There is much made of the connection of wine and art, with artists all over the world creating pieces that inspire them, but rarely are the very biggest names in art connected so clearly with wine. I have not seen the exhibition myself yet, but will add pictures and video as soon as I do. If you’ve seen it, do let me know what you think:

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Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco and its Museum of the Culture of Wine announced that the temporary exhibition entitled “Vivanco Reserve” is now open to the public.

Until March 14th 2010, visitors will have the unique occasion to see 24 items from the Vivanco family vaults that have never been shown before, from iconic masters including: Picasso, Tápies, Miró, Barceló, Juan Gris, Dürer, Lichtenstein and Hogarth.

Santiago Vivanco, director of the Museum of Wine Culture, launched the Vivanco Reserve exhibition accompanied by Pedro Sanz, President of La Rioja, and Luis Alegre, Cultural Advisor to the local government of La Rioja.

“This unique exhibition is important in establishing an historical and cultural context for appreciating wine, and the role it has played in societies around the globe. It encapsulates the connection between the two worlds of Culture and Wine, and underscores Dinastia Vivanco’s determination to showcase great art as well bring the worlds of art and wine together,” says Santiago Vivanco.

Visitors will be able to experience the culture of wine through paintings, sculpture and engraving. The assembled works stretch across the globe and through time from a Greco-Buddhist relief depicting the gods Pancika and Hariti from the Ghandaran culture of 1st century Pakistan, through Flemish paintings of de Caullery and De Wit, engravings by William Hogarth to modernist painting and lithography by Picasso, Miro and Juan Gris.

This exhibition takes place in the public areas of the Dinastia Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine in Briones, La Rioja, Spain, and is free to view.

Update (19/10/2009): I found a link to a video with some of the pieces from this exhibition. I apologise for the music though!

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The Wine Gang celebrate their 1 year anniversary this month.

If you are not familiar of The Wine Gang (TWG), it is 5 of the UK’s most influential wine writers and communicators – Tim Atkin, Olly Smith, Tom Cannavan, Joanna Simon & Anthony Rose, who collaborate to put together a monthly newsletter with hundreds of their most recent tasting notes and buying tips.

There is a lot of content about wine on the internet, but the content TWG are providing comes from their privileged access to top tastings as well as their undoubted skill as tasters and comunicators. It is not an easy time to create a paid-for newsletter business model on the internet where everything seems to be being given away free these days, but they have managed to make a success of their new venture, so reaching the 1 year milestone ought to be celebrated.

Encouraging more people to discover wine and to buy better, more rewarding wines, is a goal that Dinastia Vivanco is happy to celebrate, so it seemed a great opportunity to help to spread the Culture of Wine by offering to create a unique prize for TWG subscribers.

Any paid-for subscriber of TWG has a chance of winning a three day trip for two to Rioja to visit the region AND a special visit to Dinastia Vivanco as well.

The main event of the visit will be to spend a day, along with one of The Wine Gang, as guests of Dinastia Vivanco. You will visit the facilities in the company Rafael Vivanco who will give you a personal tour of the ‘tribute to wine’ the Vivanco family have built in the mediaeval town of Briones.

In the winery you’ll discover how Rioja is made, and taste the different ages, grapes and styles of Rioja wines, and maybe even discover white and rose Rioja for the first time. This tour will also include an exclusive opportunity to taste future releases straight from the barrels in the underground winery and cellar.

You will get to see hundreds of wine treasures in the Dinastia Vivanco Museum of the Culture of Wine including films, art, sculpture, archaeological artefacts, corkscrews, glassware; in short, anything and everything to do with wine’s development over many thousands of years.

Finally, you will be treated to some fabulous Riojan cuisine in the Museum’s restaurant that boasts panoramic views over the family’s vineyards and the Cantabrian mountain range.

Sound good? Check out The Wine Gang and subscribe now to have a chance to enter the competition.

If you win, you might even get to star in some future posts on this blog – what MORE could you ask for!?

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I have two copies of the book here already to give away, but I am going to hold off announcing the winners until I have a bit more news for everyone else as to how you can get hold of the book in the UK and US. Sorry!

I hope to work out a way to get this book to you in a timely and cost effective manner – and I have a couple of options.

More soon.

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I will write something up more fully today, but in the interim, here is a video I made (very quickly and with no planning) last night. If you want to win a copy, you can send me a message on twitter (@thirstforrioja) or leave me a comment on this blog post. Please tell me why I should send the book to you.

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I’m starting to come across more and more travel blogs writing about visits to La Rioja.

This is a great sign that this lovely region is finally making waves in a more international travel arena. So far international visitors to the region are relatively small, especially compared to some other well known wine regions in the world, but the flip side is that those that come now are ‘pioneers’ with a new story to tell their now-very-jealous friends.

I came across a post called “Something about La Rioja” this morning, talking about Laguardia, Haro, wineries and the food of the region. I particularly liked the introduction:

I love to search for charming little places around the world, the type that do not usually fall under the average tourist’s wish-list, places I wish I could savour all by myself and hide from all you other thirsty travelers out there. But, alas, here I am in the magical wine region of La Rioja in Spain, and I am about to-very reluctantly may I say-divulge my precious secret to all.

I must admit I partly came across the post because of the review of the visit to Dinastia Vivanco’s winery and museum:

As a grand finale, I visit the Dinastia Vivanco Bodega, in Briones (www.dinastiavivanco.com). I am speechless. This goes way beyond my expectations.

Thank you for your selflessness in sharing the word! Maybe more travel writers will check out the region too. I shall go on a travel blog hunt, but feel free to drop me a comment with links to your own reviews of the region (travel related only please).

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Here area selection of my photos from Tapas Fantasticas London 2009. A proper round up coming soon.

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The conclusion is inescapabale – even Nature loves Rioja!

Thousands of people made it to Brick Lane for the show and even waited in line to get in. I’d take my hat off to them, except I had forgotten it at home.

The Monte Clavijo, Castillo de Clavijo and the Castillo San Lorenzo wines all performed well, but in the intense sun the white and red were the best performers. I even had several people tell me that the Monte Clavijo Rosado (the 2008) was their favourite wine of the event which is nice to hear.

In fact, it was so hot, we had to put even the Crianza and Reserva red wines in the ice bucket. Most were happy with the results (it is much more refreshing to have a red wine that is cool enough to taste compared to a flabby, warm wine) even if they were a bit shocked at first.

Lots more to come tomorrow.

I’ll post lots of great photos later in the week, but here are a couple favourites:

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You can read my 2008 Tapas Fantasticas review or check out some of the photos.

Unfortunately, last year I was rather preoccupied with the imminent birth of my son so I was only there briefly so I didn’t get a chance to really make the most of it. This year I will be there pouring the wines from Criadores de Rioja, including the Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Reserva 2004.

This year’s edition is this weekend – 27 & 28 June 2009 (11:30 – 17:30) in Brick Lane Yard, 146 Brick Lane. There are over 20 wineries and more than a dozen restaurants attending. All the information on where it is being held, what restaurants are participating from Rioja and London, and which wineries will be pouring their wines, is on the Wines from Rioja site:

http://www.winesfromrioja.co.uk/tapasfantasticas2009/london.html

Forget Glastonbury! Ignore the Lions Rugby! Boycott Tweetcamp! Come to Brick Lane to eat some lovely tapas and drink Rioja instead!

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In many ways, it wasn’t a discussion as much as a series of comments around the theme of how Rioja should present itself to the world, and more importantly, how it might go about offering a broader range of wines to consumers.

[for more professional reporting on this event, read Rebecca Gibb's take]

The key fact, in terms of the topic, is that Tempranillo plantings represent 78% of ALL vineyard plantings in Rioja. Without any Tempranillo, you’d scarcely have enough for a decent dinner party, never mind to sell wines to the entire world as happens now.

The question was really interpreted as whether Rioja should attach its brand more clearly to the Tempranillo varietal/brand or not.

The strongest argument for this idea came from Maria Martínez from Bodegas Montecillo, known as the “Queen of Tempranillo”. In her opinion Tempranillo was THE vehicle for expressing the personality of Rioja, and by this I take her to mean her sense of its place, its terroir. She admitted that many other regions, and even countries, could grow Tempranillo, but the unique mix of weather, soil and historical wine making practices in Rioja gave it a real personality, whilst most other wines turned out to be “manufactured”, “Coca Cola” wines. I admire her conviction, and her wines.

However, what she is discussing is more than the varietal mix of the wine. She did not argue against using other classic grapes to blend with Tempranillo, only that it should have “personality”. Rioja’s strong, and much loved personality, is what consumers around the world love.

Follow-up presentations by Juan Carlos Sancha of Viña Ijalba and Victor Fuentes of Baron de Ley, were ostensibly a counter-argument, but in fact followed the same theme. Rioja used to grow a variety of grapes, in 1912 there were 44, but today there are only 7 – and in the case of Tempranillo, only 3 different clones. This means that the region is HIGHLY dependent on a small range of varieties, that it has lost (permanently through extinction in many cases) many indigenous varieties. It wasn’t an argument for making Rioja from something other than Tempranillo, but a plea for experimentation, to genetic diversity, to a uniqueness for Rioja that was defined by something more abstract than a single variety.

There are producers such as Dinastia Vivanco and Viña Ijalba who are trying to showcase the personality of each of the key Rioja grapes, and examples such as Baron de Ley who are even planting 28 hectares of a newly approved, but classic indigenous grape called Maturana Tinta.

Most of the assembled audience agreed that Rioja risked more by linking itself to Tempranillo than it gained – opening the doors to copycat regions selling similar grapes, confusing consumers who only have limited wine knowledge, and not doing anything to sell more white or rose wines.

The only real point of contention seemed to revolve around price. A representative from an importer with a focus on supermarket brands, and Melissa Draycott, head of wine buying at First Quench, pointed out that consumers loved Rioja and only really wanted a good Quality/Price ratio. Rioja had delivered in the past and should focus on this for the future.

The implication of this is that all the discussion of “Personality”, of genetic diversity and of new plantings of recovered indigenous or international varieties was likely to lead to more high priced, premium wines and distract from the business of selling more volume. I will look at this is depth another time as I think it is important, but most of the audience agreed that Rioja needed to be more than a provider of generic “soap bars” (comparing wine marketing to the success of P&G etc.).

All in all, it was good to have the opportunity to hear from some interesting Rioja personalities, and to taste their wines. Hopefully we can use these discussions to define a clearer path for Rioja to innovate without losing its special place in the consumer’s hearts and wallets.

More soon.

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The full list of speakers was: Ricardo Aguiriano, Marketing Director for the Rioja Consejo; Maria Martínez from Bodegas Montecillo; Juan Carlos Sancha of Viña Ijalba; Victor Fuentes, Managing Director at Baron de Ley; and Melissa Draycott, Thresher. Rafael Vivanco from Dinastia Vivanco was supposed to join them but was unfortunately unable to attend.

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