The list of denominaciones de origen for Spanish wines is long and impressive, featuring such famous names as Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Valdepeñas. The label in the photo is not from one of these, though. It’s a wine from la Mancha, and presumably the skinny little figure in red is Don Quijote himself.
There’s a huge difference between un vino de la Mancha and una mancha de vino, of course, but seeing the label made me wonder whether there are any vineyards around Staines.
A couple of people have suggested I should write a post about wine. Well, perhaps not about wine – I’m no expert and am happy with the vino honesto and no muy peleón that I can get in the local supermarket for 0.99€ a bottle – but about the language that is used to talk about it, particularly on wine labels.
I think it might have been Miles Kington (there’s an archive of his Independent column here) who said that if you were at a loss for words at a wine tasting, just look around the room and describe one of the other people present: big nose, full-bodied, fruity…
Continue reading “a flask of wine”
don't confuse the narrator 