Well, I have finally decided that it’s time to start writing a blog. First of all, I think I should say a little about myself and my company. My name is Roger Davies and I am orginally from the town of Abergavenny in Wales, UK. However, I have been living and working in Spain since 1987, apart from a 10 month period between 1992 and 1993 when I did a postgraduate course in London. Seven years ago, after a stint in the Spanish wine industry, I decided to set up my company, A Question of Taste. It was a bit of a dive into the deep end, as like so many new ventures things took a while to take off. However, I think we are now pretty much established and although like everyone else being battered by the worldwide economic crisis we are optimistic about the future.
Well, what exactly does A Question of Taste do? We are based in Seville in the south of Spain and dedicate ourselves to organising food and wine related activities. These include: one-day excursions, tapas tours, wine tastings, cooking classes and gastronomic breaks. We offer 6 different one-day excursions. There are two related to the great and often overlooked sherry wines of the Jerez area. One of the tours goes to Jerez itself and the other to the lesser known town of Sanlúcar de Barraneda, famous for the manzanilla style of sherry. It was also the town where Christopher Columbus set off on his third voyage and Magellan on his round-the-world one. We also do two tours which have red wine as their focus. One goes to Arcos de la Frontera and a fantastic nearby winery, and the other to Ronda and the surrounding area where there are some very interesting boutique wineries. Both Arcos and Ronda are very beautiful white towns to boot. Iberian ham, the vey best ham in the world, forms the focus of our tour to the Sierra of Aracena and fine olive oil is the theme of our tour to the Sierra of Grazalema with its stunningly dramatic scenery.
As well as the activities mentioned above, we have run quite a few wine tours to the north of Spain, particularly to the Basque country and the wine regions of the Rioja and the Ribera del Duero. My time in the wine industry provided me with a lot of contacts that have been very useful to us for organising winery visits, especially to places that don’t always open to the public.
Well, with this blog I will be concentrating on writing about what I am doing with my company and about anything to do with Spanish food and wine that I think might be of interest to people. I am always researching about food and wine both in general and specifically about Spain. This means doing a lot of visits, attending tastings, trying new wines and food products, and of course reading a lot. To give you an idea, at the moment in English I am reading:
Well, what exactly does A Question of Taste do? We are based in Seville in the south of Spain and dedicate ourselves to organising food and wine related activities. These include: one-day excursions, tapas tours, wine tastings, cooking classes and gastronomic breaks. We offer 6 different one-day excursions. There are two related to the great and often overlooked sherry wines of the Jerez area. One of the tours goes to Jerez itself and the other to the lesser known town of Sanlúcar de Barraneda, famous for the manzanilla style of sherry. It was also the town where Christopher Columbus set off on his third voyage and Magellan on his round-the-world one. We also do two tours which have red wine as their focus. One goes to Arcos de la Frontera and a fantastic nearby winery, and the other to Ronda and the surrounding area where there are some very interesting boutique wineries. Both Arcos and Ronda are very beautiful white towns to boot. Iberian ham, the vey best ham in the world, forms the focus of our tour to the Sierra of Aracena and fine olive oil is the theme of our tour to the Sierra of Grazalema with its stunningly dramatic scenery.
As well as the activities mentioned above, we have run quite a few wine tours to the north of Spain, particularly to the Basque country and the wine regions of the Rioja and the Ribera del Duero. My time in the wine industry provided me with a lot of contacts that have been very useful to us for organising winery visits, especially to places that don’t always open to the public.
Well, with this blog I will be concentrating on writing about what I am doing with my company and about anything to do with Spanish food and wine that I think might be of interest to people. I am always researching about food and wine both in general and specifically about Spain. This means doing a lot of visits, attending tastings, trying new wines and food products, and of course reading a lot. To give you an idea, at the moment in English I am reading:
Food & Cooking. An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture – Harold McGee
Questions of Taste, The Philosophy of Wine – Barry C. Smith (Ed.)
Food & Philosophy – Fritz Allhoff (Ed.) & Dave Monroe (Ed.)
In Spanish I am reading:
La Vinificación en Jerez en el siglo XX – Justo F. Casas Lucas
Guía del Turismo Gastronómico en España 2009
Well, I think that is enough for my first entry. If for any reason anyone wishes to contact me my e-mail address is roger@aqot.com.