Liquid Agnostic

When I found out we were moving to Spain, I immediately bought John Radford‘s “The New Spain“. I was headed out to conquer Iberia and I figured this was a good place to start. That first year as I wandered the Spanish landscape looking for direction it served me well. Granted too big to travel with, it none the less led me to places I might have over looked. And if not more importantly helped keep me motivated to make my own discoveries. Each regions synopsis in the book ends with a series of contact numbers, and while the web was relatively new to these wineries, everyone who had a website or email address received at least one message from me. My Spanish wasn’t good enough to dare call, but I did try a few times. I can say for sure that more than one winery ended up profiled on Catavino because of this. John’s contribution.

I’ve met John a few times, and shared the stage a couple more. Always someone who had a firm handshake and a warm smile, he will be missed. If you haven’t read his books. Head over to Amazon and pick up a couple. Then make sure to buy a bottle of Rioja and curl up with them both.

So here’s a toast to John. I figured Rioja would be a good choice.

Cheers,
Ryan