Located just off Plaza de la Reina in the Gothic section of the city of Valencia, snuggled within the tiny courtyard of La Plaza del Arzobispo sits Enopata – a two month old restaurant devoted exclusively to wine. On the first night of our three day trip to Valencia this past weekend, our hope was to discover a fun and wine centered location where a group of wine bloggers could gather to share our passion and stories about wine. And although none of us had either visited or heard much about Enopata, we banked on the sage advice of Joantxo Llantada, the Regional Tourism Director of Valencia, that this restaurant was worthy of impressing even the most knowledgeable of wine geeks.

With mustard yellow walls, exposed wooden beams and enormous photos of fall grape leaves, mounted on poster board and taken by the owner himself, Juan Ferrer Espinosa, Enopata embraces you as a warm, family run wine bar, rather than a sleek and modern wine alter. With waiters suited up in black with names like Maximo, and a shiny streamlined bar, its primary goal is not to impress, but to expand both our palates and our adoration of unique wines from around the world.

What makes Enopata so unique beyond the welcoming and cozy atmosphere shadowed by the enormous stone Cathedral sitting right outside its hidden doors? It prides itself on three cardinal wine rules:

Where do I begin this rambling and nonsensical post, filled with random bits of information that don’t really deserve a full post onto themselves, but that still need to be said? Well, where else than our “Iberian Links Around the Web”! Similar to your kitchen junk drawer, this post is filled with interesting bits of information that you may not ever need, but may come in use when you least expect it.

The Sixth….Taste

Granted, although we don’t have Haley Joel Osment scaring us with his momentary episodes of seeing dead people, we can be equally freaked out the next time your buddy turns to you after drinking a glass of wine and says, “I’m not really getting a bitter flavor here, but maybe more of a calcium-y taste”. According to Science Daily, beyond sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (similar to savory), humans also have a sixth taste receptor for foods that taste, well, like calcium - a flavor bordering between sour and bitter. It explains why foods that are generally high in calcium such as bok choy, kale and collards, generally come off as bitter if not cooked in a few sticks of butter so that the calcium can bind to the fat cells; whereby, preventing you from tasting it. In relation to wine, it just may explain why some wines are described as more minerally/calcium-y, and can therefore, be monitored in order to obtain a better taste profile. Can you pick out the sixth calcium-y taste in a wine?

Hey, That’s What We Needed! Another Roadblock to Enjoying Sherry!

Chef Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck Restaurant in London, and scientist Professor Don Mottram of Reading …

If you’ve stayed with Catavino for long enough, it’s inevitable that you’ve heard us debate over the exact number of indigenous grapes in Iberia, and the fact that none of us are certain how many there are.  By some accounts there are approximately 400, and by other accounts, the number soars to over 1,000. This rather large numerical gap was one of the main reasons why we began our Iberian Grape Wiki (currently in a state of renovation), and the same reason why we’ve done very little with it. To keep track, fill in, and monitor such a bear of a database is rather daunting. So it sits, patiently waiting for some loving grape enthusiast to come by and fill in its rather vacuous empty spaces. If you just happen to be one of those happy grape folk needing a little project to aid the greater Iberian wine community, let us know, and we’ll put you to work

That said, my second project beyond our Grape Wiki is to complete my Wine Century Club application. The Wine Century Club is the brainchild of Steve Delong, the same mad genius who created the Delong Iberian Wine Map. His goal in founding this club, as I interpreted it, was to not only highlight the vast array of indigenous grapes of the world, but also to challenge each and every one of us to expand our palate beyond the international varieties of Chardonnay, Merlot, Riesling, etc. And despite the fact that Ryan had completed his application a few years ago, tasting 100 different grape varieties, it wasn’t until Dr. Debbs of Good Wines Under $20 started publishing her accounts of …

Editor’s Note: If you remember, a little while back, Ryan reviewed the book “Valencia, Land of Wine“, written by Joan C. Martin and translated and edited by John Maher. While, in Valencia, we asked John how he felt about writing the occasional piece for us on Valancian wine, being our resident expert and all. And to our great surprise, he agreed. You’ll see from his elegant prose and witty humor that our choice was a good one! We are very happy to have him join us and suggest you check out his profile on our “About” page for more information.

That said, his piece today is a request on my part to have him share his knowledge on the native Valencian grape, Vernil, as a reaction to a rather blah experience we had while in Valencia. Although Vernil had a nice aromatic nose, we found the palate to be a touch empty, lacking in both body and acidity. So I tried to do a little research on the grape to see if others were having the same experience, when I came across John’s description of Verdil on his website, Wines of Valencia. The proverbial light bulb went off, and it suddenly occurred to me that there would be no better person to tackle this subject than John.

John, thanks and welcome aboard!

The wine reference books I have to hand don’t have much to say about the Verdil grape. The “Oxford Companion to Wine” says it makes “rather neutral wine” in Yecla and the southernmost part of Valencia, while my much-thumbed “Dictionary of Drink” says incorrectly that it is grown in the Alicante region. …

There are bars and there are great, secret gems well worth going out of your way to experience. In the city of Valencia, Casa Montaña happens to be one of those incredible finds completely saturated in both history and beauty.

If left to our own devices, however, we would have never have found this bar, as it’s tucked away between Puerto de Valencia and Mercado Cabanal in a tiny residential street in the area of “El Cabañal”. But because our trusted guide, Joantxo Llantada , just so happened to be the head of tourism for the regional government of Valencia, we were clearly in good hands, able to both learn about the Valencian culture and cuisine over the course of a lazy afternoon.

What makes this restaurant so unique and special? A very romantic and winding story. In 1836, the restaurant was separated into two houses, one occupied by a love-struck son, and the other by an equally smitten daughter. These two married, eventually living in the back of the house and setting up a small and intimate shop in the front in 1836, where they became renowned for their bottled soda water, derived from the well not 10 feet from the bar. Conveniently located near the shore, their name eventually spread among sailors, who would purchase their goods for their long journeys across the Mediterranean.

In 1970, the shop was taken over by a well respected Frenchman, who implemented a tapas bar, including a billing system where customers tabs were written on the marble bar with soap - one of many antiques you can view in the bar today. Twenty years …