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About the advertorial
"Ni carn ni peix." This phrase in Catalan is one that any regular reader knows I keep coming back to as I simply love it. "Neither meat nor fish" is the literal translation, but the implied meaning is that something (or even someone) is simply undefined and unable to be classified and it applies no better than to the 'advertorial.' These arrive to us under a variety of names whether it be: "sponsored content", "promotional feature", "advertising supplement", or many, many others. The concept is the same in that they're paid advertising dressed up to look like regular editorial in a publication. Thus while 100% advertising, they're also 'content' and in turn, ni carn ni peix. The Merriam-Webster dictionary states that the first known use was in 1917, so they've been around longer than any of us have been alive. All my life it's certainly felt this way and to…
- news
Sangarida, Bierzo, Spain
While in Galicia recently to attend the 25th anniversary of Bodegas Attis, I had the chance to taste the wines from their DO Bierzo project, Sangarida. Attis was the original winery founded by the family of Robustiano Fariña but his wife, Laura Vázquez, is originally from the Bierzo region on the other side of Galicia and thus they set about creating a project on her home turf back in 2019. Despite several reports on Bierzo, this is the first time I’ve tasted the wines as they don’t actually have a […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription .
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Telling a mountain to move
The Montsant Massif is a striking mountain range full of grey cliffs and sits at the northern point of Priorat Country in Catalunya, Spain. Meaning, “the holy mountain”, it’s inspirational in sheer, natural awe and it makes for no surprise as to why the Denomination of Origin Montsant made use of its name when created in 2001. Despite this well-crafted name and image which has brought local recognition, I personally haven’t heard anyone say, “Make mine a Montsant” when ordering a wine in London or San Francisco though. I mention […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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A book review of, “Black Odesa”
So, we've reached the point in the Felix Hart series by pseudonymous writer, Peter Stafford-Bow wherein with the publication of Black Odesa, it appears we have a trilogy in five parts, or whatever it was that Douglas Adams meant by that in regards to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If wishing to see reviews of the previous editions: Corkscrew Brut Force Firing Blancs Eastern Promise "Black Odesa" starts out for a very short minute with protagonist Feliz Hart at the very top of his game, living large after the events of "Eastern Promise". Like how a rapper making it big and writing songs about the pains of owning a Ferrari is lame, Stafford-Bow rightly sees that a wealthy Felix is potentially a very boring narrative and tosses Hart to the wilds, taking away everything, including his clothes. Destitute (and thankfully finding something to wear) Hart is forced to set…
- news
Torelló, Corpinnat, Catalunya
As one of the originals to break off from DO Cava in the Corpinnat split, Torelló has been a winery that I’ve been following for some time. They have a relatively broad range of wines, but all are from estate-grown grapes and quality runs from very good to absolutely excellent. Thus it was a nice surprise to receive this sample of their ‘Tradicional’ wine. If I’m not mistaken, this is their second-largest production wine of the 600,000 or so bottles they produce each year and it’s always a solid option, […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription .
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Arizcuren, Rioja low & high
Arizcuren is unique on many fronts, but immediately notable is that it’s the most urban winery there is in the entire region of Rioja, based in the center of Logroño, a city of 150,000 people. There are others wineries located within the core of various villages and there’s the enormous Franco Españoles which sits just on the other side of the Ebro River from Logroño’s center, churning our four million bottles a year. But there is nothing like Arizcuren, narrowly wedged into Calle Santa Isabel just around the corner from […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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Corpinnat hits a full two dozen
It wasn't even two years ago that the couple behind Cisteller were lamenting that they would be the 'unlucky' number 13 to join the Corpinnat association. I told them to think of themselves more as a "baker's dozen" and that ultimately, there would be new additions at such a speed that their order of joining wouldn't matter. Their placement hasn't hurt them at all, nor Corpinnat which has just announced that they've reached a full two dozen members with the addition of #24, Fèlix Massana Ràfols. Like many, they're one of the wineries that made the decision to leave DO Cava. It should come as little surprise that they left as they've met all the Corpinnat requirements for some time in that they farm organically and they were one of the "Elaboradors Integrals" which DO Cava has apparently already scrubbed from the list on their website. This is a small…
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Oh, that view from Vallado
I’ve visited Quinta do Vallado only twice, but both visits left an impression. They’re a fine producer of both Port as well as unfortified Douro wines and in fact they make one of the few VVOP wines that I’ve tasted. This is, “Very, Very, Old Port” which is, as the name implies, quite old and in this specific instance, the wine has a blend that’s 44% from 100+ year-old wine and includes a scoop of 1888 wine (akin to El Grifo in Lanzarote.) Then there’s another 40% that’s ‘merely’ 80 […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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The pains to remain the same in Madrid
Enrique? José? Jesús? No. Jaime. I had no idea as to what his actual name was but the fellow behind the bar of Taberna la Dolores, with his sharpened features, embellished by a lack of enthusiasm, was, to me, a ‘Jaime’. Honestly, there’s a very good chance he was a Jesús, but that felt a little on-the-nose given that La Dolores sits on a Plaza de Jesús; a square in name only as it’s merely a somewhat broader street in the Barrio de las Letras of Madrid’s Centro district. Jaime […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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A new look at Castell d’Encus
When going to taste the wines of Ferrer Bobet for this year’s Priorat Report, co-owner and general winemaking savant, Raül Bobet proposed tasting the wines of his personal project up in the Pyrénées, Castell d’Encus. This has results in this small report of his current wines, which have also been added to the much larger Costers del Segre Report released previously. Bobet has found his home at what seems to be the end of the earth, perched up at 850 meters. Over the course of his career, he’s shown himself […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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Castell d’Encus 2026
All of these wines were tasted at the premises of Ferrer Bobet on 25 June, 2026 with the owner of the winery, Raül Bobet. Please see the Full Report for additional information. For full access, please purchase a Personal Subscription or Commercial Subscription.
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The ‘C’ Word
It was nearly harvest time and I was standing in a Grenache vineyard in Southern Catalunya. Or at least, I thought it was Grenache as there were two rows of vines that didn’t look terribly Grenache-y. The owner was busy talking to a delivery driver and so I helped myself to taste a grape. The electric shock of acidity that hit my tongue was more potent than even the most feral of natural wines I’ve had the displeasure of encountering. As I was trying to rebalance the pH in my […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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LionSpirit & other Cypriot wines
This series of samples came my way recently from the island of Cyprus. I know Cyprus for one solid reason which is, Commandaria. It was on a sommelier exam and I missed the question, but not for knowing that the two main grape varieties are Xynisteri and Mavro. I’d memorized the crap out of that, but the other facet on the exam, I did not it, and it appears I never will. Commandaria is an ancient style of dessert wine produced on the island which lays claim to some 6,000 […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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The wines of Collioure & Banyuls 2026
One of the highlights in my wine reporting calendar is to visit and taste the wines of Collioure, Banyuls, and the greater Côte Vermeille. This year, it’s a large batch with over 110 wines reviewed from AOC Collioure and the AOCs of Banyuls & Banyuls Grand Cru. Why am I so impassioned by a trip to the region? Simply look at the lead photo from Collioure where there are something like five beaches nestled around the village in natural coves. From all of them you either have a view of […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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AOC Collioure 2026
These wines were tasting in Banyuls, France at the offices at the Syndicat during the days of 25-26 May, 2026. Please see the full Regional Report for complete information as well as the Banyuls Report. For full access, please purchase a Personal Subscription or Commercial Subscription.
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AOC Banyuls & Banyuls Grand Cru 2026
These wines were tasting in Banyuls, France at the offices at the Syndicat during the days of 25-26 May, 2026. Please see the full Regional Report for complete information as well as the Collioure Report. For full access, please purchase a Personal Subscription or Commercial Subscription.
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The broad view for Wines of Portugal
The first part of my trip to Porto for Alive Taste this summer was, to put it mildly, mind-blowingly hot–and this is from someone who lives on the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula. Thankfully, the initial day only saw brief kisses of the actually heat outside as I quickly hopped from plane to waiting car to hotel to bus and eventually finding my way to the “World of Wine” center created by Taylor Fladgate. Abbreviated as WOW, it absolutely lives up to its name with an intricate complex of […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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Of Substack & wine
To borrow Ernest Hemingway’s observation on going bankrupt, wine writing on Substack started gradually and then happened all at once. It’s no secret that classic wine media has been in a decline in terms of subscribers as well as losing a publication (or two) year upon year. This isn’t the case for Substack which, despite being founded way back in 2017, it seems most everyone writing about wine or, pretty much anything in the world, has arrived in the past year to try and hack through the madness and earn a few bucks, directly from readers. This has quickly taken on a new dimension with Substack finally creating a subsection of the Rising and Top lists that breaks off Wine & Spirits from Food & Drink as that category is massive and few in the land of drinks ever cracked it. It seems we have some core Substack staff members…
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Acústic Celler – Blanc 2024
With the free fall in the wine world which may or may not be stabilizing despite all of us who love wine doing our part to drink it, producers are still trying to figure out wtf to do. And it seems that one of the main solution is… “Make white wine!” Much like I told my mother in regards to ‘investing’ in cryptocurrency, if you’re not already making white wine, then you’re too late to the game and the last thing we need is a white wine glut. There are […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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Reinventing the wine
Unlike most other alcohols, selling wine over the last half century has required not just branding, but a narrative, and despite being very aware of this, wine has never actually managed to fully control its own narrative. You can see this when it was all fun and games being an excellent part of the Mediterranean Diet. Back then, wine was viewed as the ‘healthy’ booze for a healthy lifestyle. But once the bottomless mouth holes on The Socials, along with the some of the most corrupt/boring politicians in recent history started decrying wine (as well as alcohol in general) as ‘evil’, that whole narrative unraveled like silk lingerie, machine washed on the cotton cycle. Thus, despite wine never being better made as well as very accessible to all levels of income, consumption of wine has been in a freefall ever since we emerged from the darkest days of the pandemic.…
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Marqués de Riscal, Rueda, Spain
These came up as something of a suprise when tasting at Marqués de Riscal for the most-recent Rioja Report. Admittedly it wasn’t a surprise that a Rioja winery produced wines in DO Rueda as seemingly everyone with the least bit of presence in Rioja or Ribera del Duero has a project or outright winery in Rueda. It was more the fact that they were exceedingly engaging. While the younger of the two met all points in terms of what a Verdejo wine from the region should taste like, the “Gran […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription .
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The wines of DOQ Priorat & DO Montsant 2026
With what appears to be the earliest harvest on record just about everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s time to take a look at two of the leading regions in Spain, DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant as well as their well as their respective Tasting Reports here and here. I won’t mince words as it’s a rather crucial time in their evolution as regions. It’s not unfair to say that things aren’t easy for wine producers in general and being a region in Europe that produces predominantly red wines with […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription.
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DOQ Priorat 2026
All of these wines were tasted in the Priorat region during the month of July, 2026. Please refer to the Regional Report for additional details. For full access, please purchase a Personal Subscription or Commercial Subscription.
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DO Montsant 2026
These wines were tasted in the region during July, 2026. Please see the Regional Report for more information and context. For full access, please purchase a Personal Subscription or Commercial Subscription.