While others begin their holidays, July is a busy month here at Vinologue. For our constant updates of wines and regions head over to Enotourist and subscribe via email the feed if you’d like. Otherwise, we’re happily settling in to our new office in Barcelona’s Born area of the Ribera neighborhood, across from the Mercat del Born (read more about that here.)

While we’re still working on the print version of our Empordà enotourism guide that we promise will be stupendous, we’ll also be heading down to Priorat at the invitation of Hostal Sport to sample their hotel and some wineries nearby. It will be a nice little break from proofing print layout and carrying heavy boxes just before we do a private group tasting of Empordà wines next week. We’ll talk more about shortly as we plan to have more of these intimate events once the printed version of the guide is finished to accompany the digital version that is currently on sale.

Stay tuned and top off your glass!

Last Thursday we were invited by an international company with an office in Barcelona to host a tasting of Empordà wines that we have covered in our Empordà guide. They spread across a broad range, but were all within a similar price point with one another as we wanted to present wines that were approachable and affordable but at the same time with character.

As the sun was setting over the Barceloneta beach, we were all seated at Sal Cafe, working our way through the following list:

1. Pago Diana – Rosé from Sant Jordi Desvalls. A unique Rosé comprised of 100% Tempranillo. 5€
2. Martí Fabra – Flor d’Albera from Sant Climent Sescebes. 100% Alexandria Muscat, which is a rare grape to be seen as a dry white given that as it’s a grape used mainly for dessert wines. 8.5€
3. Mas Molla – Jaqué from Calonge. This “vi de pagès” wine is a single varietal grape that is phylloxera resistant. 1.90€ and you get 20 cents back if you return the bottle.
4. Vinyes dels Aspres – Oriol Negre 2010 from Cantallops. A blend of almost half Carignan and half Grenache, but with a little bit of Syrah and Merlot. 6€
5. La Vinyeta – Heus Negre 2011 from Mollet de Peralada. It’s a blend of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah. 6€
6. Castell de Biart – Samsó Garnatxa 2008 from between Masarac and Vilarnadal. Samsó is the Catalan name for Carignan. 4.50€

Part of the fun in hosting tasting like this is to see the reaction of those in attendance. We try to stay away from lecturing tasting notes at people and let them discover the wine as much as possible. Unsurprisingly, opinions varied a great deal.

The Rosé was quite liked by all and for good reason as the Tempranillo has lent it a good body without being super sweet. Opinions were mixed to the Flor d’Albera as some found it to be a bit over dry although it was intriguing. The Jaqué really split the group with some finding it far, far too bold (this style of wine can be a bit “wild” due to completely natural fermentation) and others were happy to kick it back with great abandon. For the Oriol and Heus, the response was much like asking if you were a Beatles or an Elvis fan. While we happen to be both, those who like the Oriol didn’t care for the Heus and vice versa. Everyone pretty much agreed that the Samsó Garnatxa was the most solid of the reds though.

With our new guide coming from the printer in just a few days (and the electronic version already available) we’re looking to do more of these tastings in the near future to introduce people to the region as well as our approach to enotouristic adventures in it.

You’ve been hearing about it for a while as we’ve spent the entire year writing it. Now, it’s finally here: Vinologue Empordà. This guide that includes 59 wineries and tasting notes on 260 wines is ready for your reading pleasure. You can either purchase it in the digital version which is available from Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble or you can buy our lovingly crafted print version which is in full color, totaling 360 pages.

Oh and if that print guide is tempting you (because really, it should), for this first week of its release, we’re offering free shipping to anywhere in the world free of charge!

So come and join us in this enotourism journey through the most northern and eastern bit of Spain. Just make sure to top off your glass.

Today a full page article covering our Empordà enotourism guide ran in the Spanish newspaper, La Vanguardia. You can click on the photo above to view the article in its entirety, although if you don’t speak Catalan, you might miss a bit of it.

For those who might like to see a little video, you can see the piece that aired on Catalan TV3 (at minute 26) about the guide and effect of English visitors to the region.

In addition to the main, DO Empordà regulatory body for the region, several other newspapers ran articles about the guide recently as well. You can read this in the following articles: DO Empordà, Catalan News Agency, and in French at la Clau.

We’re always fans of blogs and we want to mention some of those as well who have lent an article supporting our latest and greatest guide: Vi-moment-persones, Raspa & Wine, Cupatges, and Can Batlle.

Lastly, several other news outlets ran coverage as well and should be mentioned: Directe, l’Empordà, Diari de Girona, Hora Nova, 324.cat, Nació Digital, Ara Girona, el Punt Avui, 9 Diari, and l’Economic.

We’re happy to announce the latest edition of our Dalmatia enotourism guide. Started in 2007, this new, third edition features even more wineries with 88 listings and 57 full profiles. It also has tasting notes for 180 wines in the region. In addition to these two key sections for any wine guide, there are also extended maps for all the subregions of this southern tip of Croatia, GPS coordinates, photos, and local gastronomic specialties. It’s all in a comprehensive electronic format for travelers to take with them on a tablet, laptop, or phone and is available now on Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, and B&N.

There have also been press announcements about this latest edition as well including one at Blue Danube Wine in California and a longer article at Dobra Hrana, a supplement to Jutarnji List, Croatia’s largest daily paper. There they asked us to talk more about the wines in Croatia as well as the guide. If you feel like you have a good grasp of the Croatian language, click on the image at the left to read the full article.

Five years on we’re very excited to see the evolution of this guide and the new frontiers of enotourism that it opens for visitors to Croatia.

Following in the line of our enotourism guides, we’re happy to announce that we’ve commenced researching our new Priorat guide.

We’re working to cover the 100 or so wineries and producers in this DOQ region of Catalonia and show the stunning scenery and wines of this region. Wineries wishing to be included should contact us as soon as possible to arrange for us to visit the winery, learn what you do, take photos, and sample the wines for tasting note inclusion.

We were quite happy to be notified that our Vinologue Empordà enotourism guide has won the award from Gourmand International for “Best Enotourism Book” – from a United States Publisher.

Naturally, to have this recognition bestowed upon us is fantastic and encourages us to keep working on new guides. Now we are looking forward to seeing if the guide wins for the Best Enotourism Book in the World to be announced during the Paris Cookbook Fair at the end of February 2013.

Of course, if you’d like to get your very own copy of this guide, you can buy it now from us, directly, right now!

Many thanks again to all the people who helped us make this guide the cool book that is!

Next week we will be in San Francisco for the holidays and we’re thrilled to announce that on Tuesday, December 18th from 6-9PM, we’ll be hosting a tasting of several wines from Empordà region at Biondivino in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. Naturally, we’ll also be presenting our Empordà enotourism guide for those interested in travel, wine and having a good time.

The event will be a unique chance for people in San Francisco to taste wines still quite unknown and relatively rare to find, as well as to meet us in person and purchase our award winning guide at a special discounted price.

And of course, in addition to the book excitement, we’ll be showcasing three of our favorite wineries in the Empordà apellation: La Vinyeta, Espelt, and Vinyes dels Aspres. These are wineries by three younger winemakers that we’ve been following for years and who have taken great strides to redefine the wines in this region.

The price for just the tasting is $15 and $25 if you want a copy of the guide alongside the tasting to further your own wine adventures in this Northeast corner of Catalonia, Spain about an hour and a half north of Barcelona. Hope to see you there!

Biondivino
1415 Green Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
+1 415 673 2320

Last week, we were happy to have the West Coast presentation of our Empordà guide alongside a tasting of Empordà wines in San Francisco. It was a splendid event with a great turnout of curious wine lovers who came to the delightful wine boutique, Biondivino in the Russian Hill neighborhood.

This selection of wines from La Vinyeta, Espelt, and Vinyes dels Aspres were wines that people on the Pacific Coast of the United States hadn’t had much exposure to, and so everyone was very excited to try them. As the wines are all very approachable, friendly and easy to drink, the reception was very, very positive. So much so that most everyone who attended went home with a bottle or two. Naturally, for those accustomed to the full bodied nature of Californian wines, this selection of eight wines with bright fruits and a strong desire to be had with food offered a great change up. That and they’re simply really good wines.

We were also able to sneak in a bottle of the new, “Tocat de l’Ala” by Roig Parals and Coca & Fitó. It offered up a different style that, while still very much Empordà, allowed those who attended a chance to try yet another wine that shows that great versatility of the region.

In addition to those who came for the tasting, bloggers and one of the writers from Wine Spectator took a break from the holiday craziness to stop in. They found the wines quite enjoyable overall and, like most people who get their first good taste of the region, were impressed with the level of quality for the price.

We were completely thrilled by the turnout and have no end of thanks to Ceri Smith and her staff who pulled the tasting together prior to our arriving from Barcelona the same evening. And, for those who would still like to buy the guide in San Francisco, Biondivino has them for direct sale, as well as a selection of the wines from the tasting. This is of course in addition to the fantastic stock of Italian wines that they always have.

Hope to see you at the next presentation!

In the midst of this mad stretch to get the production of our soon-to-be-released Priorat guide finished, we found a small window of time to write the current cover article for Miniguide about the “natural wine” craze in Barcelona. It covers a few of the events we’ve been at recently that have showcased these winemakers and most importantly the article addresses the big question of, “What is a ‘natural wine’?” Benoît Valée of natural wine shop in Gràcia turned natural wine bar in Born, l’Ànima del Vi was the beneficiary of the lead photo.

The print version can be picked up for free around Barcelona now or read online at their site as of today.

We’ve been rather quiet lately not for a lack of anything going on, but actually because there is so much going on we haven’t had a chance to sit down and write about. The biggest news of course is that our new Priorat guide is off to the printer. At last!

Having finished this massive project and wine fair season being in full swing, we’ll be traveling to a few events in the near future. Here’s a list in case we can catch any of you there and say hi.

First we’ll be heading to Croatia for the Zagreb Wine Gourmet Weekend. In addition to tasting wines, working on updates of our Dalmatia and Herzegovina guides, we’ll also be giving an “Succeeding in Enotourism” talk in conjunction with the omnipotent gang at Taste of Croatia. The focus is for wineries in attendance at the fair to hear from our and ToC’s experiences what works, what doesn’t, how best to go about having visitors come to your winery, and how it can be beneficial to all involved. More to come on this as the event on April 19-20th gets closer.

If all goes well, we’ll be making our public presentation of the Priorat guide on Saturday, May 4th in the Castell del Vi in Falset as part of their annual Fira del Vi event that showcases the wines of DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant. More on this very soon.

After spending a week in Priorat for their Fira del Vi “insanity”, we’re heading back over to Croatia to talk about enotourism at Vinistra May 10-12 and continue work on the forthcoming Istria guide. Who knows, maybe we’ll even take something of a break to enjoy Istria a bit before heading back. One does need a certain amount of truffle to make life worth living.

After Vinistra, we’ll be heading up to Empordà for the fifth annual Arrels del Vi happening on May 18-19th. We’ll be there all weekend presenting our comprehensive guide to that region which was the first English language guide to be printed about this beautiful little corner of northern Catalonia. We’ll also be available for the whole event to talk to attendees of the fair about enotourism in the region and, of course, to sign books.

Immediately after Arrels del Vi, we’re off to London for a couple of days to attend the RAW fair to learn more about natural wines. And, well, to have an excuse to visit England and its food & wine scene again.

Naturally, there are more things in the works, but that’s a quick list for now. Hope to see you around!

After Fira del Vi in Falset and then Vinstra in Istria, we’d like to make a quick mention that we’ll be at Arrels del Vi in Sant Martí d’Empúries this weekend. It’s a very nice setting in this old village that sits next to the Roman and Greek ruins that were the foundation of the region.

This year is the sixth edition of the festival, put on by the local wine shop, El Celler Petit. There will be about 25 wineries from the region in attendance and it offers up a good taste for those who are curious and with a set price per glass that eschews the whole ticket system we really don’t care for. We’ll be there selling and signing our Empordà guide directly. Stop on by, say hi, and have a taste of one of Catalonia’s most dynamic regions.

On May 4th, we were delighted to present our latest guide for DOQ Priorat in the Castell del Vi of Falset. It was a wonderful setting inside the renovated 14th century church of the castle. The presentation was hosted by the dynamic Ruth Troyano and we were joined by the president of the DOQ Priorat organization, Toni Alcover who offered up many kind words about this first comprehensive guide to the region. We appreciate all those in attendance who made the hike up the hill from the wine fair and came with questions ready.

At 432 full color pages, it represents a fantastic edition to any wine lover’s library as well an indispensable companion to anyone looking to visit the region given that it covers 104 wine producers in the region and over 300 of their wines. Available in both English and Catalan editions (the first in our series) is now available in print around Catalonia as well as directly from our website and also in a digital format from all the major digital book distributors.

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to be part of the sommelier judging panel that did the blind tasting for the Arrels del Vi awards up in Empordà. It’s always a fun experience to partake in a judging whether super serious or more for sport. The blind aspect made it even more elusive as tasting wine with no reference as to what it is makes for a curious adventure, although in this case all the 50+ wines were from the same region, Empordà.

There are those in the wine trade who will emphatically state that they know exactly which wine they’re drinking without seeing the label, despite tasting what is perhaps hundreds if not thousands per year. Those who say this need to be called out it as it is quite frankly, impossible and there’s a great deal of luck involved. To remember a wine once you see the label is entirely possible, but to guess a wine blindly, not. This was even poked fun at by Roald Dahl in his short story, Taste. It was further shown how difficult it was with Mariona Parals, a trained sommelier and the co-owner of Roig Parals, who was sitting in on the tasting (but not judging) and even she was barely able to guess which of the wines being poured were from her own winery.

If you would like to see the winners, have a look. While not the exact list we picked, it generally agrees overall with what we find to be some of the finer wines the Empordà region has to offer.

Photo of the Arrels del Vi judging panel courtesy of Diari de Girona

View the English version below

El mes passat va publicar-se el llibre Vinologue Priorat, una guia d’enoturisme sobre els cellers i vins de la Denominació d’Origen Qualificada Priorat que inclou 104 cellers i elaboradors així com descripcions de 315 vins tastats pels autors. Va presentar-se a la comarca durant els actes de la Fira del Vi de Falset i ara arriba a Barcelona amb una presentació que tindrà lloc al Bar à Vins de la Fàbrica Moritz el proper 11 de juny. Els seus autors, Miquel Hudin i Èlia Varela, estaran acompanyats d’Olivia Bayés i David Marco del celler Marco Abella de Porrera. Es tracta d’un modern celler fonamentat en una llarga tradició familiar que elabora vins amb vinyes ecològiques que amb tan sols unes poques anyades han aconseguit excel•lents resultats. A més a més ofereixen visites enoturístiques i tastos al celler.

Aquesta trobada informal compaginarà la conversa amb els autors i elaboradors en un entorn distès amb el tast dels vins del celler Marco Abella i la firma de llibres.

Vinologue Priorat + Marco Abella
Dia: dimarts 11 de juny
Hora: entre les 19.00 i les 21.00 h
Lloc: Bar à Vins – Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona (Ronda Sant Antoni, 41)
No cal reserva
Accés gratuït

———————————–

In May, the newest enotourism guide from Vinologue was released for Priorat. A comprehensive reference to the cellars and wines of Priorat, it includes 104 producer profiles as well as 315 wines with extensive tasting notes. Officially presented at the Fira del Vi in Falset, it now arrives in Barcelona with a presentation at Bar à Vins in the Fabrica Mortiz on June 11th. The authors, Miquel Hudin i Èlia Varela will be accompanied by Olivia Bayés and David Marco of the cellar, Marco Abella in Porrera–a modern cellar with a long family tradition in wine who have been producing organic wines with excellent results while growing their enotourism offer.

This informal gathering will combine a conversation with the authors as well as a taste of the Marco Abella wines followed by a book signing.

Vinologue Priorat + Marco Abella
Day: Tuesday, July 11th
Time: 19.00-21.00
Locations: Bar à Vins – Fàbrica Moritz Barcelona (Ronda Sant Antoni, 41)
Reservations not required
Free Admission

We’ve officially launched a full redesign of our website, replacing the old design had been up for a bit over two years. Those were different times for our guides and a lot has changed since then. This redesign has allowed us to step back and think about how we present our guides online, and to improve how we make them the most attractive and immediately approachable travel reference you’ll find.

Titles

We’ve doubled the number of titles we offer in the last two years. That can always make things a bit crowded and so we wanted to frame these better and really expose all of them to anyone who comes to the site for the first time as you can now see on the home page.

Print Editions

We started creating these with Empordà last year, continued this year with Priorat and will add other future titles such as Istria, hopefully soon. While all the guides have been released digitally on all the major distribution channels since we started in 2007, the print editions have added another fold to doing business. Naturally, being a physical product they have to be purchased somewhere and people are regularly contacting us to find out about distribution points. To that end there is a new, Where to Buy page that should list everywhere that you can find the print guides for sale.

Also with the print guides, there was the fact that Priorat is in both English and Catalan. Multilingual websites are always tricky to create and we’ve introduced some of these elements in the redesign. But, more will need to come as while the English language will always be our base (as we find it to be the international language of tourism), we want to continue publishing in other languages if there’s an interest.

A Bit of Polish

There were other smaller ones as well, such as incorporating the design aesthetic of the print guides in an online format and including links to our social media channels in a much smarter fashion.

We continue to maintain our News section here, to stay up to date on new title releases, presentations of our books, events we’re attending or anything related to our guides. For those looking to read reviews of wines we’re drinking or write ups on our travels and interesting things we encounter, venture over to our blog, Entourist. There’s also a permanent link in the upper right hand corner of this website which is the little bottle with wings.

Cheers and happy enotouristic adventures!

We’re happy announce the release of Menorca, our latest enotourism guide and the first for the Balearic Islands (and hopefully not the last).

Poised off the eastern coast of Spain is Menorca with its fantastic beaches and rugged, beautiful nature. A popular summer tourist destination, it also has a wine and gastronomy tradition that’s a must-see for visitors who think that Menorca is just sun and sand.

While there are just a handful of wineries that form the Vi de la Terra Menorca association, they are a wonderful complement to fresh, perfect seafood, robust cheeses, and spicy aromas of natural herbs that blanket this island. Our guide provides all of the information for contacting and visiting these island cellars as well as reviews of their current bottle vintages and, as is the case with all of our guides, other places to see and foods to taste along the way.

Available now on all the major digital platforms, it’s an economically priced guide that will provide an invaluable companion for everyone who spends time on this enchanting Balearic Island.

Just in time for August, we’re happy to announce the release of the newest, updated edition of our first enotourism guide to Dalmatia, Croatia. Now in its fourth and most complete version to date, this guide features profiles and tasting notes for 60 wineries in this southern tip of Croatia along with 200 of their wines. Beloved old stalwarts like Dingač, Bibich, and Plenković are there alongside exciting newcomers such as Rizman and Markus.

Originally released in 2008, this book was the first comprehensive guide to the wines of any region in Croatia. Now more compact and making use of the latest version of our proprietary epub layout, the guide gives readers access to extremely versatile information that they can take with them on their tablet, phone, e-reader, or computer. Immediately download your copy today on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Kobo.

Cheers and enjoy Dalmatian wines! We wish you the best enotouristic travels.

Yesterday, we were happy to to have a midday news segment about our Priorat guide produced and aired on the national Catalan station, TV3. It covered both ends of the region and featured appearances by Cesc Capafons of Capafons-Ossó and Ricard Rofes representing both the winery Cellers de Scala Dei as well as the DOQ Priorat office. It allowed us the chance to talk about writing the guide and our experiences in the region.

As the entire piece is in Catalan, feel free to run this text version through Google Translate for a reasonably correct English version. Also take a look at the making of photos.

Many thanks to the TV3 crew who were able to pull this together so quickly!

Today we were very happy to make a presentation of our Priorat guide at the 33rd annual Mostra de Vins i Caves de Catalunya, set in front of the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona. This fair, organized by INCAVI (the Catalan wine regulation body) during the Barcelona festa major weekend, is the largest in Catalonia and wineres from all of the 12 DOs in the region are represented, so we were thrilled to be part of the program. Our presentation was put up by local cultural club, Tr3sc and allowed us the chance to share the wonderful wines of Marco Abella along with the story of how our guide came to be, with everyone in attendance.

It was a full room and unfortunately some people who showed up later had to be turned away, but we hope we’ll have the chance to see them at an event in the future such as the fair Degusta Priorat in the Buil & Giné winery in Gratallops this coming weekend.