If you’re one of the people that occasionally pops by to see if I’ve posted anything, I’ll save you a couple of seconds from now on. I’ve decided to call time on Tinto y Blanco after 6 years, and if you hadn’t noticed there has been a distinct lack of effort on my part over the last 6 months or so. But there is a really good reason why.

Earlier this year, my wife and I were presented with the opportunity to import the  wines of some of our favorite producers in Rioja. We’ve jumped on board and have formed a small import company called Cosecha Imports, our first shipment has just arrived and will be ready for sale in the next month or so. Given that we are now importing wine from Spain, I felt that it was not a good idea to go writing reviews of the other importers wares, regardless of how small the company is or how much wine we import.

So, Tinto y Blanco will be frozen as it is, but with comments and posts turned off shortly, for a little while longer. Of course, if you need to, I can be reached on the same email address.

I do want to say a big thank you to all of the importers who supported the site and sent in wines, invited me to tastings and hooked me up with appointments with their producers in Spain. And to everyone who commented on posts, sent in emails, shared links and conversations along the way. Not forgetting the retailers who gave me discounts and ordered in obscure wines from unknown importers…thanks. I’ve found many friends along way, and for that alone I’ve gotta say thanks.

There is a blog over at the Cosecha Imports site, plus a twitter account, email and even a mailing list, so please keep in touch and keep drinking Spanish booze.

Cheers,

Dave Worthington

In other news, I’ve been nominated (or the site really) in the Best Single Subject category in the Wine Blog Awards…if you’re inclined to vote you can do so here: http://bit.ly/aVCpdd or just click on the icon

Anyway, I’ve got plenty lined up over the next few months: a couple of tastings, loads of tasting notes, plus another trip back to Spain in late January/February. The this time the idea is to head to a couple of regions that I haven’t been to before: Rueda and Bierzo. Then up along the north coast, Asturias for cider and cheese, Cantabria for the seafood and picos de europa and into the Basque country to have a look around DO Getariako Txakolina. Finishing up with a week in Rioja to chill out and have a look at the latest vintages. Thats the plan anyway.

Anyway, on with the notes…

Here are some stats on the past year:

• In July last year 12,000 people (6,800 according to Google Analytics) looked at the site.  Last month, just over 28,000 dropped by. (13,000 according to Google Analytics)
• The top 3 search terms for the site are: Flor de Pingus, Pork Belly and Spanish Wine.
• The strangest link to the site this year is from Cosmopolitan magazine (good to see teenage girls are into Spanish wine).
• The number of Australian readers increased to 65%. From out side Australia, the USA is the largest with 10%, the UK is second with 9% and it seems that some of the producers are checking up me with Spain and Portugal both coming in at  6% each.
• There have been 1,281 real comments (528 last year), 29,178 spam commen ts (only 4000 last year!).

  

So all you have to do is guess the number of corks in the box, you can click on the image to get a bigger image if you think that will help. Put your guess in a comment on this post (Do not email it too me) and you’re in with a chance of winning a nice little six pack of wines. The wines are:

• • Cillar de Silos Crianza 2005 and Remuleri Reserva 2003 from The Spanish Acquisition
  • Two bottles of I’Corus Quinta from Broadway Liquor Distributors
  • Martin Codax Burgans Albarino 2006
  • Something else…
    

Entries are open to all, however I can only ship the wines to an Australian address. One entry per person/email address/IP address. I will anounce the winner on the 9th of July.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

Is it just me or is Spanish wine starting to take off all over again? Or perhaps its a second wind. Whatever it is, there are plenty of new wines in the market this year from both Spain and Portugal. The good thing for buyers of Spanish wine is the broad range of wines that are now available and there is some competition at the lower end of the market.

When I first started Tinto y Blanco almost 2 years ago (more about that later), I could find about 200 Spanish wines and about 20 Ports from the big houses in Portugal. There were a couple of Spanish bars around town, but hardly anyone sold Spanish wine by the glass. These days, there are over 600 wines from Spain and Portugal available in Australia, covering just about every style and region of Spain. Portuguese wines have taken a bit longer to get moving and the main coverage is table wines and ports from the Douro Valley at the moment, with a few other regions showing up here and there.

There are two things that really shows me that Spanish wine has made it into the minds and down the necks of Australian wine drinkers. The first is the number of Spanish bars in Australia now and the number of bar/pubs/bottle shops selling Spanish wine. Its almost mandatory these days to have something on your list that’s Spanish. Just have a look at the photo above, thats a Tuesday night at Bar Lourinha in Melbourne. Not bad eh. The second is that Vintage Cellars now have a range of Spanish wines that they are directly importing and heavily promoting. Regardless of what anyone may think of the big end of the wine retail game, VC do put wine in the hands of many Australians due to their buying power and low cost prices. For example where else can you buy a perfectly good bottle of verdejo or albariño for under $20 (well under).

The established players are branching out too. Over the past couple of months many of the established importers have released a raft of new wines on to the Australian market as well. For example, Negotiants have recently released wines from cult producers such as Mauro as well as a bunch of new stuff from Priorat/Monsant. The Spanish Acquisition has a range of new stuff at all levels, including Artadi at the very top end. IFW have also branched out to the table wines of Quinta do Noval. On top of all that, there are new importers popping up all over the place, with a number of independent wine stores branching out and importing their own stuff.

The questions I have to ask are: is the market getting too big? How many brands and importers will the market bear? Now that Spanish wine is more mainstream will sales drop off if it’s no longer the ‘cool new thing’? Or is it still the cool new thing, with its buddy Portugal. Given the buzz on Spanish food and wine, I think Spanish wine has a long term future in Australia. In terms of cost Spanish and Portuguese wine is still a winner as far as imports go too, but I think we are now seeing importers looking at cost more than quality at the low end of the market. Portuguese wines are generating a lot of interest, and are starting to look like a new force on the import shelves.

So after two years of running the site it feels like there has never been a better time to be drinking Spanish and Portuguese wine in Australia. In order to celebrate the 2 year milestone, I’ll be running a very lame competition to give away some seriously good wine from next Wednesday. Stay tuned.

I’d heard a bit about this wine before it was released: a $15 Albarino in screwcap from Vintage Cellars. It will sell by the truckload if it’s any good, I thought. Then Larry posted a comment after tasting a bottle, and it sounds quite good indeed. So I made a rare trip to my local Vintage Cellars store and picked one up, banged in the fridge for an hour or so and poured myself a glass. Yuk, completely oxidised. Buggar. The ‘cap looked OK too, no dents or anything. But its one of those Stelvin Lux plastic jobs, I’m sure if they do dent. I’ll take it back and get a new one.

However, you will be seeing a lot more wine from Spain under screwcap in the next couple of years. It would seem that regardless of any local laws or D.O. regulations, producers are installing screwcap equipment in their bottling lines and are ready, willing and able to export their wine with a screwcap keeping the wine in the bottle rather than a cork. Mainly whites at first, but the reds will come….

New Zealand is such a hard place to leave, great weather, food, views and a big range of Spanish wines at much lower prices than Australia thanks to a much more reasonable tax structure. Oh well, back to work. I should have a bunch of new stuff in to look at later in the week, so more notes will go up next week.

I took a short drive out to the Yarra Valley today, mainly to take a few photos but ended up tasting a few local Tempranillos after it started to rain about 30 minutes after I got there.  I got some ok cloud shots though. I'll give a free subscription to Tinto y Blanco to anyone who can guess where the photo is taken from.

So I tasted some wine and had a bit of a chat as why they chose to grow tempranillo and if they had a particular style they were going for.  Strangely they said it was something different, people liked it and they (the owners) had always liked tempranillo based wines. It was strange as the wines were very much in the dry red style showing very little character. Not that they were bad wines, just ordinary: a bit too ripe, too much time in new oak. Quite pricey too. One place mentioned Alion as the inspiration for their wine, I couldn't see it if it was. And they are winning gold medals at wineshows with this wine too, which makes me really question the validity of the the wine show system.

Then again we expericed this when Pinot Noir was the new cool grape to grow 20 years ago. New growing techniques and in some cases different clones were needed to really get the quality up.  Perhaps that's what Tempranillo needs. Is it vine age? I don't think so, there are a at least a couple of cracking examples the come from young vines in Australia. Perhaps the Yarra isn't the place for Tempranillo? Still, Australian growers are mostly at the start of the learning curve for Tempranillo and there is a way to go before it lives up to the hype I hear in the wine press. I bought a couple of bottles anyway, maybe all they need is some support…

My camera has suffered a bit over the break, a bit too much travel and old age has forced an early retirement.  So there will be no new pictures for a week or so until the new one turns up.  I expect the quality of the photos to increase hugely, so stay tuned.

The sidebars seem to be moving around when looking at single posts and page references are still a bit screwed, but mostly the site is working OK.  Let me know if you find any bugs and bear with me while I get it right over the next couple of days. 

I have joined up with the Boccaccio Movember team, so I will be growing a Mo this month.  I am taking next week off work, so I figure what better excuse to get hairy.  Here is the blurb:

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growin a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about changing men's health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer. Why…

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men…Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, enter my registration number which is 137204 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Movember Foundation" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 137204. Please mail cheques to: PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.

Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a Gala Parté ticket .

Thanks for your support

Thanks

Dave