Hey, ho! Please let Pancho go! ~ Time for some wine drinking.

Despite our continued posting, we still plan on closing Catavino. Gabriella and I are finished here, onto bigger and better things, but strangely, we can’t stop just yet. I have a few more things to get off my chest, and after my recent post on the Pancho affair; I know I need to do it sooner […] Continue Reading →

Cha, cha, cha, changes…Spanish wine needs to learn from the Pancho affair

Jay Miller is out. Neal Martin is in. This is the story that spilled onto “the Twitter“, in the blogosphere, and onto “the Facebooks”. Regurgitated and recycled from one blog to another showing that there is no limit to the amount of naval gazing possible by any niche community. The scandal relates to whether Pancho […] Continue Reading →

How it all Began, a Quick Look Back at the Early Years

When we first moved to Spain, we arrived with almost nothing. Our Spanish consisted of  ”hola”, “gracias” and after a couple of days hanging out with other Spaniards, “Vale”, the ubiquitous “ok”. Our friends were back in Minnesota, but we were in Madrid and lucky enough to have a place to live. A fellow TEFL […] Continue Reading →

Harvest 2011: A Look Around Spain and Portugal

What is the harvest looking like in Spain and Portugal? Having put in a few calls from across the peninsula, the answers varied tremendously. So rather than interpret it from our standpoint, we felt it would be more appropriate to post information directly from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. However, if you’re a winery […] Continue Reading →

Iberian Wine Harvest 2011 – A random assortment of challenges

This year, we’ve heard a wide range of harvest stories from across the peninsula: earlier than normal harvests, some later than normal, while others are reporting red grapes being picked before the white grapes – a highly unusual event. Consequently, we’re absolutely clueless as to how the 2011 vintage will end up. Not that we […] Continue Reading →

Tempranillo Day

Yesterday, we celebrated “Tempranillo Day“, a concept put forward and championed by our friends at TAPAS (Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society). And though a fabulous evening, “grape days”, which are all the rage right now (#cabernet day was also yesterday and #grenache day is coming up soon) are a bit tiring and becoming a little […] Continue Reading →

Wine as a Backdrop

Recently, Gabriella has been writing simply for the love of writing itself, a very welcomed trend considering the amount of talent that seems crammed into her tiny pint-sized frame. I bring this up, because a few days ago, she presented a piece that not only left me speechless, but pulled at my heartstrings. Though not unexpected, […] Continue Reading →

Churrasqueira: Savoring Grilled Meats in Portugal

This past week, while enjoying one of our favorite cities in the world, Porto, it occurred to us that we were harboring a delicious secret that should be revealed. This cuisine, though not entirely secret to the entire population of Brazil, is unknown to many, and it’s called Churrasqueira (Churrascaria is Brazilian). Last Sunday, while […] Continue Reading →

The Continuing Spanish Beer Search: Fort – Barcelona Pale Ale

Since we have lived in Terrassa, a small industrial city outside Barcelona, there has been only one place to buy decent beer. Casa Evaristo is a specialty food store in the old part of the city with a wide range of odd ingredients, wines and foods. Sort of a Whole Foods in the way they overprice […] Continue Reading →

Recaredo’s Single Vineyard Cava: Turo d’en Mota

Walking into a Cava producer’s cellar can be an overwhelming experience. What appears to be miles of bottles stacked and laid out before you, aging away to create the delicious bubbles that we all love, seem to tease you, begging for you to reach out and pop one open. Most of the time, this as […] Continue Reading →