Recent content by VS

Very interesting! It seems to me you're practically ready for Madrid now! The big leagues! ;-)

Barranco Oscuro is interesting - but uneven. Par for the course for natural wines, of course. Highest vineyard in Europe, BTW.

They're finally making quite a few wines in Spain that Joe would actually like. And now I can't show them to him. Drat.

Haven't tasted them in quite a while. Never liked them. Priorat producers who are making wines in a zippier, far less oaky style are Álvaro Palacios (yes, post-2008!), Terroir al Lìmit, Les Cousins Marc & Adrià, Fredi Torres Viticultor. Luis Anxo has an inexpensive red, Eidos Ermos, that's as...

Zillions of good grenaches now in Spain. Take your pick of a style... Goyo García Viadero's 2010s are wonderful. Nothing like an archetypal Ribera - which is all to their credit. The Duero meets Burgundy, or something. I understand the Peruco is as usual the best, but we couldn't taste it -...

I don't even know Conde de Hervías! I'll have to look it up. García Viadero is 0 added sulfur indeed. I haven't found a problem with it yet. We're finally tasting two of his 2010s, blind, on Wednesday. Will report back. Ageability of Gredos garnachas, as with many other grenaches, remains a...

Despite his name and background, Daniel Ramos is actually... Australian! ;-) Good producer in that exciting resurrected region, the Gredos mountains - but not quite in the élite yet.

Lots of good producers were left out, I'm sure - no ambition to be comprehensive! Love Goyo's wines, very delicate, but I'm a bit miffed by the steep pricing, and I haven't tasted anything more recent than 2009. We're tasting two 2010s, Valdeolmos and Viñas de Arcilla, next week at elmundovino...

Indeed, no need to mention López Heredia or La Rioja Alta or Vega Sicilia or the well-known sherry or Priorat producers, etc. It would have made this already monster list even less manageable. They're all still there and we know they're good (Priorat improving - finally less heavy extraction!)...

Roughly summarizing where the interesting action (as Bill Lundstrom remarks, not very interesting to the retailers) is happening: - A general advance of a younger generation of grower-winemakers, vignerons with a solid technical background, well-traveled, but aiming to produce terroir wines...

Well, I seem to be getting a lot of reactions! All's not lost indeed! Eric Asimov has been on top of this, and his articles are very helpful. For instance, his piece a few months ago on the best cool-climate terroir for reds in Spain, Ribeira Sacra. Also, I guess I don't need to stress that...

It seems to be useless for us in the forlorn southwestern corner of Europe. Ten, 15 years ago very few wines with any terroir stuff, with any geek appeal were made in Spain, and Spain never appeared on this site (or its fondly remembered predecessor). Now a good number are made - but still very...

Rías Baixas. Caíño. Caíño tinto aka Caíño longo, actually. Really getting fastidious here, huh?

That Moroccan place, with my friend Juan José Abó showing his CdP which all the Americans thought brett-infected! ;-) Joe reminded me last year that he had indeed been the organizer of that jeebus. The good memories make this even harder.

It's taken me all day to gather the courage to come in and write this. Almost 20 years now since he was still in San Francisco and we had our first jeebuses, and friendships began for many of us on the WLDG. One of the best, most generous, most charming people ever. I looked forward so much to...