only a person devoted to Portuguese wine, but also someone who appears to have it coursing through their veins. Founding member of the G7 a group of wineries who work together to promote their wines internationally and an active voice for ViniPortugal, Paulo is a jewel in the Portuguese wine world.

Taken from their site ViniPortugal’s mission statement:

Created in 1997, ViniPortugal is a trade association whose aim is to promote Portuguese wines, brandies and vinegars on the domestic and target international markets.

ViniPortugal provides strategic support to the Portuguese wine sector, bringing together organizations representing trade (ANCEVE and ACIBEV), production (FENAVI and FEVIPOR), cooperative wineries (FENADEGAS), distillers (AND), farmers (CAP), demarcated regions (ANDOVI) and government bodies (IVV).

Our promotional activity is financed by a variable sum made from payments by producers to the Institute of Vine and Wine (IVV) for certifying their wines, brandies and vinegar.

Below is a short video we conducted with Paulo during Essencia do Vinho. In it, I inquired into Portugal’s strengths and weaknesses in the world market and possible solutions towards raising awareness of Portuguse wines. Enjoy!!

A few months ago, Ryan received the first of many email correspondences from Excel Wines, asking for more information about Catavino. Who is Excel Wines, you ask?! Anna Axén from Sweden, Sandy Tay from Malaysia and Ane Miren Lambe from Ireland manage and run this Internet Spanish wine retail shop in the incredibly windy region of Bilbao, Spain. I’d say the windy and rainy northern region, but sadly, rain seems to be a distant memory of Spain’s past. Having spent several years lovingly devoted to the growth and development of their children, in 2006, both Anna and Sandy decided it was high time to get off their haunches and start on the road to their true passion: wine (smart women!). Having no experience in the wine trade, little understanding of the Internet and few connections (or enchufes) in Spain, they decided to take from the guidance of Sandy’s husband, a Spanish national, along with the trusted support and friendship of Miguel Merino to create Excel Wines in 2006. It wasn’t until many months later that Ane came on board with her intense and professional style to both support and bolster the team. Together, these three have created a perfectly interwoven team that is bound by the inescapable desire to both explore and educate Europeans about Spanish wine.

What makes this company different from your average online wine retail shop? As I see it, two very important factors: unique Spanish wines and exceptional customer service. Let’s start with the obvious, Spanish wines. As a result of their rather convenient location in the heart of Spain, Excel Wines has worked hard to compile a portfolio of wines that not only represent a vast diversity of Spanish wines including Cava, …