Diez Siglos was established when 65 wine growers based in the Rueda region in the northwest of Spain got together and expressed their desire for the Verdejo grape to be celebrated and nurtured like other Spanish varieties.
Not be confused with that other beloved bubbly, Prosecco, Cava is the name of a type of sparkling wine of Denominación de Origen (D. O) status from Spain and is actually much closer in structure to Champagne (though without the luxury price-tag).
Bodegas Pinoso stands in the town of Pinoso, about 56 km west of the city of Alicante, southern Spain. Pinoso is a mountainous, traditional Spanish town renowned for production of rock salt, marble and, of course, fine wine.
A characterful grape with a distinctive blue-green bloom, Verdejo is the grape mascot (grapescot?) of Spain's Rueda region and the dominant constituent in blends from the area along with (the imported) Sauvignon Blanc.
Rioja lies in Northern Spain, south of Bilbao, between two sheltering mountain ranges. It is divided into three subregions: Alta in the west (generally high and cool); Basque Alavesa (humid temperate); and flat, warm Baja where Garnacha reigns supreme.
This aromatic white grape is the star of Spain’s Iberian peninsula, growing typically and abundantly in Galicia, an area hugged closely by the Atlantic Ocean and the Cantabrian Sea.
Most of you will be familiar with the bag in box concept, that staple of festivals and student life back in the day where you had plonk on tap in an easy to carry package.
International Women’s day is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the successes and achievements of a number of brilliant women at the helm of innovative, sustainable and design-led premium wine estates.
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote often about the joys of traversing a great path and once mused that he might ‘examine myself with no witness but the moon and then whistle with joy, ambling over rocks and clods of earth, with no task but to live, with no family but the road’.
OUR NEW RIOJA RANGE LAGRIMAS DE MARIA comes from Bodegas Patrocinio, a quality-obsessed cooperative that was founded in 1986 when 100 small growers banded together to pool their resources and produce a stylish collection of delicious, great-value Rioja for the discerning drinker.
El Circo Macabeo €8. 79 on promoStraightforward flavours of lemon, grapefruit and almond. Chill right down and sip on its own or try with whitebait fritters.
This highly-regarded bodega is run by the Fernandez brothers (Carlos is pictured in front of his rugged old Tempranillo vines) in the rainy Riojan subregion of Alavesa, high up in the Basque hills. Along with Alta, Alavesa produces Rioja's most elegant and complex wines.
Founded in 1940, Viñedos y Bodegas Muñoz started as a small plantation in the town of Noblejas, in the heart of La Mancha.
Bodegas Valtravieso enjoys a privileged location at 900 metres above sea level in the heart of Ribera del Duero, surrounded by its vineyards in the fashion of a French chateau.
In our view, and that of many much more expert in the area, Rioja Alavesa is the pick of the three Rioja communes. Protected from the north by the Sierra de Cantabria and the fertile Ebro Valley to the south, its limestone-based soil is particularly poor. That's a good thing for vines.
Navarra, known in English as Navarre, is a wine region in north east Spain, and effectively a north eastern extension of Rioja. It's a region producing some quality stuff, without perhaps the mark up that might come with some Rioja's. That's not to say Rioja doesn't do 'value'.
In our first interview with a female winemaker (about time!), Carmen Blanco, winemaker at Castelo de Medina, gives us the low-down on what makes the great whites of Rueda so great, not taking into account the feminine touch. Pictured, Carmen (left) with assistant winemaker Sara Román.
With the increased interest in the white wines of Spain, particularly those of Rueda, it made sense for us to expand our range from Castelo de Medina, from whom we've been carrying a Sauvignon Blanc since we started Curious Wines back in 2008.
Verdejo is a grape variety I find a lot more people are on the look out for these days.
My three brothers and I all share a common interest. We love football. So each year, this being our second year, we'll head off together to watch a match in Europe.
In DO Toro, in Spain's southwest, Tempranillo is called Tinta de Toro. In Ribera del Duero it can be referred to as Tinto Fino or Tinta del pais. In Do la Mancha it is often called Cencibel, or in Catalonia, Ull de Llebre.
I have a bit of thing for Albariño, as do many curious wine drinkers it would seem. It's really caught on in the last few years. Our latest addition to the range is something we've been after for a while now.
If you've been tuning into the Curious blog for the last few months you'll have worked out that the wine producing nations of the northern hemisphere have been busy with the 2011 harvest. Check out the harvest at Château Bauduc if you missed that post.
The Principality of Catalonia is located in the northeast of Spain with the main concentration of wine production taking place southwest of Barcelona. This large region is made up of numerous sub-regions, including Penedès, known for its Cava. But it's not all about the fizz in Catalonia.
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