DISQUS

Hey Quentin! That was actually Ryan who wrote this piece, but I couldn't agree more. I think that if Spain and Portugal want to do something different, and rather innovative, why not market themselves as one! They are clearly in a unique geographical situation, when plenty of commonalities, that could absolutely aid them in their combined efforts. It's a worthwhile proposal.

Well stated Joel! But just to add to the conversation, how many people honestly believe this statement is true,"..as always there is a simple solution for wineries feeling ignored….make better wine…it will get attention faster than you ever dreamed"? Making fabulous wine should be the tenet of every winery, but if this statement were true, I wouldn't be writing on several of our articles "unfortunately, it is unlikely that you will taste this fantastic wine unless you come to the X region of Portugal / Spain". A well made wine will only get you so far if you live in a box and aren't communicating with wine lovers (aka consumers) outside of your area. Hence it begs the question of RP, if it isn't through wine blogging that the message gets out, what is considered the "correct" way to get a wineries message out to the wine drinking (not exclusively wine geek) public?

<abbr>Check out Gabriella Opaz’s last blog post - El Cucuraucho del Mar - Seafood Restaurant Review in Madrid</abbr>

Seriously, one of the best reasons to have a blog is to have thousands of editors at your beck and call :-) Portuguese is now spelling correctly in the post, and thank you! Additionally, if you have any events you want to pass on, please do!!!

That's incredible. Can your Mayor come to Terrassa and teach our government a thing or two about getting free access to information :-)

Thanks so much Alex for your kind remarks! These posts are simply fun to write, and are wonderful reminders as to why I love traveling - the stories :-)

Steve - the post just published today should be the perfect reference for your trip then ;-) http://bit.ly/1NbedJ

Hey Steve - I would never deter you from renting a car, my only suggestion is to:

1. rent from a reputable company
2. get a really good map

Otherwise, explore to your heart's content!!!

I want a shirt like that! Well, maybe not like "that", but with a wee little moo pocket too. Do these shirts come in cow print ;-)G

I'm with Ryan on this one. As we haven't seen an olive harvest as of yet, this makes the process seem space age! Thanks so much for sharing Oscar, and hopefully we can see this process up close and personal in the near future!

I'm no winemaker, but don't you hate it when your wines get stuck in Customs for months on end?

Oscar,

It was such a pleasure to have you there with us. As you mentioned, there are few Portuguese blogs, and of those that exist, we were proud to have you there with us! You brought so much to the conversation as a port producer, a portuguese winery and a winery blogger. It not only bridged the gap between journalist and producer, but gave us a unique perspective on how you perceive both the wine market and the future of social media! Thanks for coming!

Good luck with the harvest!

Hey Andrea,

Thanks for the suggestions! But just to clarify, Manzanilla is typically a wonderful pairing with gazpacho, and is a typical combination in Andalusia. So it wasn't so much of the marriage between the two that failed, it was the fact that the Manzanilla just wasn't fresh enough. However, your white port idea sounds equally delicious and worthy of us checking it out. Thanks!

Craig: it appears they differ in that Equipo Navazos doesn't exclusively buy their sherry from Almancenistas. They also buy them from larger sherry houses who just so happen to have some unique and rare blends, just waiting to be discovered.

Justin: Actually, I bought it from our wine shop that is a dead ringer for a dive bar with wood paneling and a "yeah, did you want something lady" attitude ;-) We tend not to go there because of the less than stellar service, but their selection is typically the best we can find in our little town. It's called Celler de Cava. They not only carried this Manzanilla, but the La Bota de Amontillado "Navazos" for 14.99 and the La Bota de Pedro Ximénez de Jerez "1/12" for 29.99.

Additionally, please provide all information about a wine on the wine page. There is nothing more annoying than my not finding any information about your product other than a small thumb-sized picture or having to fumble with PDFs to get the basic details about your wine.

Francisco- You are very welcome my friend, but if you do attempt this recipe, please let us know how it turns out and if you would suggest any modifications. It's always fun to hear about people's creative twists ;-)

Andre and Jose, you both bring up good points, but I wonder if Vitor wasn't hitting the mark when he talked about salaries. When I had my brief employment with a large telemarketing company in the US, my salary was based on commission. The more people who signed on, the more I got paid. Obviously it behooved me to work my butt off to give customers what they wanted so that I equally benefited.

Here in Iberia, there are few jobs, that I'm aware of, that are commission based. You are paid pitance for your work do and have to struggle to make ends meet as prices for basic goods continue to increase. So where is your motivation to help the customer when you aren't even being paid a respectable salary for the work you do?

Additionally, I have found that the US inherently believes that the customer comes first. I have not found this mentality here, which is both good and bad. Bad because the customer is typically brushed off as insignificant. On the other hand, the customer is never given too much power as seen in the US model, winning lawsuits left and right because they have upper hand.

JIKVIG: Please don't apologize for laughing, because you ought to. The scenario is way too ridiculous not to get a good chuckle from it ;-)

David, speaking of admitting the truth, whether it be about your wines or your vineyard, check out La Gramiere's recent posts on Mildew: http://www.lagramiere.com/blog/2008/06/battling.... It's a great example of wineries standing up telling it like it is!

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments and insight!

However, I wonder if we really tackled the big question: Is this story an example of a cultural norm that we should get used to when living in another culture, or is this something that we need to address look at as simply poor customer service?

Case in point, if my heater is busted in the US, I can order the part and fix it myself. Here in Spain, I cannot. When my heater blew last year, I was at the mercy of the heating company to fix it, on their time frame, because they have a monopoly on their parts. Therefore, I, nor any electrician, could fix it for half the price. Only they can fix their machines for an astronomical amount of money. Is that cultural, or just unfair? And where do I draw the line?

I think there is a very important number 10 that Avi alluded to: Thou ought to challenge thyself to think outside of the box. Turn to others for inspiration and see what sparks you. We all get stuck writing the same tasting notes, climbing on our same soapboxes, and generally, doing what is most comfortable for us. Why not do something different, a touch outside of your comfort zone?

Have your readers help you name your next label!

Do a video tasting note

Or find a fun way to include your customers in spreading the word about your wines..like a rubber chicken!

Whatever it takes, use your imagination!

Completely agree Jose, as I have seen it first hand since I've lived here. And to be honest, it is both a negative and positive attribute. For me, it's positive in that the attitude towards saving money and caring for what possessions you do have is a wonderful behavior. Spaniards tend to be very fastidious and cautious, from what I see, the contrary to the American culture. On the flipside, because the fear of "lacking" is so rooted into the culture, it tends to blind people from seeing the big picture, getting stuck in fear of not having security. I applaud their fighting spirit, but I think they are failing to see how many truckers are actually supporting them (from one report, less than 15% of the total), and if their reckless behavior is actually conveying the right message?

Well, here is an update to the update. We've just heard from a Portuguese winery that the Lisbon airport has not closed yet, but will close tomorrow if the strike continues.

Thanks to everyone for your warm wishes. Our goal is to have you enjoy your experience on Catavino, rather than be bogged down with ads that clearly don't pertain to your interests. And if there is any other way we can make this site better, please let us know, because although we've made it three years, we don't want to bomb it in the fourth ;-)

Jose, I will happily accept my punishment and will provide pictures for proof ;-)

Interesting points Richard! I can tell you that from my perspective looking at the news both in our local newspapers and tv stations, more than 1/2 of the news is NOT focused on Spain, but instead, Europe, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen Obama's or Hilary's picture plastered on the front page of El Pais in the past 6 months, or current events in China, Nepal, India, Honduras or North Korea. It seems to me, that I've learned more about the world in the past 3 yeas living here than I ever had living in the States, only because it's more easily accessible to me.

Where I see the largest imbalance in news coverage is Spain's inability to fairly cover the entire country as a whole. While we learn a considerable amount about Catalunya every day, it is more difficult for me to find information about Galicia, Andalusia or Pais Vasco (with the exception of events related to ETA) than it is about issues effecting Catalunya. Other biases include covering issues affecting Portugal. Although they're our neighbors, we rarely hear news of their current situation.

That said, I would argue that, at least for Spain, we tend to hear a considerable amount about the rest of the world. If we talk about food and wine, however, Spain tends to only provide information about Spanish food and wine, a fact I am sad to admit. And to make matters worst, typically, the information is also regionally focused, not even incorporating other regional cuisines or wines.

What I like is that you offered suggestions of regions you would like to learn more about, as would I. Yet you mentioned that our restrictions are self-imposed. I can at least say for us here in Spain, there is no way we could write about wine from countries like Slovenia, even if we wanted to, because we can't get our hands on it. We're lucky to find wines from close neighbors like Italy or Portugal. Therefore, even though wine bloggers are more free to choose the content they wish to write about, I think availability is a key issue.

I feel a little guilty Jose, as I only did a little editing on Ryan's article, but I put my name at the bottom out of habit. So your question should be directed towards him ;-)

But from my experience, I've never tried the matrimonio, but it sounds interesting. Thank you so much for the heads up ;-)