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 …

The seasons are changing and so are many peoples wine choices. What do you notice you switch too as the temperature lowers, and the dinners become more robust? For many, sadly white wine gets sidelined due to the temperature, preferring to save those crisp whites for warm summer picnics.

About a month ago, we received three bottles of Ribeiro wines, all of which seemed very intriguing. Sadly cold weather, lots of work, and a killer sore throat pushed off our tasting. But last night, with our trip to India approaching in a few day’s time, we took the plunge and decided that in light of a week long adventure in spicy food, we should at least pop open some bottles that should potentially go incredibly well with this type of fair. Enter 3 wines from the producer: Coto de Gomariz

Taken from the P.R. Grisley site:
Located in the Ribeiro region in Galicia, Coto de Gomariz is made up of several vineyards covering a total of about fifty acres in the districts of Gomariz, Vieite, Esposende and Beade.

In 1979 the Figueiral estate was recovered and became the first of the properties to be included in the Coto de Gomariz vineyard terrain. This marked the first step towards restoration of the native Ribeiro varieties, including Albarino, Treixadura, Loureira and Godello varieties.

Coto de Gomariz wines are the result of a unique combination of an Atlantic climate, low levels of rainfall, long hours of sunshine and sharp contrasts between daytime and nighttime temperatures, as well as an unusual granitic soil.
While all three wines stood out as …

In August, during the 2008 European Wine Blogger’s Conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Perry - someone I can now call a good friend. Tom is an American expat who has worked and lived in Spain for over 30 years and is incredibly well- versed on the Spanish wine economy, not to mention an incredibly interesting guy who will capture your attention for hours on end.

Not surprisingly, Tom is also heavily involved with the Great Wine Capitals project. From their website:
The Global Network of Great Wine Capitals,which embraces Melbourne, Bordeaux, San Francisco - Napa Valley, Porto, Cape Town, Bilbao-Rioja, Florence and Mendoza, works to encourage international winery tourism, as well as economic, academic and cultural exchanges between these famous capitals of wine.
To tell you the truth, I don’t have much experience with the Great Wine Capitals, and have only run into it a few times. Bit from what I can tell, it is a project that helps the capitals themselves to embrace enotourism.

According to Tom, my sense of the project was accurate in that the project is geared towards supporting wine capitals to better assist travelers. Additionally, there is a new website currently being constructed that will offer various tools for wine travelers. After Tom participated in the EWBC, he is convinced that social media and blogging should also become a part of the strategy for future incarnations of the Great Wine Capitals website. We can only hope that he succeeds in convincing the group as a whole.

Today, Catavino offers you a short interview conducted by email with Tom. Please take …

How many articles have we written on the importance of wineries creating a strong Internet presence? Half a dozen, a dozen?

Global Economic Crisis and Spanish Wine, Portugal Pay Attention
Wake Up, Stupid Winery Marketing in Action
QR Code and Wine
Gary, Note to Self, Do Some Research! Portugal, Note to Self, Pay Attention to Gary!
Alimentaria, the Good and the Bad!

We have begged, pleaded, and gotten on both knees trying to convince the Iberian wine community to take notice, but it seemed as if our voices were merely bouncing off of brick walls, only reaching the chosen few who really were open to change.

So we tried another route, creating an Internet marketing company to provide wineries the support and tools they needed to launch themselves into the new Internet. It seemed to work, but our reach was rather limited. A dozen here, a hundred there, but nothing on the scale that we knew was necessary.

In turn, this led us to co-creating the annual European Wine Blogger Conference, in hopes of not only bringing together the vast array of wine bloggers around the world, but to also bridge a previously held gap between wineries and online journalists. The results were incredible, allowing all sides to find ways in which we could communicate and collaborate more effectively through the internet. (Note: more details on the 2009 conference coming very soon!)

Terra Alta, meaning high ground, is a Spanish wine region situated in the south-western tip of Catalonia, where low mountains and valleys extend south to the border with the Teruel province. This is a geographically diverse region, but with two very prominent features: the eastern end of the province, which is layered with craggy mountainous terrain highlighted with peaks of the Espina, Pàndols and Cavalls mountain ranges rising between 600 and 1200 meters. The western side shows its rich rolling valleys filled with olive, almond and hazelnut orchards intermixed among expansive vineyards.

Additionally worth noting is that the western end of Terra Alta is the precursor to the Ebre Depression. I trust you have no idea what the Ebre Depression is? No worries, nor did I before this article. The Ebre Depression is an orographic barrier which acts as a solid wall, forbidding the Mediterranean air to flow through. The benefit of this natural barricade for vines is that it creates extreme climate conditions in both the summer and winter; in addition to a lack of rain. Limestone and clay, low in organic matter, allow for good aeration and drainage.

Historically, the road from Zaragoza to Totosa meandered its way directly through this region during Roman Times allowing for settlements, which in turn, let to the first planting of vineyards. Later, in the medieval times, it is suspected that the Knights of Templar also grew vines in Terra Alta, but as result of the long distance between the vines and local markets and the sea, they were most replaced with olive trees. However, in the 19th century, this upcoming wine region had gained fame for its ‘amber blanc’ oxidised …