Apr 18, 2008
To start off our Friday links, I’d like to make a formal apology to a tiny bodega making incredible wine in Rioja. Although we had mentioned Bodegas Arranz-Argote in our Rioja report, we failed to put them in our buying guide as a “must find” wine. For that, we are very sorry, because there is nothing we’d like more than for you to try their one and only wine, ARAR, and see for yourself how a small family run bodega can make some killer wine. Check out Excel Wines for more information on how to get a hold of their wine outside of Spain.
Now, on to the news:
Kosher Spanish Wine Jessica Yadegaran published an article in the Contra Costa Times, a San Fransisco based newspaper, regarding the increase in both quality and quantity of Kosher wines throughout the winemaking world, quoting a 20% annual growth over the past two years. Interesting, I thought, but what does Kosher actually mean? According to Jessica, Kosher law requires that, “the processing must be handled by Sabbath-observant Jews. Kosher law also calls for harvesting from vines more than 4 years old, leaving the vineyards fallow every seven years, and growing no fruits, vegetables or grains between the vines.” Having seen only a handful of kosher wines here in Spain, I was intrigued by this article because the author highlights Spain as one of the upcoming wine regions for producing great kosher wines that pair well with traditional Jewish foods such as grilled beef, cumin-and-dried-mint lamb burgers and brisket. Check out her article for more information on specific Iberian kosher wines.
Calling all Port lovers! For the Love of Port has recently launched its new and improved website, which includes: producer profiles, a blog, featured articles, …
Mar 25, 2008
A little over a month ago, we attended the II International Climate Change and Wine Conference here in Barcelona, Spain. Having been our first conference with a professional camera man in tow, our goal was to: interview as many speakers as possible to give us a good breadth of knowledge as to what the issues are that are impacting our vineyards, give wine consumers a better understanding as to how wine culture may change, and finally, learn how we as wine lovers may support sustainable agriculture. However, despite our best efforts, when a question was posed to us in an article on the immediate impacts of climate change, we quickly realized that we failed to interview one of the key researchers on how climate change is currently impacting grape vines, Dr. Gregory Jones. Hence, what we’ve provided below is a Q&A with Dr. Jones, along with a series of links where you can find more information on his research.
Tell us how your research intertwined wine and climate change? Did it start with climate change and slowly morph into the inclusion of vines, or were you always a die-hard wine fan who feared the loss of your favorite past time?
I started studying climate, viticulture and wine about the same time. While I consider myself a climatologist (formal training), I focused my work on understanding the role climate plays in grapevine plant growth, fruit composition, yield and quality issues. Originally, I was more interested in the basic structure and interaction, but climate variability and change issues were evident in many of my studies and rose to the top as an important issue to study.
Did you consciously hope that wine would raise the discourse of climate change, or was it merely …
Feb 20, 2008
Last summer, during our whirlwind tour of Portugal, we had the rather unique experience of touring a cork factory. With the all the debate raging about cork versus screwcap, we jumped on the opportunity to meet the Marketing and Communications Director of Amorim, the largest cork producer in the world to find out why TCA is an issue, what Amorim’s position was on the situation, and what steps they were taking to prevent it. What we never considered during our visit with Carlos de Jesus, was the cork oak’s positive effect in sustainable development, other than the company’s efforts to obtain 45% of their energy from renewable sources.
Now, almost a year later, we find out that Amorim sent Carlos de Jesus as a speaker at the conference on the role of cork in CO2-retention, preserving biodiversity and combating desertification. Who knew?! Alright, in all fairness, we did have a pretty good idea that the vast forests of cork oaks throughout Spain and Portugal were positively effecting the planet, but we didn’t know to what degree. Both in his speech and in his interview, Carlos brings to light some additional statistics on how cork can aid in the fight against climate change, providing us even more questions to ponder once the conference was over.
Although we haven’t chatted a significant amount on Catavino about cork’s role in sustainable development, we understand that you may have several questions about this issue. Therefore, please feel free to leave any questions you have below, and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Cheers,
Gabriella
Video content from the conference was produced by Richard Gillespie please contact us if you are interested in hiring Richard for your next project.
