When I adopted this goal I had no idea that I could have a wine and cava tour like this and complete my goal with the memories of my tour. I had a city break in Barcelona at the end of April. And we booked this tour for our last day. We visited the wineyards and cellars of Penedes area and our first stop was John Leon Vineyards and winery. This was a very small winery to visit. We saw the vineyards and the little museum of John Leon and tasted couple of different red wines after we saw the little cellars area there. The wines we tasted were a young red wine and the other one was aged red wine to see the comparison. I found John Leon’s life fascinating. From zero to becoming rich like this is inspiring. He went through hard times until he got where he wanted to be for sure.

Then we moved to B. Torres winery. Here we visited the cellars in a small bus and required to see the cellars in this bus. Then we tried three wines and had matching local cheese with them. The first one was white wine blended with %85 muscades %15 percent other grape variety that I do not remember the name. I absolutely loved this wine. It had this lovely fruity taste but is not a sweet wine. We then tasted two different red wines. The second one was Merlot and can’t remember the third one but it was a lighter red wine. I missed some of the information said by the wine guide during this tour. If I was at the back of the gruop I could not hear it or I was taking photos and chatting with some others. It’s a very social event. With missing some details I did what I can and enjoyed the whole tour it enormously.

Our last destination was to Freixenet. Here we were told how to make sparkling wine, how to store it etc. We also visited the cellars in a small bus. Later we walked through the cold cellars. And we tasted two cavas one white and the other one was rose with some cured ham and other tapas variety.

In fact this was my third time winery tour. First time I had my wine tour was when I visited Toronto in 2006. Here I had a half day tour. Second tour was when I met with my other half in 2008 he booked as a tour at Tattinger cellers in Reims. This could have been perfect if the tour was in English. But we knew they did not have any English Tour on the day we were there so we had to settle with French Tour. But luckily an English man was translating this tour to his friends from French to English and we heard most of it.

I have always loved Cava. Not sure about the wines from Penedes region as what we tasted during the tours were not for my liking but the tour itself was amazing. 12 months ago

I visited above mentioned museum and took a photo of the Roman’s winemakers quarters which shows wine has always been popular from centuries to centuries.

An adult consumed 1 and half litres of wine per a day in those days. They even let their children to drink wine as they thought wine had medicine effect. Or to me they let them drink so they’d go to sleep quickly :-) 12 months ago

And we took the advantage of the offer and bought:

Baron de lay varietal Maturana Rioja 2009 – We drank this and this was the best rioja I’ve had so far -

Berberana Rioja reserva 2006

Castillo San Simon Gran Reserva 2003 – This is not Rioja but a Spanish wine -

El Coto Rioja – Crianza 2008
An explanation about crianza: Crianza wines are two years old, with at least twelve months spent in cask (elsewhere the oak ageing may legally be restricted to just six months).

The wine I like they call it “negra wine” which is very dark red wine in Spain. 12 months ago

I did have Campo Viejo before and had an entry about it under this goal. So this is the second part of Campo Viejo wines. I went to Barcelona last week and had an opportunity to try Campo Viejo 2006 in Barcelona. 2006 is quite expensive here hence I did not buy it. But the wines are a lot cheaper in Spain. I really like this wine. And I found 2004 Gran Reserva of this at the airport and bought it for the uk price of 2008. Hallelujah!

I cannot wait to have this wine on a special day maybe. 12 months ago

I have had lots of Spanish wines mainly Rioja. And now I know that I really like Spanish wines. And also their sparklings (Cava) are good too. But I knew that well before this goal. Well, I will be going to Barcelona soon and I will have more wine there too. So I am nearly done with Spanish wine.

I want to get some wines from Argentina soon. So need to go to big supermarket to see their shelves for it. I have an idea about their Malbec now as they have high volume of alcohol and oaky taste. The ones I tried so far are more like dinner wines.

But would love to try more of them and should be done with this goal in one or two months time. 13 months ago

Spain has a similar classification system to France and Italy, with all classified wine regions regulated under the Denominación de Origen (DO) system. With over 60 DOs, Spain has more acreage devoted to vineyards than any other country.

Red wines are often labeled as Crianza, Reserva or Gran Reserva. In Rioja and the Ribera del Duero, Crianza wines are two years old, with at least twelve months spent in cask (elsewhere the oak ageing may legally be restricted to just six months). Reservas are three years old (at least one year in cask), Gran Reservas five years old (two in cask, three in bottle).

Leading the country in the production of the finest wines are the vibrant DO’s of Ribera del Duero, Priorat, Rías Baixas, Penedes, Montsant, and Rioja 13 months ago

I am reading an article about wine producing in Spain. What it said on the article is so true that I want to make a note of this line “So many wines that can bring so much enjoyment, wines that can make you think, wines that can make you laugh, and wines that can bring your senses to another world.”

And this is the rest of if:
When conversations arise about the great wine producing nations of the world, Spain is not always the first to jump out. While Spain has a rich and long history (some of the first vines were planted by the Phoenicians in the 4th century BCE), it still does not carry the same caché of other winemaking nations. When Spain does come up, it is always the “Big 3” that come up, Rioja, Ribera del Duero, and Priorato, and then the way too often forgotten and way too under-appreciated, Sherry or Jerez.

Not to say that these are not world class wine regions, because they are indeed and very exciting ones at that, but there is so much to explore in Spain, so many wines that can bring so much enjoyment, wines that can make you think, wines that can make you laugh, and wines that can bring your senses to another world. Spain is in a class all its own, and it can cover any taste from dry to sweet, sparkling to still, and red, white, and rosé. Is there a reason for this “Ode to Espagna”? For all of the reasons above I am showcasing the wines of Spain in a number of ways through out Fearrington Village over the holidays, in an effort to promote all the diversity of Spanish wine.

http://www.fearrington.com/chatter/post/The-Diversity-of-Spanish-Wine.aspx 13 months ago

Changed the name of this goal because someone added this goal to his list and within the minutes he marked it as done. Now, I do not mind people adopting my goals but I think to tick it as done so quickly is quite annoying.

I think the goals here are about making some effort, not to show what’s already been done/achieved. It is extremely lazy to mark it off within seconds. 14 months ago