If most people know anything about Spanish wine they’ll probably mention either Rioja, Tempranillo, or assume that they’re basically the same thing which isn’t completely wrong. While this may seem a limited viewpoint to those in the wine cognoscenti, it’s actually brilliant as it means that Rioja has such brand identity, they essentially ‘are’ Spain.

This doesn’t come without its pitfalls however as it makes Rioja a very large boat and such vessels can find it slow to change direction no matter how choppy the waves on the horizon clearly appear. This is why the most-recent Rioja Report has been so surprising.

There are wines with far less alcohol. More white wines. More experimentation in terms of style that are not the classic Rioja, but something else, which to call ‘Modern’ Rioja seems to sell it short. There have also been a great many changes at the leadership level as well, which is in turn driving more changes. All of this is looked at, in the Report.

Clearly, it’s needed given that the climate, market, and just about everything is changing while there are still 600 producers making wines in Rioja each year that need a home and someone to drink them. I do what I can, although I am but one man. I can only hope that what we’ve been seeing will get others to come back to Rioja who have perhaps stayed away for some time as it was ‘boring’. It’s definitely anything but these days.

What is wine but of course a Holy Trinity of blending just the right things? That was my recent proposition as I find the ‘enlightenment’ given to old, random field blends to often be overplayed. I’m of a mind that the best blends, are made in the wineries and with intention.

Sadly, there also continues to be a great deal of intention in the continuing war crimes by Russia in Ukraine. Recently, they’ve destroyed yet another wine warehouse (*) in the country as they work to break the Ukrainian spirit, which seems only to hold more resolve, the more the Russians try. There are links in that article by if you are able to send much-needed aid in the continuing efforts to beat back the horrors of this Russian invasion, now in its fifth year.

Lastly, I’d like to draw your attention to ‘The List’ (*) which is collection of Wine Substacks that are both published regularly and have paid subscribers. I’m working to update this (*) which as usual has people telling me that it’s ‘incomplete’ when it’s just an effort to have a more-or-less current list of people using this platform to publish professionally in an age of dyingdead wine media.

Please have a look at the requisites and get in contact if you have any suggestions as the final list will be published round about September.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Rioja Report

Large, expansive, varied and that’s just talking about the landscape. When it comes to the wines, there’s truly everything produced in Rioja these days and the accompanying Tasting Report of over 230 wines shows this ever so clearly.

And now this

Feel like aging your wine for 17 years before release? That’s the idea behind Buezo in the small DO Arlanza just to the north of Ribera del Duero.

While we’ve been talking about Rioja, it’s worth noting that their young wines have changed a great deal in recent years, especially with the Negu from Baigorri.

Always good for an update from a quality producer in Ribera del Duero, such as what we see from these wines of Viña Vilano.

And of course, what’s a rosé if not’s pinker than pink, although the Pla dels Àngels of Scala Dei is one of the finest examples of the pinky type.

Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

While on a trip to Porto and the Douro recently, a colleague and I started talking about “field blends” and I admitted that I find the mystique given to them to be a bit, how shall we say… ‘bullshit’.

It’s often part of the branding at many wineries that, if they have an old vineyard, they’ll upsell the aspect that they pick all the grapes together and ferment the one as one, singular, beautiful wine. The idea being that over time, the vineyard has been planted with a vast array of grape varieties to achieve the perfect balance and truly everything, everything, was intentional.

I’ve visited a solid number of these vineyards and I rarely see much that’s methodical to the process of creating this ‘singular’ blend of vines. Indeed, there’s a romanticism to the concept and it makes for a good story. But, it seems to be more the case that as some vines died off (as they do), the owner of the vineyard just grabbed some clippings from a neighbor’s vineyard or planted some other variety that caught his eye at the moment he needed to do the planting. And all of this is before we mention that there are some varieties like Muscat, which were often planted to have a snack during harvest and were never, ever meant to be part of a final wine from the vineyard.

For many old vineyards, it’s not really all that important such as in the case of the vineyards in Douro where this conversation originally came up. Everything growing in the vineyard historically went into making Port wines and having a proper amount of sugar accumulation in the vineyard was the key factor above and beyond the specific varieties. I’ve never heard anyone in the Douro/Port wineries state that it’s terribly important if a vineyard was planted with Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinto Cão, Viosinho, or one of the other 80+ varieties allowed for planting. Just the fact that the authorities allow such a massive spread of varieties shows how little importance they give to the minute make up of a vineyard.

But, outside of the Douro, I’ve been to some very old vineyards used to produce regular, unfortified wines. It’s these owners that will often espouse that this massive, broad rainbow of varieties produces a ‘special’ wine. It’s usually the case that said wine, is not all that special, as there are so many conflicting varieties profiles in a wine and thus showing exactly what the vineyard produces when not marked by a winemaking process such as fortification or lengthy-aged as is the case with Port. I find the massive clash of these wines similar to why hard-left political groups can never accomplish as much as they should given that truly everyone has a voice.

A wine can only work from these old “field blend” vineyards once the owner and winemaker realize that this supposed symphony of unique and individual flavors really just makes for a dog’s breakfast (*) of a wine. What they then do is harvest the individual varieties at their optimum time to vinify separately and then blend them later. In fact, this is the more typical story during modern winery visits:

“We harvest each plot and variety to vinify them separately and create a blend that varies depending upon the vintage.”

Take that in contrast to:

“We use the delicate balance of this field blend, achieved over time, to produce a beautiful, singular wine.”

It become much clearer that the imbuing some form of vineyard voodoo into these field blends is in fact a marketing reaction to in order to stand out in a crowded room that, ironically came about due to the lunacy of tossing every grape from the vineyard into the tank at once to ferment.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve long-believed that in hotter climates, blended wines are almost always superior as they have balanced, well-thought parts making up a greater whole. And, when in the case of a region like Priorat, there are two core varieties, Garnatxa and Carinyena, that are joined together to create a blend and make what is one of the Holy Trinities of the wine world.

This requires further exploration.

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Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: there’s strength in young wine.

Sure, when it comes to investing or being ‘fancy’, everyone is was more than happy shell out good money for long-aged wines such as in Bordeaux, but even when these were the cat’s loudest meow, they were always a small portion of the wine being consumed. In fact, all of these wines with five years or more of aging make up something like 1% of the total wine market, at best. The actual truth is that more than 90% of all wine produced, is consumed within a year of its production. That’s a bit mind blowing when you stop to think about it, but it also goes to show just how important young wines are to the market.

I’m a person that does indeed prefer wines with a bit more youth. The simple reason behind this is that I enjoy fruit in my wine given that grapes are a fruit and grapes make wine. It’s fine to have all those developed nutty, earthy, and other aromas from aging, but I definitely want at least some fruit in there. At the same time, I don’t want the infamous “fruit bomb”. Thus, give me fruit, but make it fresh.

Despite my general preferences, the style of very young wines produced in Rioja, especially in the Alavesa bit of Basque Country, has never really suited my tastes. What they produce there is called, maceración carbónica and it’s a traditional method of producing wine via “intracellular fermentation” wherein you choke off all access to oxygen by sealing the grapes in a container and letting them ferment, from the inside out. Despite this seeming like a form of interrogation used by the CIA, it produces a very fruity style of wine due to everything being macerated within a blanket of CO2 and thus, no contact with oxygen.

My problem with many of the wines is that they can be exceedingly simple. This may be exactly what one wants sometimes, but more often than not, there’s also what I can only describe as something of a charcoal aroma to the wines that covers up any amount of true depth. It was always a bit off-putting and kept me from enjoying this style or really even wanting to review them given that I think the majority fly out of the warehouses to be guzzled in the tapas bars of Rioja’s very enjoyable capital city, Logroño.

But along came a wine that would make me reevaluate everything when it comes to these young, Rioja wines.

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I’ll probably live to regret saying this, but there are few things in the wine world that intimidate me at this point. Well, okay, small-production orange wines I’ll always find terrifying as you just never know what you’re gonna get and more often than not, they’ll lurch at you violently from the shadows.

Otherwise, I’ve found that there’s always a way to approach a wine region no matter how large, famous, onerous, or historic it may be. Sometimes, it requires a bit of creative thinking as I fully admit that a region such as Rioja is a place where I’m always working on better ways to do quality tastings from as many of the 600 wineries in the region as possible… in a compressed timeframe.

That said, the region of Languedoc has long-proven to be something a bit tough to bite off. Why? Well, it’s the largest wine region in France in terms of production. In fact, in all of Europe, it’s the second largest, with only Castilla-La Mancha producing more wine, albeit with a surface area three times larger than Languedoc.

This is why when I was invited to a week-long tasting of the Languedoc wines, it seemed a good opportunity to accept. It was a week that meant someone else would be in charge of constructing a manner to taste through these wines that emerge from the 230,000ha of vineyards running up and down this strip of the Mediterranean.

The end result is the latest Tasting Report and it’s one where I definitely discovered new things. For starters, Tom Gilbey’s funny, yet very cutting statement that the region used to be a tremendous producer of “toilet water” is of course not the case. There are some truly excellent wines within the massive smattering of appellations. That said, there are those that challenge you as well and it’s all covered in the report along with tasting notes for over 300 wines.

In the general happenings of the great wine world, wrote up a fine piece covering the issues around a surprise vote to allow the Russian Sommelier Association back into the greater International Sommelier Association. They were rightfully expelled when Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, but there are countless other issues that should have seen them expelled even earlier which Panov has done a fine job writing up.

And of course it seems I can’t put out a single newsletter these days without a mention of something happening in the world of Corpinnat. In this case, it’s that they’ve just announced (*) a new member, Mas Vilella which brings them one shy of a proper two dozen members at this point. They’ve come a long, long way in a very short time. How? By making quality wine and practicing quality viticulture. Crazy, right?!

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Languedoc Report

A vast region, with truly every type of wine produced within its boundaries, here we take a look at just where things currently sit in France’s juggernaut of wine production.

And now this

It’s always a good time for Godello, especially when it’s one such as the Cepas Viejas from Dominio de Tares in DO Bierzo.

When one is in the mood for just about any kind of wine, there are producers like Famille Quiot that make just about everything in the Rhône and do it very well.

An exciting new look at Hispano Suizas down in València who are making ever-finer wines and this time around, their sparkling wines are of special note.

Also, when in Rhône, one makes just about everything that’s within view of the winery and on the best, do it well, such as with Domaine de la Mordorée.

Maybe it’s the time of year for a white from Rioja and if so, how about the Viña Salceda Entresierras?

Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

Looking back at the previous Priorat Report as I prepare for this year’s edition, it’s worth taking a look at one of the most-asked questions about the wines of DOQ Priorat which is, “Why are they so expensive?”

There are many aspects at play in this, but it’s important to look at their cost relative to other fine wine regions in the world as Priorat is not actually that expensive in the global view of things. For example, the average price per bottle for wines from Napa Valley in California is currently ~$100. Champagne is up there too, usually running about half that price in the US for the most basic non-vintage blends and of course there are others which are a great deal more such as Burgundy, Barolo, Bordeaux, and undoubtedly other regions starting with a ‘B’. As per a comparison, the official average price of Priorat wine, according to the Catalan Wine Institute (INCAVI), is 9.85€, which, hmmm…

It would be amazing if this was an actual figure, but it doesn’t fully compute and is ridiculously low unless there’s some winery producing one million bottles of wine at around 7€ retail to offset the more typical price of around 25€ locally for the bulk of production. I’ve reached out to INCAVI for further clarification. Needless to say, whether it’s 9.85€ or 25€ this is still a vastly different amount than $100 and yet Priorat continues to have a reputation of producing very expensive wines.

This perception is most likely based upon a few anchor wines which form the pinnacle of several producer’s portfolios. Perfect examples are: Álvaro Palacios’s l’Ermita at 1,200€, Mas Doix’s Tossal d’en Bou (1902) at roughly 500€ and Coma de Cases (1903) at 425€, Clos Erasmus at 350€, Vall Llach’s Mas de la Rosa at 290€, and Terroir al Límit’s Les Manyes and Les Tosses at 250€. There are few others that break the 100€ mark but the numbers rapidly fade away after these and you arrive to much more modest prices (with much larger production) such as Palacios’s Camins del Priorat, Vall Llach’s Embruix, Mas Alta’s Artigas, and Scala Dei’s Prior that are all at around 22-25€, locally.

This may be news to those who thought that Priorat wines were out of reach in terms of price. Thus, for those interested, please have a look at this selection of Priorat under 30€ where there are nearly 40 very nice wines at very digestible prices.

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And the CdC is back, kisses to all!

Well, we never actually went away but were just ‘homeless’ for awhile due to not ‘paying’ the rent nor ‘cleaning’ the shared fridge in the co-working space we were also sleeping and smoking a pork shoulder in. But hey, through sheer determination and excellence, here we are again!

Speaking of ‘excellence’, it’s been reported that bubble behemoth, Freixenet is one of the “Top 100 Companies to work for in Spain” (ES). This of course ignores the fact that they were trying to lay off over 600 people (CAT) in the company two years ago, which kinda sounds like ‘all’ of the company given that now they have about 570 employees. You also need to ignore that they pay an unlivable 0.30€/kg for grapes to viticulturists in the Cava region. But hey, they got an LGBTQ+ program, so all is forgiven. Excellent company!

As per the high quality of The Drink Business's editorial standards, they ‘conveniently’ forget to mention that in a recent article, all of these Russian wine structures have been built in the illegally-occupied territory of Crimea, Ukraine. Admittedly it may have just been an oversight and not blatant propaganda given that the author, Eugene Gerden was in a rush when ‘borrowing’ from the original, actual journalism (RU) that very much does discuss the illegal aspects of the project. Gerden just snipped out a few of the ‘inconvenient’ bits and voilà!

As part of the CdC’s Wildlife Rapid Alert Program, we’d like to do out part and warn everyone that if in France, the season of drunken deer is upon us. You may think this is a cruel turn in evolution, but the fact is, wildlife is just doing its part given that beer has overtaken wine consumption in the country. Get yer drink on, our horn-ed friends!

And of course from our Automotive Detailing Department, we have word of thoughts on the Electric Ferrari but of course, it’s a wine edition.

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Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

The week in Provence had begun shakily and as the complications rolled on, I just wanted to eat a nice, menu de midi at a pleasant, normal restaurant. No emulsions, no deconstructions, no petit fours, no giant plates with tiny scoops of things. Just regular, local food, please… sans pince à épiler.

I had a tasting scheduled in Tavel—home of Serious Rosés—and I found what seemed to be the perfect option with 19€ set menu. The server (who I assume was the wife of the chef given her ‘eccentric’ nature) asked if I wanted any wine to drink with the meal. The rain had stopped that morning and the sun was wondrous, lighting up a verdant spring in all its glory. While I usually drink very little if at all while on research trips, I thought, “When in Tavel, one should most definitely drink the Anti-Provence.” and I ordered a half bottle without much thought.

It arrived and met all my expectations, pulsating in that wondrous un-red but also un-onion skin color, the the latter of which it seems all rosés want to emulate these days. One sip reminded me as to why should all be drinking a lot more Tavel (MTGA?) in that it’s a truly wonderful wine that’s the best of all worlds: rich and textured on the palate like a red, acidity of a fine white, aromatics of a rosé and more than that, generally well-priced for what ends up in your glass.

The bill came and I was literally enraged to find that the wine, a half bottle of Tavel in Tavel, was 17€. It was admittedly my own stupidity for not verifying the price before receiving the bottle, but there was no wine list given when ordering and I’d glanced at their wine list online which has the full bottle listed at 23€. Also, as is usually the case when in wine regions, I’d assumed it was some local wine that would be affordable and pleasing.

Well… it definitely can be affordable, if you buy it directly from the cooperative of Les Vignerons de Tavel & Lirac where a full bottle cost 9.40€. I’d been charged 17€ for a half bottle. In case you’re wondering, the full bottle at the restaurant cost a whopping 32.50€.

The last time I’d been scammed like this was by a taxi driver in Kyiv who’d kept the doors locked at the airport until I paid his invented price. That a family-run restaurant in a nice village in Southern France was committing a scam of similar incredulities, was insulting.

I argued with the server about it and suddenly her accepting-of-my-mistakes French vanished and she had no clue what I was talking about and acted very dumb. It was a very stupid thing to do as the restaurant wasn’t full by any means and it’s clear they’re trying to pull in a bit more money by vastly overcharging for the wines. Even if I was to ever go back, would I order wine? Never and as anyone reading this knows, I love wine.

Punch the golden goose and kill it too

According to an average of sources, there was a 15% drop in wines sales in restaurants in 2025 and while this will vary per region, it sounds more or less on point given the panic across the industry. This is justified but everyone is looking to external sources as to the cause. At trade fairs you hear that it’s due to people wanting to be healthier post-pandemic or newer generations not drinking wine or Ozempic jabs, etc.

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Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

In late May, the ASI General Assembly was held in Taipei, Taiwan. Among the organizational issues discussed by the presidents of the national associations belonging to ASI, a motion to reinstate Russian sommeliers was unexpectedly put to a vote.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ASI had not issued any official statements regarding the status of the Russian association, and only in response to a media inquiry did it state that RAS is on hold. Now, in May, the ASI board proposed not to reinstate the entire association’s membership, but merely to allow Russian members to the next competition for the title of Europe’s Best Sommelier. This point was not listed on the agenda in advance and came as a surprise to many of the participants. Twenty-four members voted against, 16 in favor, and 8 abstained. As a result, the suspension of Russian sommeliers was extended at least until the next assembly.

At the same time, the very fact that this issue was put to a vote raises a number of questions about the consistency of ASI’s policies. The third issue of ASI Mag outlined four key requirements for ASI members. These are registration as a non-profit organization, a board of directors composed primarily of practicing professional sommeliers, voting rights reserved exclusively for practicing professional sommeliers, and a democratic process for electing the president and board members as stipulated in the bylaws.

The situation with the Russian Association of Sommeliers (RAS) is the exact opposite. Although the Russian association has been a member of ASI since 2002, its legal entity was not registered until 2015. The company is registered as an LLC, that is, as a commercial enterprise. The Registry of Legal Entities lists the organization’s sole board member — its director Alexei Sidorov. Mr. Sidorov is holding his position since 1999 – longer than Putin and longer than many African dictators. He has not worked in a restaurant for more than twenty years.

The ASI Code of Ethics strictly prohibits any form of bribery or corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, embezzlement, and conflicts of interest.

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As summer appears to be kicking in—leaving me to wonder if my beach umbrella from Amazon will ever arrive—I’m left with fewer doubts about what to drink as bubbles: chilled, fresh, and fine are always on the menu.

This is why it’s a great moment of the year to have released the annual Corpinnat Report. There seems to be little stopping the energy and forward momentum of this association as they continue to pick up more members including former DO Cava heavy, Juvé & Camps.

And the wines continue to excel from all wineries. I assume this is helped by being free of the budget bubbly shackles within Cava as well as having an active group of viticulturists (not bottle wine resellers) to consult with. I’ve no idea where this project will ultimately go, but for the moment, everything is very much in the direction of up.

There are of course some who won’t be able to join and sadly, they will have to remain as the un-Cava Cava people, unless of course they decide to go solo, which is always an option and one that’s worked well for some very serious sparkling producers in the region.

Within the world of wine, we recently-passed something of an important date, or at least what used to be an important date given that nearly all the people directly-involved are now dead. I’m not talking about the end of WWII but of course the Judgment of Paris which saw it's 50th anniversary at the end of May, although on some level, it feels more like the 5,000th anniversary given how often tastings with this theme reappear, year upon year. Will the 60th or 75th or even 100th be big affairs? If any of us are lucky enough to be around for these, do let us know!

And lastly some longer deep-dives looking at meeting the real Isabel Ferrando in Châteauneuf-du-Pape during the research for that report and also tasting a fine wine of straw from Ferrer Bobet for the upcoming DOQ Priorat report.

It’s also important to mention a bit of housecleaning as the eagle-eyed might have noted that, in addition to more regular articles here on ‘The Hudin Letter’, the URL has also changed to be shorter at: letter.hudin.com. They’re small items but all part of a larger plan to simplify publishing as well as make all the segments of the ‘Hudiverse’ more connected. We’ll have more to say about this in due course.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Corpinnat Report

We’re almost to the point of these sparkling wines needing no introduction as the momentum is all on their side with producers continuing to make the best bubbles in Iberia. This is the largest tasting to date with a wonderful selection of wines at all levels.

And now this

There are some markets (like the US) that have been going bonkers for the white Sauvignon Blanc wines of Sancerre. But it’s important to know that this appellation does also produce a decent amount of red, such as this Pinot Noir.

It’s always good to check in on Ribera del Duero in Spain to find new projects such as this from Alba en Ribera.

Who wouldn’t want a bit of Albariño this time of year? And to think, wines such as this from Attis didn’t really even exist just a few years ago.

Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

As shown in the report on the Corpinnat sparkling wines, there’s no debate as to the solid momentum behind this association. What started as a group of six ‘rogue’ high-quality sparkling winemakers abandoning the Denomination of Origin Cava has turned into a serious bubbly force to be reckoned with.

I feel like the larger question being asked now isn’t, “Why would someone leave DO Cava?” and much more, “Why wouldn’t someone join Corpinnat?”

While it may seem a rather obvious direction to take, there are vast and varied barriers to join, all of which revolve around why Corpinnat was created in the first place.

There are many wineries within DO Cava who aren’t producing their own wines and are in fact buying in bottled-wines from others within the region–a perfectly legal thing to do, but it says nothing about one’s ‘estate’. There are also those who aren’t farming organically which is a core tenet to be amongst the ranks of Corpinnat.

Then there are those (such as the recently de-Cava-ed, en-Corpinatt-ed Juvé & Camps) who may do everything else according to the rules of Corpinnat but use a significant amount of French varieties. The main culprits in this particular issue are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which exist due to sparkling producers in Spain wanting to emulate the grapes used in Champagne. All of these foreign grape varieties are to be completely phased out from Corpinnat production by 2035. I suspect most wineries in the association will arrive to this point much earlier if they haven’t already.

There is however yet another reason that a winery would continue under the auspices of DO Cava and we see that with Art Laietà, previously known as Alta Alella.

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Also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers.

In the world of fashion, there’s the premise that all styles come back around, something like every 20 years. This happens to be extremely good news as the skinny jean fad was killing me and I’ve been waiting to buy new “baggy” jeans for what seems like time inmemorable.

I have the distinct impression the world of fashion doesn’t apply when it comes to wines and more specifically when talking about sweet, dessert wines.

The absolute sweet zenith would probably be during the Goût Russe Champagne period which saw this treacly sparkling wine churned out in the 19th century with 300g/l of sugar for the Russian market. The fully-dessert wines of our current age are less than half that total and these sparkling wines are hopefully, something now left for the history books. But in losing that super sweet bubble format, it seems it set in motion events that have eventually taken the beautiful world of dessert wines down as well. Their general consumption has been in a freefall for something like the last 75 years now and I don’t particularly see them recovering their glory, especially in a time when both sugar and alcohol are a tag team of boogiemen.

Thus, if a winery is going to release a dessert wine today, especially one with a 20-year aging process, it’s clearly for their own curiosity/love of this oft-forgotten style of wine. This is something I would expect no less from than a winemaker such as Raül Bobet, the co-owner of the winery Ferrer-Bobet in the Priorat region of Catalunya, Spain.

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This article is also available on Hudin.com to Personal & Commercial subscribers as well as the in-depth Châteauneuf-du-Pape Report for 2026.

There exist several wine brands which have taken on the names of historic women and in the process, grown to rather mythic status with time. Perhaps the most famous is Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin aka Veuve Clicquot. She definitely deserves a far better and more accurate film of her life someday, but her name (or at least the widowed version of it) graces one of the most iconic Champagnes there is. Then, at the other end of the spectrum there’s Anna de Codorníu from the Cava ‘Jumbotron’, Codorníu and is, a ‘different’ kind of sparkling described generously in a review once as having, a “somewhat flat-feeling finish.”

While both Barbe-Nicole and Anna did exist, I feel that their names (much as perhaps is the case with Dom Perignon) are used more to market wines than actually tell a real story. Despite my personal aversion to this, it continues with other wines brands at varying levels and probably won’t stop any time soon.

This is why, via the first time I fully tasted the Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines from “Isabel Ferrando” about two years ago, I thought that this perhaps was perhaps another such name. Given, the distinctly Spanish aspect to her name, I’d even invented a backstory that she was probably an 18th-century Flamenco dancer from Jerez de la Frontera who, upon killing her philandering husband one night, stole a horse and fled to the wilds of Provence. Once there, she managed to win a wine estate via a game of cards which she’d rigged. And, I continued to imagine that all the marketing materials in the present day would then state, “The wines produced today pay tribute to this legacy.”

Of course I did finally meet the real Isabel Ferrando.

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From a young age, when March ticked over on the calendar, I was always accustomed to hearing, “in like a lion out like a lamb” to infer that if it started out strong in terms of weather, it would end softly. The beauty of such phrases is that I doubt few if any of us look at day 1 and 31 day to see if folklore matches the reality and thus we keep saying it because it sounds nice, you know, just like gesundheit after someone sneezes.

Plunging into a new phase of life that held not one but two languages that were initially foreign to me, has of course led to even more quaint phrases, one of which in Catalan I actually like a great deal, al maig cada dia un raig (‘ig’ = ‘ch’) which is to say that in May, it rains every day. Obviously a changing climate has dealt this axiom something of a death blow, but this year, after a very warm end to April, May has indeed gotten very chilly and more importantly, wet. This is a fine thing as the vines outside my office window grow, their tendrils reaching for the heavens, prior to being weighed down by bunches of succulent grapes.

Weirdly, despite the well-known renewal of spring, for some reason it can also make me nostalgic and thus I often find myself looking back to the past both recent and old.

Like how it was just last month where I was in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas researching the newest Regional Report that’s out now for subscribers who want to enjoy all that's amazing about these two pillars of the Southern Rhône. On the back of a generous 2025, it seems that people are generally up in spirits, despite the fact there are countless abandoned vineyards littering the fields outside the mains ‘crus’—a reality that’s terrifying but needing to faced regardless.

Then we look back a bit further into recent history with a Featured Report on Croatia based upon my last two weeks of travel in March. This crescent-shaped country in Southern Europe can definitely be tricky for anyone to wrap their heads around given the local grape variety names: Kujundžuša, anyone? Thus, slicing off a core group of wines that currently represent the best of what winemakers are doing seemed to make the most sense and be very useful for those that want to get ‘in’ on this wondrous land of wine.

Leading up to this year’s Priorat Report, it also seemed like a good time to look back at the wines of 2021 and how they’re currently tasting. It was a curious moment in time for the region and it was interesting to see just what form the wines took from what was one of my favorite vintages.

And why stop at just five years when we can wind the clock even further to look at how the wine bar of Movia Vinoteka in Ljubljana, Slovenia is now compared to how it was when I first visited nearly two decades ago. Spoiler alert: so much better.

So far, 2026 seems to be something on an inflection point and I’m not just saying that because I read it in a Chinese Horoscope prediction, which, admittedly I did. But, it really seems like a lot of what’s new is old in all facets of life and thankfully, for someone who doesn’t like to alter his fashion choices, loose-fitting jeans are indeed back!

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Châteauneuf & Gigondas Report

Two of the pillars of Southern Rhône, the winemakers have had to work through some difficult vintages recently, but there is most definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Regional analysis and tasting notes for over 300 wines.

Featured Croatia

Croatia isn’t a huge country, but it’s quite complex in terms of very divergent wine regions and has truly a bit of everything. This report takes the larger Croatia Report and makes a selection of a few, singular wines that exemplify all that’s excellent in this corner of Southern Europe.

And now this

Have you heard about the grape variety Pirene? Up until a few years ago, no one had as it was nearly lost, but this wine from the Torres winery in Costers del Segre shows the potential.

And a new look at this winery called Les Freses, down in Alicante that’s focused on producing wines from only the local/traditional varieties. There’s quite a lot to enjoy and the depth of the wines keeps growing with each vintage.

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All the roses exchanged for Catalunya’s wonderful day of Sant Jordi last week are most likely withered and gone at this point, but that doesn’t mean that spring doesn’t continue at full tilt. In fact, it’s been so warm that other parts of Europe (those still having snow flurries) would probably mistake this April for their hottest parts of summer.

I won’t lie, it makes for wonderful days with what is essentially the perfect temperature for everything minus a dip in the sea, although plenty seem intent on forcing this issue.

At the same time, we’ve arrived to that point in the year where I’m concerned as to what the summer holds. This fear was compounded by reading that nearly 40% of the vines in Champagne were damaged by frost at the beginning of April. This is the second-worst on record, only topped by the frost damage in 2003 which seemed to ironically foreshadow the arrival of one of the worst summers in Europe—may history not repeat itself again.

But the weather is anything if not schizophrenic these days. At beginning of the month I went to spend a few days in the region of DO Costers del Segre, which is the inner-most province in Catalunya and the only one without a coastline.

I was there to visit more wineries, sites, and to write up a new report (*) from a visitor’s point of view. The first day I arrived, I needed my heaviest coat. Five days later, I was sweating in a t-shirt and this despite being way, way up in the Spanish Pyrénées; a blessed place on this planet of ours if there ever was one.

I’ve passed a great many summers in Europe of course. When tasting a flight of Herzegovina’s Žilavka white wines last month (full report is out now) I was reminded about my last trip to the region when it was achingly hot. Despite this, the food was excellent and I had a fine time in this southern part of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Hopefully the wines can reach a broader audience as their style has matured wonderfully over the years.

And why not round out talking about the weather for when I went to lunch while compiling the Southern Rhône report. It was a rather cloudy week, but when the sun finally came out, I was rather dismayed to find in the quaint village restaurant I was dining, that the same wine markups-on-steroids that are rampant in the US and UK have also apparently found their way to Southern France. So, do we really need to ask why people aren’t buying wine in restaurants (*) anymore?

If looking to avoid going out, maybe drink at home and enjoy watching something about wine, so here’s a review for Season 2 (*) of “Drops of God”. As a spoiler alert, many things are the same as Season 1, except this time, the dynamic duo are in Georgia.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Costers del Segre Destination Report

Mountains, rivers, snow and plains, olive oil and of course, wine. What more could one want? Spoiler alert: not much.

Herzegovina’s Žilavka

Bosnia & Herzegovina obviously has a bit of a branding issue to overcome when it comes to promoting their wines, but they have a great deal to enjoy, such as these wines from the native white variety of Žilavka.

Drink It or Sink It

A look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Torre Oria Caperucita Tinta - IG | YT

Château de la Bonde Luberon Rosé 2025 - IG | YT

And now this

Châteauneuf can be excellent, even in a young form as shown by this Tradition Rouge by Domaine de Beaurenard.

These wines were a fine discovery in terms of Ribera del Duero wines from Bodega Severino Sanz.

When having the opportunity to taste a vertical of fine wines from Istra’s Teran grape in Croatia, one takes it.

Jointly with the Costers del Segre report, there was the chance to taste the Purgatori from Torres, which has shaped up to be a fine wine.

Maybe a little something from the islands, such as this red from Vins Nadal on Mallorca?

For those not up on all things Iberian, today is ‘Sant Jordi’ in the Catalan regions of Spain and France. It’s a lot like Valentine’s Day except with books and roses as well as no chocolate and probably less drunken sex. This lack of action likely has nothing to do with the suggested wine pairings that local sommeliers shit out curate for the day, focusing on either red wines to match the roses given, or rosé wines to meet halfway and sell pink juice from the harvest before last as we all know that themed wine pairings, suck.

Also on the theme of pairings is the rise of the AI Sommelier. People are already fighting back by saying that, “A.I. will never be able to understand the mood at a table, the vibe.” which is true, but, won't the dining experience also be missing that ‘thing’ when there isn't a disgraced Master Sommelier offering to masturbate in front of you even after you’ve repeated that you don’t want to go back to his hotel room? Some things you can put a price on, for everything else, there are lapel pins.

And for those who didn’t hear, famed wine critic, Robert Parker, enologist Michel Rolland has joined that micro-oxygenated tank in the sky after living a life that most any mortal on this planet would have killed for.

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The very last line from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off popped into my head when finishing to write this newsletter, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The reason being that here in these fine, early days of spring, I’m usually all set to release the latest Croatia Report which this year, is accompanied by an extensive, Dalmacija Report. More than just my having familial links to these regions, I find them very exciting with a constant drive to innovate given that they had to completely rebuild after the collapse of Yugoslavia. There were many key people in this work and sadly, one of those heavily involved in this work and who I knew very well, Alen Bibić, died last week. (*)

But this year of tastings and visits proved no different in terms of uncovering innovation. In addition to the stalwart reds of the coast from Dalmacija and Istra being exciting, I’ve really taken to the whites of these regions, as well as the sparkling wines. It’s the latter that seems to have seen a great deal of development in the past year as they’re literally trying to make sparkling wines from any grape variety there is. Some of it doesn’t work and some of it does very well. A rosé sparkling wine from: Trnjak, Vranec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah? Why not?!!

Regardless, I’m sure it will continue to evolve and all of it will sell if priced well as there is a very thirsty audience during the blustery summer months.

That isn’t however the reason to choose the nuclear option and invoke a Ferris Bueller quote as the same day I was preparing to send this out, an event came to pass which has upended the sparkling wine scene in Spain, yet again. Juvé & Camps, one of the most esteemed producers in DO Cava, has announced that they are leaving Cava to join the Corpinnat. (*)

Is this news at the level of the original five leaving DO Cava back in 2019? In many regards, yes, as the production of Juvé & Camps will nearly double that of Corpinnat and it will lend even further strength to the association in terms of being the quality sparkling wine name to remember in Spain. At the same time it pulls a huge segment of quality sparkling wine away from DO Cava. It is, Big News.

I had actually scheduled to do a new tasting for this year’s Corpinnat report towards the end of March, but quite suddenly the directors of the association asked to postpone it a month and now I can see why. While that delays the report slightly, it also is a tremendous step in terms of the evolution of sparkling wine for the territory and it’s clear to see why these wines are such an economic driver for Catalan wine. (*)

Thus, April is already moving “pretty fast”. I swear I’ll look around any moment now.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Reports

Croatian Wines 2026

An engaging and ever-evolving country in terms of its wines, this is the latest look at what’s going on.

Dalmatian Wines 2026

Always a tremendous lure for tourism, the wines are changing each year and the embrace of native varieties continues to go well.

Drink It or Sink It

A look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Cellers Unió Profecia Rosat 2024 - IG | YT

And now this

If you’ve not had the bubbles from Slovenija, you’ve been missing out as shown by this fine selection.

What’s the difference between 2013 and 2015 in DOQ Priorat? As it turns out, quite a bit!

Also in Slovenija, there’s a fine “golden hill” that’s worth getting to know just a bit more if you don’t already.

And lastly, another look at Priorat with a retrospect of the relatively unknown wine, Triaca.

For anyone in the wine trade, spring is a sack of madness tossed into a swirling river of insanity.

Most everything important happens in the spring and seemingly all at once as this is the season of fairs, tastings, and various judging competitions. Thankfully, the immense body comprising European Wine Fairs Inc. have realized that they can’t all take place at the same moment and so, Barcelona Wine Week, Wine Paris, Prowein, and Vinitaly are kind enough to follow each other over three, hardcore months.

Most colleagues I know don’t go to all of them and in the past, the only one that truly mattered was Prowein. That is, until people got tired of staying in ‘popup’ Airbnbs that were little more than closets at exorbitant prices because all the hotels were exceptionally full as the fair is in the hot, hot prime European destination of… Düsseldorf.

Well, there’s clearly a new dominant player on the fair scene and officially, that’s Wine Paris. It only started in 2019 via the merger of Vinisud (formerly of Montpellier) and Wine Vision but looks as if the 2026 edition will be the most visited wine fair in all of Europe.

As an interesting aside, apparently Wine Paris was nearly Wine Barcelona at one point as the organizers were looking to move and in talks with the Catalan government to relocate. Unfortunately, just before everything was signed, there were elections, politicians changed and the interest was lost. It was unfortunately very shortsighted as while Barcelona Wine Week is a fine event for Spanish wine and probably the best there is currently, it’s just that, only for Spanish wine and an event with Vinisud as the underpinnings could have been so much more.

Wine Paris really took off once WineExpo joined in 2020 and they squeaked in the fair just before the world went off the rails. But, coming back in a post-pandemic world, the fair has gotten ever-more popular because… dunno… it’s in Paris, oui? But in addition to ample hotels, restaurants, and not needing to sleep on a boat ‘hotel’ (unless that’s your thing) the French also know how to do the ‘off’ like no one else and so the side events are tremendous as well with more each year.

They were also smart enough not to crash Wine Paris into other key events such as Grands Jours de Bourgogne which is happening right now. If you don’t it, this is an event only for Burgundy wines that’s intense, amazing, and if in the wine trade, it's one of those things you need to do at least once… if they let you in. The last time I was there, I was focusing on the sparkling wines of Crémant de Bourgogne as well as digging a great deal more into Aligoté, a variety which, like Wine Paris, has seen its star get ever-brighter in recent years.

Outside of the parallel existence of the wine fair world, reality continues for most people and in the case of the Ukrainians, this means a war that isn’t looking to reach a conclusion any time soon. This is why on the anniversary of the Russian invasion this year, I looked back at a mishmash of events (*) that have crossed paths in these last four years. Additionally, there’s a report on the Russians fully destroying a 19-century winery (*) that they’d previously looted in 2022, but apparently decided that just wasn’t enough war crime.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

An Aligoté Feature

Previously maligned and often forgotten, this under-appreciated white grape variety of Burgundy has very much been in vogue in recent years as the weather warms and people look for ‘affordable’ Burg.

Drink It or Sink It

An evolving look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

Mar de Uvas Merlot - IG | YT

And now this

Have you ever thought, “I could use a good deal more Ribera del Duero in my life.”? If so, then this fine bottle is very much for you.

If looking to learn everything about the current state of Greek wines, then the 2026 edition of “Greek Wine Explained” (*) is what you’re looking for.

There’s essentially nothing bad to say about Malvasia de Sitges (except that there should be more) and this wine is yet more proof of that.

And lastly a look at a fine family winery in the Campania region that are making great versions of pretty much everything, especially in Taurasi.

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The wine press trip.

I feel there are few people that don’t salivate when hearing these three words together. It’s a completely justified reaction as all who are invited to attend do their damnedest to paint the trip in as glowing a light as possible. I think anyone can understand why as getting a free trip to very pretty places in the world with excellent food, and of course, le vin, is incredibly appealing.

There however exists a general omertà amongst those in the wine media circles when a trip goes sideways, which, given the amount of moving parts to one of these events, can and does happen. Why the code of silence, or at least being light on sordid details? It’s simply that no one wants to upset this particular economy given that it’s now an exceedingly crucial component in the slim profit margins comprising writing about wine these days. Also, many assume there is some point in the no-so-distant future where these trips may very well go the way of the dodo.

Despite appearances and no matter how many times my fellow colleagues mention it, such trips are an insane amount of work. No one amongst us would dare to ask for even a milligram of sympathy in the matter (again, excellent food and, the wine) and no one wants to be on a trip with others treating it as a free vacation. I can speak readily to that as there’s at least one individual I’ve encountered recently that clearly can’t smell and evaluate wine anymore (probably due to a past Covid infection) but whose hubris sees them more than happy to hop on a free trip and fake it, which is simply insidious.

I know in the past that they’ve been painted as drunk fests and it seems they were in another era long before my time. But now, they’re serious affairs with a group of focused people absorbed by the twelve-hour days which see many of those hours spent bouncing around in very uncomfortable vans. Only Sir Robert Parker was ‘limo-ed’ around when doing Bordeaux reports and that’s because he shelled out for it. Likewise, it’s only when I’m on my own, non-press trip, trips to wine regions that I have a chauffeur, who also happens to arrange my travel plans and meals—amazing fellow if I do say so myself.

So, why keep doing it, if it’s so ‘awful’?

No matter the size (and I’ve experienced trips of 50 attendees down to just myself and two others), you need to cover a huge amount of ground in a limited time in order to present anything of value to your readers. Minus one or two individuals, in doing this for 15+ years, no one is getting shitfaced as there’s simply too much to do, see, taste, and write up. Many people are abstaining from alcohol completely which should further crumple any image of these being free drinky trips. To be the least bit effective, you need a clear head as it’s something of an overload for all the senses.

I make mention of the wine press trip as late last fall I found myself in Campania, Italy, bouncing around small roads, in one of those ubiquitous nine-seater Euro vans. It wasn’t an easy trip, but I came away with the feeling, after three days visiting for this new report on the region that Campania is perhaps not the easiest place to visit. The producers seemed to admit as much as they’re very aware that everyone heads to either Naples or the Amalfi Coast and little of that tourism gold dust seems to blow their way.

This is a pity as the region, despite not really being developed for tourism, is very pretty and the people, very friendly and welcoming like most everywhere in the interior of Italy. In terms of the wines, there’s something for everyone as while the red wines from Aglianico grape can be very hearty, they also produce excellent white wines from Greco di Tufo, Fiano, and Falanghina.

I say this as I definitely want to go back someday and soon.

There was however a much easier trip recently as it only meant that my chauffeur had to drive me an hour from home to see and taste the Brandy of Torres. I feel like people might only know the Torres wines, but this side of the business produces some excellent Brandy and at wonderful prices for the level of quality. I rated and reviewed their entire line for the article.

Also of note from Torres is their new Casals Vermouth which they produce in both a regular version as well as a non-alcoholic 0.0% version. Torres has been working on non-alcoholic wines looooong before they became a trend (since 2008!) and I have to say that while the 0.0% version didn’t have the fuller body of the regular version, it was still quite pleasant. As for the regular, it’s more bitter leaning than most Catalan Vermouths and nearly Italian in style, thus for me, it’s a winner.

Lastly, a couple of weeks ago, Janina Doyle of the Eat, Sleep, Wine, Repeat Podcast reached out for me to come on as a guest and have a chat about Croatian wines. The full episode just came out and you can give it a listen, (*) which I highly recommend unless for some reason you don’t want to know ‘everything’ about Croatian wines ;)

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

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The Featured Report

Campania & Taurasi 2026

A unique, inland land with a very, very wide variety of wines, some ageless, some fresh, but all very much Southern Italy.

Drink It or Sink It

An evolving look at the sub-5€ end of the wine world with a great many more ‘Drinks’ than ‘Sinks’. Follow along on the main channels via Instagram or YouTube.

362 Negre - IG | YT

Ponce de Albayda Blanco - IG | YT

And now this

If you’re going to go “Top Shelf” when it comes to Croatian wines, then it means you’re going to go for none other than the Stina – Stipančić from local grape star, Plavac Mali.

Do you want a “chilled red”? Of course you do! Even if it’s not currently warm in your hemisphere, a light, red wine like the Tenuta Cavalier Pepe – Rossochiaro will treat you very well.

And of course it’s time to have a look at how the wines of the DOQ Priorat 2018 vintage are standing up. A complicated year that’s always in need of a clear analysis.

Priorat wine tours

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February (much like January) may be that month when movie studios release their straight-to-streaming movies that may or may not star Steven Seagal. But, more important than obscuring horrid films (Downhill, Jan-Gel 2: The Beast Returns, Daredevil 2003), this is the amazing month of ‘love’ that’s no better adored cashed-in on than with Valentine’s Day. So, we at the CdC HQ, along with our phalanx of unpaid interns, would like to remind you that, whether showing love in a self, couple, or poly kind of way, here’s an indispensable guide to wine for Valentine’s Day.

Our Department of TMI would like to let you know that while we’re talking about love, have you heard about ‘Penisgate’? If not, prepare yourself for a male genitalia modification deep dive at an Olympic level. Competitive injections were never, ever so serious and/or not-wanted to be known about.

Maybe this V-Day, you’re feeling a little splashy and wanna drink something old that’s not an Official Kurniawan Copy? Well, unfortunately you, the big spenders of wine, missed out when this 127 year-old Romanée-Conti (current vintages are usually only in the mid-20s [000]) was cracked for a select few whose sparse words spoke to the sparse flavors, albeit in a very special manner reserved for drinking old-ass wine that you have to pretend to love when you just want a nice, ripe Syrah.

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In the wine writing world, it seemed that January has always been the month to write about/bemoan natural wine.

It’s a rather reasonable choice when you think about it given that headlines post-holidays and pre-Burgundy tastings have always been slow or at best, bland listicles, and the ensuing natural rage bait has always fueled much-needed traffic. The beginning of September was also a keen moment for similar post-vacation reasons, but I digress.

Given that natural wine, much like Dry January and the Kardashians, doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon, a new rage bait has been sorely needed. I state the obvious as it’s the only reason I can come up with as to why there’s been a group of articles bemoaning… tasting notes.

Are they stupid? Yup. Will we keep doing them? Yup.

As is the case with Bordeaux en Primeurs, there is an established order to the wine world that I assume will just continue on until something comes along to disrupt its meaningless existence. And by ‘something’, I mean an Extinction Level Event such as every beleaguered spouse collectively washing all red trousers in an ‘accidental’ bleach cycle.

Suffice to say, all the back and forth is why I’m readily fascinated by wines such as this one called, ‘Pica’ that I recently reviewed. It is for all purposes, an absolute aberration. Who in their right mind would take higher-alcohol grapes from Grenache in the Priorat region and infuse their juice with very, very spicy chili peppers?

I will firmly state that it most definitely works and it is part of a growing number of wines that I call, “Post Points”.

There will be claims otherwise, but for me, there’s just no way to score a wine like this. It falls outside all of the boxes as to what a wine is ‘supposed’ to be with our “medium plus everything”, and high boredom. It also blows up the extremely-outdated wine pairing concepts which state that with something spicy, you need sweet… unless of of course you’re a soul that does enjoy the spice which is the majority of the world.

But the thing is, these Post Points wines are iconoclastic and reinventing themselves and I doubt there will be ever be larger categories for them other than, “drinkable”. Often they’re interesting because they’re novell or it’s like in last year’s Priorat Report where there are wines which don’t necessarily blow up the points, but are exceedingly pleasing to drink all the time, like we’re seeing in the “chilled red” category that a lot of wine drinkers are enjoying as it’s sans la bullshite.

But let’s state that while tasting notes are numb and dumb, I would never say this applies to the giving of points. These do indeed serve purpose to act as a shorthand to the wine consumer for everyday wines while the tasting note (should) be doing the same for the wine professional—albeit usually coming up very, very short.

Points have also served as a manner in which to value wines for collectors. There are however two flaws in this. The first is that the collector class is aging and/or has bought all the wine that they need for the rest of their lives. And second, scoring of top wines is completely unneeded at at this point. Will there ever be a vintage of Screaming Eagle or Romanée Conti or the five First Growths of Bordeaux that won’t sell out at their insane prices? As long as people are drinking wine, I seriously doubt it.

So there are these, for lack of a better word, ‘subversive’ wines** coming out now that blend wine and non-wine, different fruits, take wines from disparate regions, use untraditional blends, or are just different from the classic norms and will escape all the reason and system of points-based scoring. Points will be with us for some time yet, but I’ll only give their longevity a score of ‘85’ as a class of younger wine drinkers (who are indeed drinking wine) comes of an age to appreciate this fine beverage, albeit in a form that deviates from what we’ve previously established.

I have seen the wines of the future and I don’t know how to rate them, but I like ‘em.

Drink well, be well.

-Miquel

(*) Free to read

** Note that I’m not globally lumping natural wines into this lot as there are scads of Trash Natural in there that’s just bad wine, no scores needed, only a sink with a good drain.

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