It’s crunch time here at the Spanish office of the European Wine Bloggers Conference. Every day a new issue, a new question, and the realization that we forgot to do something! That combined with a now ever expanding desire from non-delegates to join the already full ranks, is leading to us working long hours and wondering how we keep Catavino alive. All that said, we are having fun and learning a lot. The best part though is that this conference looks to be shaping up nicely and will lead to some new conversations that need starting. I’m sure the US based conference 2 months later will also lead to great new opportunities too, and we hope that both prove to be models for what wine bloggers can do to change the wine world.

So today, we want to point out a few things that we have been wanting to talk about but just haven’t found time to put fingers to keys yet!

Vinus TV Records the first EWBC for Posterity

For all of you who can’t make it to Rioja for the Conference, and for all you readers out there who are just curious as to what a bunch of wine bloggers might do if put in one room together, well don’t worry, VinusTV is here to help. During the entire conference, they will be recording and interviewing participants for you to see live. They have promised to try to even have the 3 roundtables on the web by the end of the day on the 30th. So though you won’t be there, you can participate. We’ll also have many people twittering away and I want to put up a live chat room on the …

Today, we have an announcement. This Thursday, if the planets align and Twitter stays live for more then 10 minutes,  we’ll be tasting wines with the prestigious wine importer, Eric Solomon of European Cellars and the new online wine retailer Binendswine.com. When I started in wine, 10 years ago, Eric’s wines were some of the first inspirations that brushed my young immature palate. Wines like Hecula from Yecla, motivated me to learn about unknown regions and wines. Hence, I was super excited when Craig Drollet of Bin Ends Wine invited Gabriella and I to help host a tasting with Eric on the micro blogging platform of Twitter. On the 17th of July, around 7pm eastern, you can sign into Twitter and taste with us, as we discuss the following wines:

Gabriella fondly remembers when she was a child, sitting in front of the TV listening to Cookie Monster teach the alphabet, and on this particular day, words that started with the letter “S”. This episode is firmly ingrained in her head, because unfortunately, she couldn’t pronounce the letter “s” as a child, handicapped with a severe lissssp. Therefore, words like snake became th-nake and summer became th-ummer. Clearly, this doesn’t bode well when you’re watching your brother happily sipping on his vanilla shake and all you can come out with “Mom, I want a thake too!”

Well, today, we’d like to thank Grape Juice for hosting Wine Blog Wednesday, by celebrating anything directly related to a bottle of wine that begins with the letter “S”. Considering that we are in Spain, we thought there would be no better opportunity than to feature our favorite “S” word, Sherry! Eric Asimov recently published an article on this much under appreciated style of Spanish wine, claiming that, “… certain wines require more of an effort to appreciate than most people are willing to give and therefore are consigned to a form of marginal status.” We wholeheartedly agree with him, and are hoping that today, we can motivate you to get off your keester and enjoy a delicious and thirst quenching glass of sherry.

Osborne’s Coquinero is a wine that we both immediately fell in love with. Incredibly delicate, with a honeyed nose, while the palate packs more of a punch. We seriously want to drink this on the beach in Cadiz with a plate of fried marine creatures! The salty air on the …

Awhile back, Catavino ran a feature we called the 2 + 1 Iberian Wine Survey. The idea behind the survey was not only to get wine bloggers feedback on Spanish and Portuguese wine, but also an opportunity for readers to gain a better perspective as to what’s available outside the big peninsula.

To be honest, we had originally intended to run these surveys while we were on vacation in France, but as it currently stands, it may be a little while before Catavino can actually unplug itself from all the action flowing through our headquarters. That said, we’re going to run some of these anyway and invite all of you who still want to participate to please send us your responses. We’re interested in your feedback!

First up is Joe “1WineDude” Roberts. The way our game works is that Joe answered two of our questions about Iberian wine, and in return, he asked one of us. Hopefully we did a decent job answering him

1) What were your preconceived ideas of Spanish wine when you first started blogging, and what do you think of Spanish wine now? If you haven’t had an opportunity to try many Spanish wines, are you interested in diving in and doing some more exploring?

I had a very high opinion of Spanish wines before I started blogging (which wasn’t all that long ago, after all). Nothing has changed! Basically, once I tasted Cava and Priorat, there was no going back. I have had some absolutely killer, smokin’, lights-out wines from Spain. IMO, Spain continues to be the rising star of the wine world, with even formerly bulk-wine-type areas like Jumilla offering some kickin’ wines now.

2) Very similar to the first question, but …