Catavino - Spanish wine, Portuguese wine, and a whole lot more

• Tweet
• Email

Hah! How about these photos to wake you out of your lazy Monday slumber! Makes you think twice before making a big toothy grin at someone after drinking a few glasses of port, doesn’t it? Ahhh, but it’s worth it. If you should find yourself with a purple tongue from firm tannins completely saturated in inky, dark colors, we encourage you to smile; because hopefully, you’ve just drank the nectar of the Gods.

Over the month of November, we’ve had an incredible experience learning about the history, the culture, the winemaking practices and the various different styles of port such as ruby, tawny, vintage, LVB and Colheita.

We also had an opportunity to discover two very different Port houses: Sandman and Quinta de la Rosa. While Sandeman is an internationally renowned port house currently under the portfolio of a large Portuguese wine company called Sogrape, Quinta de la Rosa is an independent, family-run quinta that aims to both produce quality port wine, and at the same time, provide opportunities for wine lovers to learn about the port making process.

Finally, we chatted about one of our favorite food pairings with port wine chocolate, and how this rather unlikely pairing lends itself to some of the worst and best experiences depending on both the style of port and the type of chocolate.

So, what’s next? Throughout the month of November, we eluded to a PDF containing all of our port wine recommendations, which we would release at the end of the month; however, in light of some late participants, we’ll be releasing the PDF at the end of the week. Additionally, we would like to offer our deepest gratitude to all of the port houses for participating, offering their time, information and support in our month long project. Having already tasted port wines from Taylors Fladgate, Sandeman, Ramos Pinto, Quinta de la Rosa, Quinta do Ventozelo, Vinoquel, and soon to be tasted this week, Krohns, we couldn’t be more pleased with the results of the month and intend on posting the remainder of our port articles throughout December.

But now is the time is announce our December theme: Cava! For those of you unfamiliar with Cava, it the Spanish take on sparkling wine. During this holiday season, we hope to give you several reasons to choose cava over champagne as a wonderful and tasty way of celebrating the season with your family and friends. And like Port, by the end of December, we will release our PDF chock full of our recommended cava wines. However, because of you will need some suggestions earlier than later, we’ve included some our past articles on Cava wines.

• Spanish Wines are Perfect American Palate Wines and Here’s the Proof!
• Dominio de la Vega – Cavas
• Agustí Torelló – Kripta , High End Spanish Cava
• N.V. Giró Ribot Cava Paul Cheneau
• Codorníu
• 1996 Mestres Cava Brut Nature Millessimé
• Podcast #14 – Gabriella’s Travels
• Podcast #15 – A visit to Codorníu
• Podcast #30 – Arte Mayor Cava from Dominio de la Vega

This said, we are dying to know if you like Cava wine? Have you ever tried Cava? What would you like us to cover when we visit the Cava houses? Are their Cava producers you would like us to talk about? This is your opportunity to ask any questions you want about Cava wine!

Cheers,
Gabriella