William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Transformed by my first visit to Catalonia. I shared with an acquaintance this summer, who is a little lost in life, that, " When I was in Catalunya two years ago, it was the first time I felt like I found a place where I belonged. It was as if I had finally found home. That's the kind of place I believe you are seeking." The Catalan people, their beautiful language, delicious cuisine and their world class wines, all felt familiar, but somehow forgotten. While I was there, I realized that a part of me was missing, and I found that essential part of me in Catalunya. I now consider Catalunya the home I did not know. The home I yearn to return to. Somehow. Today, I am sharing my sentiments toward Catalunya, vi Català (Catalan wine), my desire to return and a bit about what I have learned and wish to experience. “Wine brought me to Catalunya, wine will likely bring me back.”  Visiting the village of Gratallops in Priorat, Catalunya. Where is Catalunya? Catalo...

Vi Català. More than a review of the Mas LLunes 2013 Rhodes red wine. I want to begin today's wine review with a much overdue re-cap of my visit to the Mas LLunes winery in 2016. There are more winery visits and reviews pending, which is why I have titled this post, " Part 5a ". Wine review is further below. * You can jump back to the original Outline if needed. Note: Empordà is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines produced in the northeastern corner of Catalunya, in the province of Girona. Up until 2006, it was defined as DO Empordà-Costa Brava to associate the large tourist beach area within the region to the east. On the Road to Mas LLunes Winery in  DO Empordà The drive to the Mas LLunes winery was full of narrow, shoulder-less, twisty back roads. Through some very beautiful country. Once the Pyrenees mountain range became visible, it served as the backdrop for our drive through wine country. Manel shared a lot of detail about the area and...

Those of you who have been reading along, by now you can tell that I was affected by my time in Catalunya. As I've stated several times in the past four posts, there is much to share. It all began when I was notified by DO Catalunya (Consell Regulador de la Denominació d’Origen Catalunya) that I was a finalist in a blog writing competition. Would I be attending the BlocDOCat gala in Barcelona? That only allowed for two weeks to arrange my first visit to Barcelona and Catalunya. And maybe I was also an award winner. During my time touring DO Catalunya wine country with Anton Castella, and Manuel from Madrid, the other finalist not Manel, we discussed what DO Catalunya represented. We touched on the topics of flexibility, freedom, and balance. Little did I know how this would relate to my understanding of the Catalan people. Part 3 This is Part 3 of my series of posts about Catalunya, what I experienced and what I learned. I believe it will take at least eight posts to c...