Week 3 of My Internship at La Casa de las Vides

Hi everybody,

It is now the third week in Valencia, Spain and at Las Casa de las Vides. Until now, I’ve been primarily working for Emilio, while he was abroad. As I mentioned before, I didn’t know anything about wine, and in this three weeks, I’ve learned a lot more than I’ve ever imagined. I am not an expert (yet), but at the end of the internship, I think I will feel well educated. And when I go back to the Netherlands, I can advice my family at home about wine!

During my day, I research various importer sites in order to create a comprehensive database. As a result, I learned a lot about the wine regions in Spain and the history of one. I didn’t know that Spain is one of the biggest wine producers in the world and that they were able to produce high quality wines at a very rapid pace historically speaking.

It is not only the work that is new for, but it is all new for me. The country is new, the culture, the city and it is the first time I lived on my one. In the Netherlands, I still live with my parents and brother, but now I am all alone. It was all new, but I am used to it and am starting to like it - even to cook and do the laundry.

The language is also new for me, and I try to learn it, but it is very hard. Harder than I expected, because Spaniards talk very fast and that makes it hard for me to understand. But I learn some Spanish words and I try to speak it, so at the end of my internship, I will be able to converse a little.

Ontinyent is a nice little city nearby the winery where I live. In the beginning, I didn’t know anybody, but now I have met more people and they are all very nice and kind! So I am not lonely on the weekends.

Last Saturday I visited Valencia with a friend from the Netherlands who is also in Spain for an internship. She came over to my place and we went to Valencia city, which is a beautiful and huge city. I definitely want to go again, because there is no way you can see it all in one day. Marieke (the friend from Holland) likes to shop, and we have seen a lot of shops, including “Zara”, which is very popular here. The next time I want to see more about the city, like historical landmarks and new architecture. There is much more to see in this area, so I trust that I won’t be bored.

If I have new experiences you will hear it.

Kind regards,

Sjoerd Heijkoop

Twitter for Wine Producers

Twitter is becoming more and more accepted. I saw that even BBC and CNN uses Twitter for the comments from voters to back up the election news. So it most likely won’t take long before Twitter will show up for other mass media activities.

Maybe twittertastelive.com is not a mass media thing, but it certainly will an important role in the wine sector. And the good thing is that the traditional printed media starts to admit it as well. See photo from article in Wine Enthusiast. So I guess twitter and internet marketing are becoming a part of today’s reality.

I just hope it helps to break down the wall between producers and consumers, as I experienced it during a blogger’s tasting at Melissa’s Main street Bistro, a nice little restaurant in Stoneham.

Yesterday’s tasting of Casa Vides wines was a great way to get some honest feedback from my Boston blogger friends.  11 bloggers participated together with several other bloggers in the world from the US,  China, Spain, the Netherlands to name just a few countries, who watched the livestream set up by binendswine.

We tasted four wines. The white Vallblanca 2007 with Verdil, Macabeo and Gewürztraminer. This wine was a surprise for most of the bloggers.  Verdil is a grape that is produced by only a handful of producers in Southern Valencia. And the Gewürztraminer certainly gives the Verdil what it needs to become extra attractive. The blue bottle conversation was a definite NO ,in favor of a white or green bottle. The shape (Rhine style) was perceived as attractive.

The rosé Rosa Rosae 2007, a combination of Garnacha and…no not syrah, but Cabernet Sauvignon to give it structure. I really have high hopes for this wine, as I am a big rosé lover.

Both the white and the rose will be priced around 10 to 11 dollars in the US

Third wine is the CVP (Roman/Latin way) or CUP 2007 red. Here Syrah does play an important role as part of a  50/50 blend of Syrah and Tempranillo and is doing very well in Valencia. With 6 months of oak, it is still a fruit driven wine.  At the tasting, this red was a bit too young to drink, but it certainly showed a lot of potential. This wine will sell for around 15 dollars.

The Aculius was the best wine of the evening, according to most bloggers. Although I personally think this wine still needs some time to develop, it is a great blend of Tempranillo, Syrah and Merlot with an expected price level of around 18 to 20 dollars.

It was great to get all the feedback on the wines. As a export director of a fairly new winery (2008 is the 4th harvest), Casavides is eager to get as much feedback as possible from wine professionals and wine lovers around the world. As their Export Director, I have to transmit this feedback to Ana Martin, our wine maker, and Fran, the owner of the winery, currently studying wine at the University of Orihuela (Alicante).

I was very pleased to receive some great comments, and it confirmed my trust and belief that the wines of Casavides have some good possibilities in the export market. Maybe the presentation doesn’t convince all bloggers at the tasting and wine professionals I talked to at the Miami Wine Fair, which is why I decided to show the latest design. Some OOOHs and AAAHs again confirmed that Casavides certainly is going into the right direction.  See photo new wine labels white-rose-red above.

Thanks Craig of Binendswine for the effort to organize this TTL in just a few days,

Thanks Leslie for initiating this tasting in Boston. If it wasn’t for your first reaction, this tasting could have taken place somewhere else.

Thanks Richard for bringing me back to the hotel!

Thanks all other bloggers for your great comments!

Thanks to all watchers for staying up that late, if you were in Europe, for waking up early in China.

And last but not least A Big thanks for Ryan and Gabriella, who are guiding me and protect me from doing anything stupid on the web.

Oh yes, if you are a wine importer and you stumble across this post, even if this post is already some months old, feel free to contact me. Casavides is still looking for importers and distributors. ( What do you expect, we started just 2 months ago to export our wines!)

Hasta luego

Emilio

Casavides First Spanish Winery at Twitter Taste Live

I feel excited. Casa vides will participate in tonight’s Twitter Taste Live. I have no idea what to expect. But what I do know is that it will be a greta experience. About 4 weeks ago I started a discussion through twitter about the possibility to do a bloggers tasting. Geechee_girl picked up the signal. In no time she set up the event at http://cvbostasting.eventbrite.com/

While I was traveling to several wine fairs around in Brussels and Miami, the event started to grow. In the end around 15 bloggers signed up.  You understand I am excited!

Oh, and if you are a wine importer, I am still looking for an importer in several states of the US

So if you read this post after the twitter taste live Tasting 29th October and think our wines might be interesting for your portfolio, please do contact me through casavides.com.

Hasta Luego

Emilio Saez van Eerd

Who is Reme Gandía Espí?

What a commitment I’ve made to Emilio!

Up until this point, I’ve only written a few words presenting myself. I was told this should be “something simple and direct so that the readers know who is writing”.

My name is Reme, and truth be told, I’ve never talked about myself before. Hence, I don’t know where to exactly start.

Once I was married, we came here to live in Las Casa de las Vides at the Corral del Galtero, an old traditional country house that very common to the interior part of Valencia. But I’ll chat more about the house on a future occasion. Here in the heart of the interior of Valencia, we have created a large family, with five children, all of whom enjoy both our life in the country and the hard work associated with it. As they grow up, they will soon discover “in situ” that everything has its place in nature.

Together, we have seen the birth of “La Casa de las Vides” as a winery. We have enjoyed and struggled with every part of this process, including the bottling. But it was worth being able to witness how my five children, my two nephews, my husband, my brother and I handled the bottling and boxing of the first bottles. It was a true joy to see our efforts and dreams to become a reality.

Living here in the core of where I work, despite the fact that you can never disconnect, I am well compensated by the gratitude and rewards I receive daily. Consequently, my family knows first hand how to live day in and day out nursing the vines and for the winery.

Hence, allow me to share my dreams with you: for these vineyard, its bunches, their fruit, for which is wine, is that for which I wish for the most.

The New Trainee from Holland at Casa Vides

Hi, my name is Sjoerd and I am currently doing an internship at Casa Vides. I am studying economics in Holland in the city Rotterdam and a part of the program consists of an internship. So here I am.

A week ago, I arrived in Spain to spend the next four months in the region of Valencia. And my first stop was the bodega to get a first impression, as I didn’t know what I could aspect. This is the first time I am dong something with wine. Until now, I only drank it, although I prefer beer like Heineken. But at the end of the four months, I hope that I can tell you much more about wine.

Now, it’s Friday, and the first week at bodega is finished. I am already used to the work, a little bit, and I like what I do. The only problem is the people here in the bodega only speak Spanish, and I don´t speak it at all, making it another challenge for me to learn it.

I will keep you all up to date, and I hope at the end of the four months, I can write a blog post in Spanish.

Adios,

Sjoerd Heijkoop

New Spanish Bodegas at Megavino in Brussels

This week, from the 17th to the 20th of October, Brussels will be the center of Spanish Wines in Europe. Megavino an expansive wine fair will be hosting hundreds of Spanish wineries, including Casa Vides. Actually, my idea was to create a small video for the wine importers in Belgium saying something like:

“Hi, I am Emilio Saez van Eerd, export director for the La Casa de las Vides winery in the DO Valencia. All Belgium wine importers, and other visitors of the fair, are welcome to visit me at stand number 3508-11, etc etc.”

I could then add who we are, what wines we make, and that Ana Martin Onzain is the winemaker, but who has the time to read it. I know that I DON’T have time, so why should a wine importer in Belgium have time? Shooting a video is nice if you have a beak in your day to set it up the camera and bottles, while finding a nice angle, good light etc etc.  Unfortunately, in 3,5 hours, I have to be packed and leaving the winery for my trip.

Wait a minute. I can use 12secondsTV!

See if I can set up something, hang on…

12 seconds later: Ok done!

I promise I will dedicate some more time to it next time, but in the meantime, enjoy the 12 seconds video.

Saludos,

Emilio Saez van Eerd

Coming Up: Miami & Boston Blogger Wine Tastings

In a previous post, I mentioned the possibility of hosting some blogger wine tastings on my trips abroad. Here is the follow up:

Next week, I will fly to Miami. The Miami WIne Fair has collaborated with IBERWINE, which has attracted quite a few Spanish wineries that will be present in Miami from 25 to 27 October. It will be Casa Vides first trip to the US with our wines. Our aim is clear: to find serious wine importers who want to import our wines. OK, so the wine fair is nice to meet importers, but why should you care? What’s important for you to know as a blogger is what I am doing when I am NOT at the wine fair.

I think it would be great to do some bloggers tastings like the one I did three weeks ago on my trip to Cork (Ireland) or in Valencia at Enopata.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have at least one in Miami on the 25 or 27 October?

IMPORTANT: If you are a blogger and like to taste some Spanish wines from Valencia in Miami, please contact me, I am still open to any suggestion for the Miami Tasting.

The second blogger wine tasting will be held in Boston, although preparations are still in progress. Why Boston?

Thanks to Twitter some bloggers (note: not only wine bloggers) have showed interest to meet up in an informal way to taste our wines and have fun talking about wine and drinking it. The place and the hour will soon be announced, and I’ll be sure to bring along at least a Valencian rosé and a red wine to taste.

If you read this and you are interested in meeting with me, please do contact me with a comment below.

My only concern is that the laws in the US will make it too difficult for me to ship the wines to Boston. I can use some help from somebody in Boston to guide me how to get my wines there, because it is incredible how many rules each US  state invents to make things more difficult for wine exporters to get their wine samples into the US. Maybe I will have to share my experience with you after my US trip, and dedicate a post to “how you get your wines to the US”.

Follow casavides on twitter and stay tuned. Maybe the next bloggers tasting will be held in your town.

Saludos

Emilio Saez van Eerd

Vote for the new Casavides label

Casa Vides would like to receive your comments and suggestions on our new label for our new range of young Mediterranean wines. Positive and negative comments are welcome, as long as you can explain your reasoning behind them so that we can follow your logic. We still have a little time to make these labels better, so please chime in with your thoughts!

Here are the details. We will use a light purple to indicate a young red wine against the trencadis background. The trencadis is used to indicate a classical Mediterranean image.

The white wine will be turquoise, and the rose will have the exact same design but in light green (Pistacho). Evidently, it is very difficult to imitate the color of our rosé, so Juan Carlos, our designer, told me yesterday that green was our best option. Finally, instead of the green bottle for the white and rose, we will use a white bottle, but the shape will be identical for all three wines.

So, let us know what you think.

Do you think the label is eye-catching?

Do you like the color?

Do you like the shape of the bottle?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Saludos

Emilio Saez van Eerd

Spanish Fashion Designer Creates New Casa Vides Wine Labels

This is Juan Carlos. He prefers to stay away from the camera, but I managed to take a shot of him when he wasn’t looking. Fortunately, he’s working, despite his broken arm, on a new range of wines that will be introduced by the end of the year.

I asked Juan Carlos to publish some posts on label design, as well as some other topics he’s excellent at. And to be honest, I am looking forward to his posts, as he knows A LOT not only about design, but about the history of the region as a whole.

As you can see here he’s still in a very early stage of the designing process. But he’s promised to have a prototype ready for the next wine fair in Belgium. He still has two weeks. So I guess I shouldn’t worry too much.

By the way, all the labels of our existing wines were designed by Juan Carlos as well.

Cheers,

Emilio