I started this blog mainly to be able to give something back to the many great wine personalities I visit during a year. This is only one amongst all of my activities, and often I have been on the backbeat, or long behind schedule, if you like… But one thing I promised myself: No matter what happens I will present one good wine every Friday, and so far I have kept the promise. Some times I have just posted a picture and a little text, then come back to finish the blogpost later. The nearest to miss was just a couple of weeks ago in Évora, walled town in Alentejo, Portugal. I had forgot that the time was one hour before my local time, so by 11 pm I had to rush out to find an open square or something, as there is almost no coverage in that town due to all the stone buildings, and in the cellar of that stone building… well, forget it. But I did it, once again in the manner of James Bond or Cinderella.
After one year of managing this wine blog I just wanted to count how many times has each country been featured in the Wine of the Week column. What does this list say, and what can you learn from it? I will not dwell to much by those questions. But it says, maybe, that I haven’t had any master plan, and that I have travelled more in certain countries compared to others. To the second question, next to nothing.
Enough talking, here is the list:
Spain: 19
France: 10
Italy: 8
Portugal: 6
Germany and Austria: 2
Slovenia, Croatia, Lebanon, USA and Australia: 1
Number 1 Spain: Ronda vineyards in the background
As for wine regions it depends a little on how we count: Sicilia has 4 (three from Etna and one from Menfi), while Granada alone has 3 (if we extend it to the autonomous region of Andalucía, which might be logical compared to Sicilia, it would be 6, while Castilla y León has 5, two of them in DO Bierzo). Other wine regions with two entries are Alicante, Bourgueil, Beaujolais, Jura, Vinho Verde and Dão.
And why is Spain number 1? Probably because I travel there a lot, I have many friends (some argue that a wine critic or blogger shouldn’t have friends, it often seems). Here a jamsession in Valladolid after a day with visits in Ribera del Duero, Toro and Rueda, and several of the musicians are connected to nearby wineries.. Yours truly second from left
Which ones I miss? Maybe more from Gredos (a border area in three wine regions, and three political regions – many outstanding garnachas), more Galician wines maybe (lots of lovely, luscious reds and whites), and from Portugal undoubtedly the Lisboa region (great variation). As this post is belated too (the “anniversary” was 1st April) I know there will be wines from Alentejo on next year’s list, and a couple of articles are also in the making. But among the countries totally missing: I have tasted more Georgian wines during the last two years than ever before, maybe its neighbor Hungary ought to be present too, and New Zealand should definitely have been on the list.