It’s been a busy the past few months, because Spain is finally waking up to blogging; and we’re excited to be a small part of it. I’ve been buried in two new websites, while trying to maintain a few others. All good news for our small growing enterprise. Today, we head off to Oporto, to consult with a small port house on launching the first ever, blog about port wine. To be honest, we’re really excited about this, and we’re hoping this might lead to some purple feet if we need to visit in the near future.

But for now I want to fill you in on a few experiences I’ve had over the past week. First up, Cork!

Catalan Cork Institute

Just a quick note about my visit to Catalan Cork country, and  promise more with pictures when I have more time. I do want to say thank you to the Catalan Cork Institute, and Juan Botey Serra whose 300yr old property I fell in love with. (lot’s more pictures to put up on flickr too)

Some of you might remember our experience visiting the largest cork producer in the world last year called, Amorim. The experience, to our great surprise, was an eye opener for this cork doubter, and so I couldn’t pass up a chance to see a smaller version right here in our backyard. The Catalan Cork Institute invited Catavino to see their operations north of Barcelona in Costa Brava to explain the differences between the big guy and the small proud guy. Sadly Gabriella was getting her wrist wrapped in Gesso and was unable to join my friend Richard and I, as we traipsed through the thickets of Catalan cork country.

So, what surprised me? While cork is still produced in …

There is a site that from time to time I pluck out of my “slush sites” in my google reader. They’re the sites that you really don’t enjoy reading daily, but from time to time, have a nice little tidbit or two to talk about. This particular one is called Noticias del Vino, which translates to “Wine News”, more or less. Today, in an effort to keep up a personal New Year’s resolution to read more information in Spanish, I stumbled across a fairly well written article titled “Claves del Exito para Vender en los Mercados de Exportación“, which translates to, “Keys to Success in Selling to Export Markets”. What follows is a list of 10 keys listed in the article that appear in no particular order:

1. The Vineyard
2. The Winemaking
3. Packaging
4. Quality Control
5. Commercial Department
6. Know the market
7. Stable Prices
8. Service
9. Marketing
10. Innovating and to Renew

After giving some thought to the article, I figured I would chime in with my own ideas and explanations about what matters in selling to an export market from Iberia and why, while at the same time, attempting to put them in some semblance of order. Now to be clear, these are my suggestions to a winery that is new to the game. Maybe someone with some money who just bought a plot of land with a dream to make wine, or a local producer who figures they can make a little extra money by trying to export. This is not meant to be a guide for established brands or brands that have a name that sells their product, ie. Vega Scilia. Rather, this is for the startup winery, and I’ll assume that they are in …

Ask what cheese is most popular here in Spain, and many of will point you to the pungently strong Asturian blue cheese called, Cabrales. Ask what the most popular meat dish is, and undoubtedly, they will say jamon iberico or cured Iberian ham. Finally, ask what people’s favorite article is from Catavino, and they’ll most likely shrug their shoulders and say, “no se, quien es Catavino?” So maybe the Spanish aren’t as savvy as to our existence as we are to theirs, but we can tell you which articles have caught your attention over the year. Enjoy the compilation and thank you, as always, for your continual support!

Cheers,
Gabriella and Ryan

Articles on Blogging

Wine Bloggers Unite? or at least Discuss! (26)
Pimp My Wine Blog (18)
Wine Blogging question - Do you have to charge to be considered “professional”? (20)
Spanish Wine, Portuguese Wine - Attention RSS Subscribers to Catavino (21)
Catavino gets 60,000 Unique Visitors a Month - Oh, and We have a Bridge for Sale! (15)

Do what you like - I don’t really care! (11)

Articles on Wine
Community Tasting Notes and The Wineries Who Needs them? (11)
We had five grapes before there were grapes! What’s the Point? (16)
Wine Labeling Law(10)

Articles on Iberian Wine

November is Dedicated to Port Wine (19)
The Fear of Sherry (19)
Wine Awards, Categories Without Contestants and the Birth of the Wine Blog Atlas (13)
What’s that “Customer Service” Thing you Speak of? (13)
Notas Basalmicos? It’s not what you think… (11)
Gary takes on two Sherry’s in his Sherry Episode! (11)
Link Bait or Ignorance? A Reporter Gets Spanish Wine Wrong (13)

Catavino Hosts Wine Blog Wednesday
Announcing Wine Blog Wednesday 38 – Portuguese Table Wines with Caveats! …

If your not a reader of the excellent wine blog Fermentation you should be. For the past few weeks Tom has been posting interviews with wine bloggers that he feels are important to pay attention to. We feel honored that today our interview went up on his site. Make sure to check it out and let us know what you think.

Thanks Tom for recommending us, and we hope that we can continue to provide good Spanish wine information, oh yeah and that stuff we do about Portugal

too!

Cheers,

Ryan Opaz