May the Three Kings bring him wine and company.

I'm writing these lines while watching the snow fall on the vineyards. The resulting backdrop (we won't call it a "picture" anymore) is breathtakingly beautiful. Some newly planted vines, like mine, are seeing snow for the first time this year. Others, the older ones, have survived the brutal drought of recent years. The cabbages and flowers are covered today in snow as fluffy as a Jordi Roca dessert.

The wine appellations of origin, including the one I live in, have sent a letter to the President of the Generalitat, the Minister of Agriculture, the Director of Incavi, and the President of 3Cat, reminding them that we have a "deeply rooted winemaking tradition" (with 12 appellations) that "forms part of our cultural heritage." They ask, with all the common sense in the world, with all the reason, with all the common sense, that in the future it be guaranteed that the "symbolic" content of our TV responds to the cultural, social and -let's not forget- economic interests of Catalonia. New Year's Eve It's symbolic content.

I understand that the beer—which we enjoy and also love—pays the salaries of the artists and technicians that night. But you have to look beyond the surface (as my dedicated driving instructor says). Wine "sells" much more than bottles. It sells the landscape; therefore, hotels, restaurants, rental bikes, tour guides, farmers, tractor drivers. Hops are the same hops in San Juan de Vilatorrada as in Saint John of Toast Country. Grapes, on the other hand, show you the landscape (stony, arid, mountainous...) of each climate (continental, Mediterranean...), of each year (rainy, dry...), of each unique variety (Picapoll, Xarel·lo, Taladrado, Macabeo, Garnacha...). Without wine there is no cuisine; without cuisine and wine there is no culture.