Software Upgrade

Just a quick note to say that I’ve upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress over the last day. I think it went fairly well, but if you see something not quite right on the site (apart from the content!), just leave a comment here.

Thanks

Dave

Tinto y Blanco is One

A year ago today, I made the first public post on Tinto y Blanco.  It really does't feel like I've been doing it for a year, more like three months or 3 years.  Anyway, it seems that people are still reading, so I'll keep posting.

Here are some stats on the past year:

• In July last year 1,000 people (or sites) looked at the site.  Last month, just over 12,000 dropped by.
• The top 3 search terms for the site are: Flor de Pingus, Numanthia and Manzanilla.
• For some reason there is a link pointing to the site from a US Marine Corps forum.
• The bulk of readers are Australian (59%). There is a fairly big international readership as well, with readers from USA (14%), the UK (11%) and New Zealand (4%).
• There have been 546 real comments, 4,000 spam comments.

2004 Vintage Craziness

Looks like the US wine market has gone crazy for the 04 Spanish Vintage.  Jay Miller's scores in WA169 seem to have sparked something of a panic with US wine retailers.  Of the wines available in Australia, big nods given to Pingus and Termanthia.  Clos Erasmus, Benjamin Romeo Contador, Artadi El Pison also got a perfect score.  Loads of other wines got record scores.  I don't read WA, but I might have to see if I can't get a copy of this issue.  Of course, this merely confirms the reports from the Spanish wine media, who have been awarding the highest ever scores to wines from this vintage.

I get the odd unsolicited email from US wine retailers, today I got 30.  Strangely, most of the emails still credit Robert Parker with these scores and tasting notes.  Its interesting to note that there seems to be something like disbelief from many of the posters on the eRobertParker BB.  I wonder if Scott Wasley will swap my old Fender Jazz Bass for a bottle of Pingus….

Palate Strike

I've got a bad case of the flu at the moment, so there hasn't been a lot of drinking going on at casa Tinto y Blanco in the last week.  I've got a couple of notes of wines I tasted last weekend, so I'm posting these up in the mean time.  I should be back on track early this week.

The one thing I did manage to have a look at during the week was a tasting of some very interesting and tasty Portugese wines and ports.  I will be adding some portugese wines in to the tasting list as they become availble.  If you have any sugestions, I'd be very interested in what is available in Australia.

100 Tasting Notes

Clos Mogador 2003 was the 100th tasting note for Tinto y Blanco. So I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me put the site together, everyone who keeps on reading and especially the retailers, importers and producers who have sent wine in, had me along to tastings and chased up obscure bottles for me.  I couldn't do this without out you Guys. Its taken 4 months and 10 days to get to 100 notes, hopefully I can do it in 3 months next time.

For those that are interested, a few stats on the site.  In October, the site had 8000 visits with around 50,000 hits over the month and 1 Gb of traffic.  This month, we've had almost 5000 visits and its only the 12th.  And 65% of the traffic is from Australia.  I never realised that so many people were interested in Spanish wine, so I've very happy with how the site is traveling.  

I'm planning to add some more content over the next month or so, some basic Spanish wine info, Spanish wine terms and a couple of producer profiles (that I've been very slack on so far).  If there is anything that you would like to see on the site, send me an email and I'll see what I can do.

Cava week 2006

Trawling around the Spanish wine blogs this week discovered that it's officially Cava week this week.  I'd been planning on having a look at a couple of bottles of Cava around Melbourne cup, but I'll have to step up and find a couple this week. 

For the uninitiated, cava is Spanish sparkling wine and is made from 3 primary grapes: Parellada, Xarel-lo and Macabeo.  Chardonay is starting to show up here and there as well.  DO Cava is a bit of an odd one as it covers a number of areas, the Penedes, Catalunya and just about anywhere else that makes sparkling wine.  There are around 270 producers in the DO and a range of styles of cava are made, from fresh and crisp to loads of lees contact and complexity.  It is obviously loads of fun, look at the advertising….perhaps not the most subtle, but thats the Spanish and Catalonians  for you.

There does seem to be a lot of cross pollination between champagne and cava, a number of Champagne's biggest names are trying to make cava in Spain and a couple of Cava producers have bought Champagne houses.  I don't think cava will ever put champagne out of business, if you are looking for a cheap champagne replacement I think you will be disappointed.  You will find some really good wines however, the brut nature or no dosage styles are especially good if you like fresh crisp sparkling wine.  

So, if you see a bottle of Cava in the bottle shop this week you now have an excuse to try it, it is Cava week after all.