Difficult realizations one arrives at over the course of a lifetime: There is no Santa Parents aren't perfect S/he is just not that into you There is no free lunch Life is, in fact, not fair No matter how much you wish otherwise, that '99 Spanish Rioja Reserva is past ...

Seit Anfang August ist der spanische Weinsektor um eine geografische Bezeichnung reicher: Mit der Indicación Geográfica (IG) Viñedos de España hat das Ministerium für Landwirtschaft und Fischfang in Madrid eine neue Bühne für Qualitätsweine besonderer Anbaugebiete aus Spanien geschaffen. Diese neue IG ist im Mittelfeld des spanischen Qualitätssystems angesiedelt und ...

Mad Dogs & Englishmen 2003 Spain, Jumilla ($10) The stress of pronouncing a french wine. The intimidation factor of purchasing an italian wine at one of those expensive boutiques. The utter ... of conquistadors drinking a rioja that I can relate to. Spain's grasp on old and new world ... is a blend of 30% Shiraz, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 50% Monastrell from the Jumilla region of Spain. I...

It was only in May this year that the lovely JP and I were enjoying a half bottle of this wine in a tapas bar in San Sebastian, the air thick with smoke and the roof dangling with the bodies of dead dried pigs..ah Spain..it seems like a lifetime ago. The wine that evening...

... oak?  Or have Scotch producers simply conflated "used Sherry cask from Spain" to "Spanish oak cask ... , sherry , spain , scotch...

I stopped off to pick up something to drink with chocolate cake at home and found this little gem.  There's not much info on the bottle, not even a region other than "Produce of Spain" or a vintage, but that didn't stop me. A goldern hay colour with a nose of rasins mixed with orange peel.  A little bit funky, but rich in the mouth with a good acid level to balance out the sweetness.  Tart...

This wine is from the Priorat region in north-eastern Spain. The vineyard is owned by the Spanish singer Louis Llach and the vines are 80 years old. It is a blend of principally Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon, with tiny quantities of Merlot, Syrah, and Carignan. In the decanter, it showed a vision of a black beast, brooding and elemental. The nose invited us with black raspberries and black...

From the Tarrigona region of Priorat in North-East Spain. The wine is an approximate blend of 40% Grenache, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, with the rest being Pinot Noir and Merlot. The wine spends 14 months in new French oak. The nose shows red currants and raspberries, but in a stoney and savoury kind of way. There is also some creamy oak characters, and some secondary characters appearing...

Rafael Cambra Dos 2004 Valencia, Spain ($20) Even though I haven't been updating this site recently, I haven't been a stranger to the other wine blogs I've come to appreciate. A recent Wine Chicks posting mentioned a Spanish Cabernet Sauv/Franc blend from Valencia called "Dos" by Rafael Cambra. It would only be a short matter of time after reading that before I found a bottle to try myself...

Castro Bergidum Mencia Roble 2002 Spain, Castilla Leon, Bierzo ($10) Scouring my new favorite neighborhood wine store, I found this Mencia based Spanish wine from Bierzo. I’ve already tried and bought a few bottles of the Pucho Menica wine I talked about here . When I came across this one I thought I’d try another since I liked the other version. This one is 100% pure and aged for 5 months...