Goodbye 2011, Hello Future

Today seems to be the day we say goodbye for good. Seems logical to end it all on the last day of 2011. The journey has been fun, but in reality, it’s only just begun. We’ve just arrived back after a week in the UK with family and friends, filled with good wines and festive […] Continue Reading →

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 →

Bidding Adieu to Old Favorites: Scholtz Hermanos Dessert Wine from Malaga

It is never easy to say goodbye and to turn your back on a chapter of your past – parting always hurts and today I have to say two farewells. I have been writing about Spain and Spanish wines for Catavino, as well as my own blog,  for quite a while now, and sadly this […] Continue Reading →

Politics, Practicality and Pomp: The Battle Over the Future of Spanish Wine

Editor’s note: All views expressed below are solely that of the author.  All good things must come to an end. And it seems sadly appropriate that, after six years, Catavino – a site that mirrored so well all that was burgeoning and metamorphosing in the Spanish wine world – closes its doors just as the […] Continue Reading →

The Never Ending Journey: 6 Years of Transformation

Not surprisingly, I’ve delayed writing this post for weeks, dutifully trying to answer the question, “what happened over the past 6 years and how does one summarize such an experience in one article?” Admittedly, it’s absolutely impossible. To write a one off post on how our lives have changed feels as inconsequential as writing a […] 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: Rioja & Rias Baixas, Spain

Having recently come back from our long and successful jaunt in Brescia, Italy, where we hosted the annual European Wine Bloggers Conference, we’ve unfortunately been unable to post on Catavino as much as we’d like. However, our friends in Spain have come to the rescue with a few updates on the 2011 Harvest. Consider this a […] Continue Reading →

La Matanza: The Very Real Story Behind Jamon Iberico

WARNING: This post is extremely graphic; however, it does depict the very real act of killing an Iberian pig. If you are someone who is an animal lover, or gets squeemish at the site of bodily fluids, we might suggest you skip this article and await happier articles of drinking wine by the sea.  Preface: […] 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 →