Bienvenido, a nuestro blog de vino. Soy Daniel Harringon sumiller en Avinae Wine & Spirits . Con el tiempo, gracias a lectores como tú, éste espacio se ha convertido en uno de los blogs de vino más leídos en ingles. Gracias por estar a ese lado de la pantalla. Te animo a que pases al nuestro colaborando con tus comentarios y preguntando lo que te interese.
Nunca hemos tenido la pretensión de entrar en ránkings de los mejores blogs de vino de España. Ni cosas por el estilo. Desde que empezamos con Avinae Wine & Spirits ,Mallorca Wine Experience y ahora con Vinos de Mallorca siempre hemos querido dotar a nuestra web de contenido de calidad. Nos inspiramos en algunas webs inglesas que nos parecieron interesantes. La idea es que los miembros de nuestro club de vinos tuvieran en este espacio un rincón donde poder encontrar información útil. Vídeos sobre catas de vino, algunos consejos para aprender de vino, curiosidades sobre le mundo del vino, recomendaciones de vinos y de winebars en los que hemos estado (y nos han gustado), ideas para hacer enoturismo, etc. Hay posts que incluyen vídeos y hay otras entradas con sólo texto.
A quick history lesson!!
It´s all fun and games explaining what wine is, how to approach it in a bar, what language it speaks… but It is also important to understand where it comes from, what it has been through or had to survive to be its best self for us today!!
On that note I will occasionally do short and interesting entries in to this blog about important moments in Wines History. I present to you:
The Methuen Treaty: A quick history lesson!!
From the 13th century onward, the English became one of the principal consumers of Bordeaux ( and other French ) wines. This relationship stayed strong all the way through to 1703.
You see at this time France and England where at War and England chose to ally itself with Portugal in the “ War of The Spanish Succession” and they did it by helping dissolve the agreement that France had made with Portugal in 1702 to offer Naval protection. They did this by sailing close to Lisbon on a trip to and from Cadiz and to prove that the French couldn’t protect them. A quick history lesson!!
The Treaty had many more implications than the things I will touch upon here, but that doesn’t mean that this aspect wasn’t incredibly important, not only to the modern day European wine market, but also Portugal´s advancement in the industrial race. A quick history lesson!!
You see the basis of the trade aspect stated that all textiles coming from England would be exempt of tax and in exchange all wines exported to England from Portugal would never be taxed higher than the equivalent quantity of wine from France, partially this was done to ensure that England would still import Portuguese wines even when no longer at war with France. A quick history lesson!!
The English weren´t as fond of the robust, less subtle wines of Portugal as they were of French wines, but as an empire built on the concept of status through excess, wine was still highly in demand and this mentality helped boost the value of wine in Portugal.
Around this time ( roughly 30 years before ) The first recorded shipment of “Port” wine was shipped to England. Not to be confused with today´s Port wines, these wines, still born in the Douro like today, where robust Reds that when barreled for shipment were sometimes dosed with brandy as a way to “preserve” the wine.
The next time you crack open a bottle of delicious Portuguese red, or a dry crisp Vinho Verde, remember that the reason we get to do so, is because hundreds of years ago, the rich chose to play a game of Chess that revolved around money, power and wines
All Aboard!!!
