A group of British wine writers and experts visited us during the Reus Wine Fair organised for the first time this year by the Reus Chamber of Commerce. Amongst the group of eminent journalists was John Radford, a renowned expert on Spanish wines and author of the book, The New Spain published by Mitchell Beazley. The group travelled extensively during their short five-day stay and visited the five wine appellations of the Tarragona province:- DO Montsant, DOCa. Priorat, DO Conca de Barbarà, DO Terra Alta and DO Tarragona. They stayed at Cal Compte stately home throughout the five days and took part in wine tastings and olive oil tastings as well as the wine fair itself.

Helen Savage, who was part of the group is now offering Catalan Wine Education classes in Newcastle (see http://www.vinevisit.com/ or www.helensavage.com) and it is hoped that young wine writer of 2006, Rebecca Gibb (www.rebeccagibb.com) will soon be re-visiting the DO Montsant area in the autumn. We will keep you posted.

CataVino Wine Bloggers visited the D.O. Montsant at the end of June, this year to get to know these wines better and gather material for their readers. After three days of winery visits and tastings, we can say that Ryan and Gabriella Opaz are more up-to-date on the Montsant wine scene than anyone. If all goes well they will be back for more in September!

For more information please visit their site:- www.catavino.net/montsant