My father always enjoyed wine. I don’t remember him ever saying a negative thing about the glass he was drinking. Often, he praised it, with his fun-loving generosity. He made wine a fundamental part of the good things in life, together with family, friendship, hunting and good conversations. When I started appreciating reds and whites and ventured into writing this blog, at first he did not take me seriously. I was his strict son, the bookworm type, how could I now become the hedonist in the cellar? Only then I realized how much he really knew about wine, without ever showing off. For a long while, I could not find a red that he had not tried before. When Santiago my son was born, we went for lunch. I was eager to order Mauro and get his feedback, but of course he had already tried some years ago. Only recently, with the wine revolution at its peak in Spain, he accepted that they were some yet to be discovered.

This Christmas season I have missed him so much. I have gone back to some long-time friends to toast to him: Viña Ardanza Reserva 2010, Valenciso Reserva 2012, Pagos de Valdoneje Viñas Viejas 2015, Ramón Bilbao Edición Limitada 2016. We have also drank Terras Gauda, the Albariño served at my wedding. I remember well that he enjoyed it so much with octopus (oh, what a night!). These first days of January I have escaped with María to Porto. We had dinner overlooking the Douro in the Graham wineries and tried one of their reds, Quinta do Ataide 2016 (circa 14 euros), a wine full of dark berries and mistery. A wonderful ocassion to toast to my dad in the New Year.