The saline feel of this Val do Salnés Albariño evokes a Proustian memory for Adrian McManus ..read more

Our Catalan correspondent, Alan Nance, is rewarded for a (virtual) trip across the border into Aragon ..read more

Bill Bolloten reviews the definitive guide to the complex and diverse world of sherry wines ..read more

Alan Nance, self-confessed Xarel·lista, is seduced by another Catalan white variety ..read more

Chris Lynch reminisces about a visit to Haro and pulls a top modern Rioja from his cellar ..read more

Treixadura and Torrontés are the protagonists in this wine from Ribeiro, one of Europe’s oldest wine regions. Casal do Canteiro 2023 D.O. Ribeiro Varieties: Treixadura and Torrontés ABV: 12.5% €14.00 To order contact Jonatán Pousada Álvarez. Email: info@casaldocanteiro.com Tel: +34 637 858 471 One of the many great wines I discovered recently at Emoción dos Viños 2024 was Casal do Canteiro, a new project in Castrelo do Miño, located in the heart of one of Europe’s oldest wine regions, referred to down the centuries as Ribadavia or Ribeiro. A casal is a small mansion, while canteiro means ston ..read more

Adrian McManus meets up with vignerons in Santiago for a celebration of viticultural diversity. A Emoción dos Viños, north-west Spain’s premier rendezvous for small-scale winemakers, was held for the first time in the hydrangea festooned patio of the Pazo de Fonseca, a gorgeous renaissance jewel in Santiago de Compostela. The previous four editions of A Emoción dos Viños were held at the crumbling but magnificent Monasterio de Oia, now undergoing a long-overdue restoration project. The organisers Marina Cruces and Antonio Portela were forced to switch operations to Galicia’s capital, which h ..read more

Bill Bolloten starts out talking bull and ends up sipping a memorable aged fino. La Honda Fino En Rama (Osborne) D.O. Jerez Variety: Palomino Fino (100%) ABV: 16% €26.00 (50 cl) from Bodeboca Osborne, a historic bodega with its headquarters in the Cádiz town of El Puerto de Santa María, is probably best known for its iconic bull (el toro de Osborne). This black silhouetted image has been installed on hilltops and along roadways throughout much of Spain. Curiously, Huelva, where I live, is the only province in Andalusia without one. Yet Osborne is no longer a big name in the sherry ..read more

Alan Nance relishes having some skin in the game. Pesseroles Brisat 2018 (Mas Martinet) DOQ Priorat Varieties: Picapoll Blanc (43%), Pedro Ximénez (29%), Garnatxa Blanca (28%) ABV: 13% €40.95 from BlancoTinto As Simon J Woolf makes clear in his book Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine, the tradition of macerating and fermenting white grapes on their skins is one with a long history across southern and eastern Europe. There are good reasons for this. The phenolic compounds present in grape skins offer protection against oxidation and make the resulting wine more robust ..read more

Phil Mugford goes in search of the truest expression of Airén and, somewhat appropriately, finds it at Bodegas Verum (scholars of Latin need no explanation). Verum Las Tinadas Airén De Pie Franco 2019 (Bodegas Verum) D.O. VT Castilla Variety: 100 Airén ABV: 12% €16.01 direct from Bodegas Verum €14.99 from Simply Spanish Wine Airén, as synonymous with its native land of La Mancha as Quijote, has been the lifeblood of Manchego winemaking for decades. Drought-resistant, hard-as-nails and seemingly impervious to any blight you’d care to mention, Airén is the Mad Max of Spanish grape varieties; bo ..read more