In February, Kathy and I attended a tasting of the Wines of La Mancha in Washington D.C. Prior to the grand tasting we attended a seminar including wines and producers from the La Mancha wine region in Spain. Sitting next to me was a representative from the Spanish Embassy. We talked about Spanish wines and Kathy’s and my desire to visit the country and discover the wines, wineries and vineyards. Recently, Kathy and I have received great news. We were selected to be on a team of writers that will visit several Cava producers.

Anthony Swift of Wine Pleasures announced the media group that will attend this year’s 50 Great Cavas Tour. In addition to Kathy and me, there is another married couple Lara Dunston and Terence Carter. They are food and travel writers and photographers that have stories appearing in many magazines, newspapers and websites around the world. Laura and Terrance publish the blog Grantourismo. The couple are also working on developing cookbooks. This is of interest to Kathy and me since our website has over 250 recipes that include wine as one of the ingredients.

Another media member is Andrew Barrow. We met Andrew while on the media trip at the 2012 International Wine Tourism Conference (IWINETC) and Media FAM trip in Italy. Andrew also writes and takes photographs about food and wine. Andrew’s blog Spittoon has been online since 2004.  We have been on two IWINETC Media FAM trips (Italy and Croatia) with Marcy Gordon, a freelance food, wine and travel writer. She writes the popular wine blog Come for the Wine. The seventh member of our team is Oriol Ripoll, founder and CEO of the online wine shop Decántalo. Cava enthusiasts can order the Cavas we review at his online store.

While on the 50 Great Cavas Tour, Kathy and I will write daily blog posts and use Twitter and Facebook to draw attention to this wonderful sparkling wine. When we return home we will write an individual article about each of the Cava producers we visit during the tour. We are looking forward to this opportunity to write about Spanish wine producers and add the articles to our Spain site on Wine Trail Traveler.

Cheers,
Terry