spring recap!
What I’ve been up to:
It’s been a busy season both in and out of the winery. March and April were full of paperwork (it never ends), getting together the licenses for selling wine in the US. My parents visited in May and we had the best time exploring the south of Spain together, spending a few days in Sevilla and then more than a week in Málaga, enjoying lots of good food, perfect weather, and hiking the Caminito del Rey.
Now back to reality, the past few weeks have been spent prepping everything to bottle my Garnacha here in Spain. I am very excited about this vintage, the wine is rounder, and fuller in profile than last year’s, reflecting the very hot difficult vintage, but the reward that comes with it. I have also been studying to get my driver’s license in Spain. For Americans living here, you cannot convert your previous driver’s license, so you have to start the process from zero. It’s been humbling, to say the least, joining Spanish ‘Driver’s Ed’, learning the rules of the road in a different language, memorizing laws about how much weight different vehicles can carry at what velocities… But hopefully, I will get my license soon!
A few weeks ago I participated in a wine fair, NOW in Gredos, a great event held in Chapinería outside of Madrid. Saturday focused on the role of women in film and wine in rural areas. We watched 20,000 Especies de Abejas and discussed the importance of bringing art, cinema, and wine to small towns here in Spain and the rewards and challenges that come along with that. Sunday was the fair, filled with amazing producers and their wines, great food, really fun music, and lots of art. It was a lot of fun to be a part of and nice to meet all of the other winemakers and learn about their wines and perspectives.
At the wine fair, I brought along a non-alcoholic experiment I have been working on, a strawberry-basil aperitivo. This winter and spring I was trying to drink less wine, and started making different non-alcoholic shrubs to have something complex, interesting, and natural to drink that filled my desire for wine, but without the alcohol. I brought this to NOW, curious to see other people’s reactions, whether this was a product people were also interested in. The response was exciting! A lot of people seemed motivated to have a more artisanal, non-alcohol option, and it’s something I am going to keep exploring and producing, so stay tuned!
