At Barcelona Wine Week, Catalan wine will demonstrate, once again, that it is among the best in the world.

Today marks the start of another edition of Barcelona Wine Week, an international gathering for the wine sector, so important economically and culturally in our country. In a context of changing consumption habits, of hoppy New Year's Eve celebrations, of lumping vodka and cheap wine together, this fair is a brilliant and elegant, suggestive and attractive, positive showcase of this part of our culture, which in the case of the Mediterranean has very, very ancient roots, without which we simply "are not." The landscape of Catalonia, from sea to mountains, cannot be understood without the vineyard. The religion that has accompanied and shaped us over these 2025 years, precisely, celebrates the Eucharist with bread and wine, commemorating the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples, where he gives them wine to drink, which is his blood, and bread, which is his body (and which serves, if you'll excuse the joke, as the... peaks that we nibble on today when we go to the tastings). The Gospels are full of wine. Please don't miss Roser Omar's brilliant and extraordinary translation ofGospel of MatthewPublished by Blackie Books, and you'll see that in one passage, Jesus' enemies call him a "drunkard."

There are many interesting things at this fair, which closed with absolute success last year. Let me review a few. I would say, to begin with, that there is the historical tasting commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the Montsant Designation of Origin. Great wines, from great producers, in this DO that makes elegant wines, very much to international taste. There is a round table discussion on cork. Yes! Cork stoppers are a basic part of wine and a very important part of our industry. Because here, unlike other wine-producing regions, we equate the cork stopper with quality. I myself consider, intentionally or not, that screw caps are for the wine of the AVE (that "fresh little green one"), with all due respect to good green wine, which, of course, exists, because good wine is found everywhere. But in other wine regions, screw caps are used without problems, even for great wines.

of wine tourism, and many others want to do so. It's a way to generate income and, above all, to showcase and add value to wine within its landscape. The committee proposes tools and support for wineries. Wine Notebook of Qualified EstateAnything that values ​​our wines, gives them the prestige they deserve and already have abroad, will have me on the front row. With a group of amateur friends like myself (amateur that's what lovesEvery year we taste the new wines from certified estates, winery by winery. To start, we've already visited Collbaix, in the Pla de Bages. They do a fantastic job!

A Tinder for wine

My dear friend Sílvia Puig, who owns the wonderful, one-person winery En Números Rojos in Priorat, told me today that at the fair there's a kind of Tinder for producers and distributors. Producers make the effort to have a stand and sign up, and distributors, if they wish, follow up. matchLast year, the Altavins winery, from Terra Alta, made match in Asia. He did match The small and wonderful Jerisena winery, and the small and wonderful Bielsa Ruano winery. And he made matchOr, in other words, the Masroig cooperative. International wine critic Tim Atkin considered them "the best cooperative winery." And indeed they are. Exporting is a very important part—as long as Donald Trump approves—of our wine. And the pending issue, of course, is that it's also consumed here. Silvia's wines must be tasted. And if you taste them, you'll fall in love. She's a woman who makes wine, and this brings me to a group of women that I wouldn't say Silvia belongs to: Women of Wine, promoted by sommelier Meritxell Falgueras, the public face and privileged nose of the institution that is the Gelida Winery in Barcelona. She does it with another great of wine, Anne Cannan, of the legendary and extraordinary Clos Figueras. This year they will present the Isabel Mijares award during the fair, and we'll be watching closely. Falgueras has published a book with Planeta Gastro, titled: Women of wineFood and Republic, an association of companies that communicate about food (and wine is food), is at the fair, and there they will meet with their Spanish representative, a Catalan agency, Pcats Comunicació. There are also agencies from Africa, America, Asia... Meeting at the fair, sharing a glass of wine, is a way to network, which is good for the clients, who in this case are the producers. They lend each other a hand, and that's good for them.. And for us. If the farmers earn a living, we'll always have that wine.

Outside the fair, doing this thing called "off"There's an experience—and pardon the expression—called Hotel Wine Fest. It's wine pairings in hotels, featuring wines from some of Spain's appellations of origin. I think it's worth checking out, because there are five Catalan ones: Penedès, Pla de Bages, Cuenca, Catalunya, and Empordà. Cheers! And in the age of mobile phones, that's wonderful news."