Winning Cruises

After a brief (!) break from blogging for the purposes of getting out there and selling some wine, it is time to get up to date....

Firstly, Alliance has had an amazing time at the awards over the last few weeks. At the International Wine Challenge, we've got no less than 6 trophies! Good ol' Prof from Majella has come up trumps again and took an incredible 4 trophies for his Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 - including best Aussie red for the 2nd year. Always nice to see the good guys winning through....

Domaene Wachau, our new Austrian producer also got in on the action and took 2 trophies - for best Austrian white wine and best Gruner Veltliner...

As if that wasn't enough, we've just heard that at the New Wave Spanish Wine Awards, we've also got 2 trophies. Well done to Cilar de Silos and Luis Canas!

Away from the awards winning business, I'm just back from a slightly surreal weekend doing a wine tasting on the 3rd largest cruise ship in the world. DLA Piper, the global legal firm, had it exclusively hired out for the weekend (can't see too many wine companies following them) and we (Robin and I) were the entertainment on the Saturday afternoon. After manfully struggling through Friday's opening party and then the added stress of which sunscreen to wear on the Saturday morning, it came as something of a shock to have to don the suit and do 2 tasting sessions on Saturday afternoon. All went well though and, with a little Zimbabwe-esque vore rigging, the competitive Spain versus France tasting ended in a draw. Well done to Robin for standing up for French pride in the face of my Spanish attack.....

After leaving the ship, I met up with the irrepresible Reg Ward...our man in Spain. After a somewhat fraught car hiring experience, we left Barcelona and headed in the direction of Rioja. Gorgeous weather and scenery all the way, a dreary lunch in a basement restaurant that seemed to be serving "all" the bits of a rabbit and then on to see Victor and Guillermina at Finca Manzanos. Watch this space for some significant changes to closures on these wines....Rioja goes all modern....

Sunday night in Laguardia was spent watching the football. Suprisingly subdued, the locals watched their country win the Euro final as we munched croquetas and drank a fantastic bottle of Contino...

Monday in Rioja was spent searching for a new wine to fill the Rioja slot in our new brand, Los Pecadillos. Not yet launched, this is set to be the most exciting project we have completed yet....you will all hear about it very soon!!!