Tag Archives: spain

wines of central & southern spain

03 Thursday Jul 2025

Posted by in andalucia, books, friends, wine

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Look what came today! Been looking forward to this, the companion book to my friend Sarah Jane Evans MW‘s The Wines of Norther Spain. I even get a nice mention for advising Sarah Jane (ever so slightly) about Sevilla wines, still very much unheard of, even here. Excellent timing to help with research I’m presently doing for a couple of Bitesize Sevilla articles as well as an upcoming travel piece for Decanter.

Things are hopping down here in the south. As Sarah Jane says in her book, if she had written the chapter on Andaculía ten years ago it would have been very different. Exciting times. Also nice to see so many people I’ve come to know over the years mentioned in the book. Worth taking a look.

blistering

02 Wednesday Jul 2025

Posted by in sevilla, summer, weather

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I know it looks pretty but holy fuck is it hot. Most days this past week have been from 5-9 degrees hotter than the average for this time of year. Nine degrees hotter is a lot of degrees! It’s starting to come down a bit (from 42º to 37º) but only “cools” down to about 25º overnight. Someone on Bluesky said they wondered how I live here in this heat and I said I am sensible and mostly stay home with the AC on. I like to think I’ve convinced at least a few people NOT to come here for a summer holiday. We need our water supply and electrical grid intact (and for us!). ☀️ 🔥

homenaje a julio moreno

25 Wednesday Jun 2025

Posted by in academia sevillana gastronomy turismo, friends, gastronomy, sevilla

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Julio Moreno & Manuel Salinero

The wonderful Julio Moreno has stepped down as president of the Academia Sevillana de Gastronomía y Turismo (of which I became a proud member in June 2023) and super-foodie Manuel Salinero is stepping up. Today the Academy held a tribute luncheon for Julio at Ispal with most of the academy members showing up (no small feat, it’s like herding cats!) as well as some special guests from the gastronomy and tourism scene here. 

We enjoyed a fabulous sevillano meal with modern touches, the wine flowed, speeches were given, gifts relayed (my favourite was the apron we all signed for Julio)… the outpouring of honest love and respect from everyone present was truly moving to witness. Anyhow, Julio isn’t going far. He is now officially recognised as Presidente de Honor, though we are calling him the presidente eterno, and he will still be with us at activities and events. But now he has more time to enjoy his other pastimes too and only has to see us when he wants to. What a guy. Big love.