I'd appreciate your favorite sources for learning about Spanish and Greek wines. Favorite books and websites will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Board-O,
going there and learn everything in the respected countries is much more fun than reading the books on the subject. Ask Roel and he can point you in the right direction of companies organising wine travels to those countries.

I am going there. I want to learn before I go. Your reply is useless.

I am from Greece and can give you some help regarding Greek wines. Anything in particular you'd like to know or should I start with -let's say- the most well-respected producers and their wines?

There is one site which covers the subject and is in English

http://www.wineroads.gr/en/default.asp

It only covers though Northern Greece. I don't know what percentage Northern Greece represents in terms of production but -for instance- my favorite Greek whites (one Chardonnay and one Viogner) come from the South.

Here are some links you might find useful for Greek wines:

http://www.greekwinemakers.com/

http://www.atheneeimporters.com/index.html (retailer)

http://www.greekwine.gr/

http://www.allaboutgreekwine.com/

http://www.stratsplace.com/greece/greece.html

I've visited quite a few Greek wineries last September and I really liked this one

Gaia wines

Greece is in a period of renaissance when it comes to wine production so the next 5-15 years will be very interesting to see how the industry takes shape.

Just stay away from Retsina. Turpentine is an aquired taste I guess.

I'm well aware of that, Ron.

Thanks, nasose and mimik.

Anybody else? Spain also.

We'll be going to Spain, France, Italy, and Greece this Summer. I'm pretty well-versed in French wine, know more than I care to about Italian wine, not enough about Spanish wine, and virtually nothing about Greek wine.

No Michigan this year?

Board-O,

What part of Italy are you going to be in? and what are the dates? If you are in the southern part of the country (ie: Amalfi Coast)in the middle of July maybe we can have dinner together. Let me know.

IW

We'll be there the end of July, beginning of August.

Board O,

I recently saw an ad in Wine Spectator for a book entitled Wines From Spain. Unfortunately, I can't find the ad in the issue I thought it was in (2003 Bordeaux) or remember the issue it was in.

Anyway, they advertised a free book on Spanish wine along with their website, winefromspainusa.com.

I went on, filled out my information, and it will be here soon. The only problem is they said it would take up to 8 weeks, but hey, it's free!

Thanks. I'll see if I can still get it. I went to the library today and found plenty of information on Spanish wines, but not too much on Greek wines.

One correction. The correct website has an "s" as the fifth letter. It is winesfromspainusa.com, not winefromspainusa.com. I ordered the book. Thanks for the tip.

quote:

No Michigan this year?

You have to book that at LEAST a year in advance Serge.

Looks like we'll be visiting the wineries in the area around Barcelona. If anybody has any recommendations, please let me know.

Board-O,

A company I do business with that imports spanish wines, I believe has an office in/around Barcelona. If interested, I may be able to put you in touch with them. Email me if interested.

IW

I think Torres is relatively close to Barcelona. It is a huge Disneyland like place from my in-laws report so is likely not what you would be interested in, but I figured it worth mentioning.

I know Torres is close.

Thanks, IW. They might be able to point me towards some good wineries to visit.

If you haven't already found enough informantion about Greek wines, the two best reference books I am aware of for Greek wineries are:

'Wines of Greece' by Lazarakis
'The Book of Greek Wine' by Nicos Manessis

If you are looking for restaurants in Athens, the best one I have found is Spondi. They also have an excellent wine list.

For seafood, I would recommend Varoulko. If you ask, they will prepare a tasting menu for you paired with Greek wines. Some of their wine pairings were really unusual, and I'm not sure I would repeat them, but I can say that they were at least interesting. (Note: Although there are a lot of seafood restaurants, there aren't too many I would actually recommend. So tread selectively.)

Board-O,

I got my wines from Spain book the other day. It's OK, but I doubt it will really be a huge resource for you.

In the beginning of the book it gives a brief history of Spanish wine, regions, label info, etc., etc. Then, by region, it reviews the regions and recent vintages you could get here in the good old USA.

I would use the book as a basic resource.

Have fun, my wife is from Spain and the one time I went it was awesome.

Thanks for the tips. I've just about finished my work on Spanish wines and will start on Greek wines soon. There's been one major change since I posted last on this thread. We'll be spending three days in Priorat and I'm arranging tastings now.

Board-O,

If you haven't picked up John Radford's "The New Spain" yet, I recommend it highly. It is a critical and clever overview of the regions of spain with contact addresses to the most prominent wineries even from the smallest regions.

Greece has just gotten their first MW, if I'm not mistaken, and he is a champion of their indigenous varieties. As far as I know he also wrote a book a year ago or so on Greek wine. But it may be one of those mentioned in the previous posts.

Thanks, Markus. You're the second person to recommend Radford's book to me. I haven't found it yet. I guess I'll have to check Amazon.