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Catavino Lands in Rioja

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LIVING THE DREAM: Gabriella Opaz (left) and Ryan Opaz of Catavino

When I’m not busy envying them their chosen career paths, I’m invariably and almost daily drawn to their wine blog/web compendium of all things Iberian and vinous, www.catavino.net. If you’ve ever done even the slightest bit of online research on Spanish or Portuguese wines, you’ve doubtless encountered them too (and maybe even also wished you had their life).

I’m of course talking about husband-and-wife team Gabriella and Ryan Opaz (pictured above, copitas at the ready), who, according to the bio on their website, left the U.S. for Spain sight-unseen in 2004 with a few thousand dollars in their back pockets and, presumably, a high tolerance for uncertainty. Gabriella taught English while Ryan “scoured the streets for work in the wine trade,” launching Catavino in 2005 initially merely to “record his frustrations.” Today, Catavino is the most comprehensive, informative, and tech-savvy online resource for Spanish wine in English, with 10,000 unique visitors per month.

This week the duo is on a whirlwind tour of Rioja and they’ve already started posting Rioja-related material on their site, including a guest post on Rioja from Australian wine blogger Dave Worthington of Tinto y Blanco, a terrific writer with a punchy, readable style and a way with tasting notes. And just today, a post on winemaker reactions to the notion of ‘traditional’ versus ‘modern’ Rioja. I found the response given by Julio Sáenz of Bodegas La Rioja Alta insightful enough to excerpt here:

The new trends, which appeared to be influenced by wines from California, Australia, etc, are wines, at least in their early years, were seeking quality in power, strength and big structure. High grade wines, dense with color, were the wood flavors overpowered the rich fruit flavor. I believe that we are now creating a pendulum effect, where modern wines are slowly becoming more classic in style; whereby, moving towards fresher wines with balanced, well-integrated wood and fruit, without forgetting the essential characteristics that make a wine great.

Gabriella contacted me last month to tell me that they were planning a trip to Rioja and to discuss ways she thought we might collaborate. I am vicariously along for the ride. Which reminds me, one of those collaborations was my own guest post on Catavino due tonight, so I’d better wrap this up.

Catavino will be be sending out a newsletter stuffed with information about their travels and the bodegas they visited in the coming weeks. Click here to sign up for it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 6:04 am and is filed under Bodegas, General, Rioja on the Web, Tradition and Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Catavino Lands in Rioja”

  1. Ryan Says:
    February 27th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Adrian thanks for the nice note. Wish we had better internet connection and we would have a ton of video and hundreds of pictures too, but for now, till Sunday people will have to do with some choice tidbits that we cobble together in our short and few breaks from visiting wineries. Today it was Riscal, Riojanas, and Roda! Wow 3 r’s! More soon…cheers,

  2. Dave Says:
    March 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm

    Hey Adrian, your article on Catavino was excellent. It seems that that we were about 20 years behind you guys here in Australia, but we’re catching up fast!

    Cheers,

    Dave W

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