A bank holiday week-end AND a week off in sunny (well, mostly) Devon and I was back in the office with a huge spring in my step this morning, itching to put to work the ideas I'd dreamed up while drinking Doom Bar, drinking some fab S4W wines and eating fish down in Brixham.

Top of the list was to stop thinking about keeping the blog up-to-date, and start getting on with it...

I hadn't even read the zillions of emails waiting for me -and this was after keeping on topof them while away via my iPhone - and one of our favourite Spanish importers had arrived, laden down with various samples to try. As we're looking to develop our Spanish selection, the timing was perfect. Some of this will hopefully make the grade for S4W list in the coming months, once we've all chipped in with our views and tasting notes.

Highlights were the Naire white (100% Verdejo) and red (100% Tempranillo) pair which would be stunning value at £5.95 if we can do the right deal and get them down to that price. The euro not withstanding...

We tasted the amazing dry Botani Moscatel made by Jorge Ordóñez & Co in Malaga . Expensive, but very good - aromatic, but with a lovely spice and mandarin/lime zing to it too. Nice breadth and even richness for a Muscat, coming from being partly barrel fermented - and unusual winemaking technique for Muscat. Lots of aromatic wines are often spoken of as being great with Asian-inspired food - this wine really would work brilliantly. Very striking love it/loath it wine label too- it won a trophy for design at the recent Spanish New Wave wine awards.

Next up, the barrel fermented Cantocuerdas Albillo from Bodega Bernabeleva - although it looks like their web site is currently under construction. Albillo is a pretty much unknown (well, certainly in the UK) indigenous Spanish variety: lots of Burgundy-like flavours with minerality and zest to boot. A tad expensive at £18-19, but interesting and very good quality. In a sea of Sauvignon and Chardonnay it is wines like this that make Spain so interesting - especially as it is mostly red wines that we associate Spain with. In fact, we're not the only ones as the wine was recommended by Spanish wine guide Penin in a recent article in Decanter on white wines from Spain.

Of the reds the 100% Graciano from Vina Zorzal from Navarra was scented, plummy and rich while the Vina Marro Rioja from 100% Tempranillo was softly fruity and easy to drink, but with a core of firm tannins and minerality and just the right amount of oak.

The two stand out reds for me were Bajondillo - a blend of Tempranillo, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet with a cherry/damson nose and lots of ripe, dark fruits on the palate (se VERY gaudy label on bottom right of pic above), and  Paisajes V Rioja - cassis on the nose and a warm, spicy, curranty palate.

All in all, not a bad way to start the first day back to work after the holidays!

A pretty lazy Sunday - well, lazy in that I wasn't rushing around out and about. Teenagers were both at work (Ha, now that has to be funny in itself!) and wife was snoozing in front of the TV having just presented the breaky programme for the radio station where she works.

Anyway, I was pretty active in terms of an afternoon spent catching up with stuff online, including all those interesting things Google Reader picked up for me during last few days that I haven't had a chance to read until now. If you don't already follow them, two (other!) wine blogs worth reading and book-marking are Ryan and Gabriela Opaz's Catavino and Joe Robert's 1winedude - but there are heaps of great wine blogs being written by passionate people - why not have a look next time you have a few minutes online? There is a good list of great wine blogs here: 100 Top Wine Blogs. Aim for 2009 - to get S4W's blog into that list!

A house to myself; and no need to feel guilty about work as it's Sunday. Spent some fun time catching up with people I follow on Twitter - follow me there if you like http://twitter.com/AndrewChapman. In fact, Twitter has been getting some great press of late. Robert McIntosh over at The Wine Conversation, another very good and highly recommended wine blogger, was featured on the BBC's Working Lunch (@declancurry and @workinglunch in Twitter-speak), and Jonathan Ross, a new Twitter convert (@wossy) interviewed Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) about his Twittering's on his first show back after his ban. Plus a piece in The Guardian recently.

... and before I knew it it was time to put the roast chicken in and get a move on with supper. Which gave me time to try a couple of Sherry's while messing about in the kitchen

First up, a chilled Fino... Fino Marismeno from Bodegas Sanchez Romate. Chilled Fino is sooo under-rated. This one is zingy, dry, salty, tangy - such good value for quality compared to wine. Its dryness and almondy, citrus-like/salty edge make it a great aperitif. Fino needs to be drunk fresh, and preferably, if you have enough people in the house to consume it, in one go - just like you would a table wine

Next up was Oloroso del Puerto from Gutierrez Colosia. I've been a big fan of this producer since visiting them afew years back. The Bodega is on the banks of Guadalete rive, next to the Atlantic - I'm sure you can detect a distinct salty tang on in all their Sherry's, even the Oloroso and Amontillado. War, rich, nutty but with a good zip of acidity/saltyness this works as an aperitif, but also is quite foodie too - a really versatile wine. Dry, but with a wonderful lingering after-taste.

A splash went into toe Chicken roasting pan to deglaze it and we had THE best chicken gravy in ages - as voted by teen2, the gravy and roast potato connoisseur of our house!

 Too bad tomorrow is Monday....

... well, I decided what to drink tonight in the end: Juan Gil Petit Verdot 2006.

I had to fill up a supplier order last week with a few cases of something and I've always wanted to try this wine since we started stocking its stable-mate Juan Gil Monastrell Monastrell over the last couple of vintages. So I took a gamble...

I had snatched a bottle out of the first crate in the consignment earlier today when I was in the warehouse, ostensibly to bring home to photograph (trying to get to grips with my new camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR).

Alison made a great fish pie ( even topped the one I made for her family when they came for Easter. Damn, I have a kitchen battle on my hands as well as trying to sell wine now!), so we finished off a bottle of the new 2007 vintage of Malvasia 'Marques de la Villa'. Lovely and fresh, with plenty of zesty, modern fruit. Perfect Monday to Thursday wine.

Actually, I hadn't really intended to go past finishing the white off. But got all excited by the new podcast system coming online, nice chat online with a friend or two... what the heck. It looked so good in the photo, I wanted to try a glass!

Juan Gil Petit Verdot 2006: Intense cherry red colour. Looks deep and brooding. Ripe, juicy berry fruits on nose. Touch of spice (cinnamon?). Some licorice even. Ripe, full-bodied palate. Nicely balanced fruit and tannins - ripe tannins, but a fair squish of acidity too. Plummy, deep, rich. All in all, a big wine in every sense of the word, but not over-done and even worked with cheese.... and I'm not a big red wine and cheese fan. But that's another blog post!

OK, enough blogging for today... time to find that bottle again before Alison gets to it....

NB
I'll be updating Juan Gil's Producer Profile in next few days. Find out more about this producer there soon.

The first sunshine in goodness knows how many days saw the hot line between secret hollowed out volcano that is Surf4Wine HQ and the Chapman house come into immediate use. Mr C to Mrs C 'do you think we should have a Barbecue tonight?' 'Whatever' came back the cheery reply '... so long as you do the cooking'. Excellent me thinks I. But first things first... what to drink? (Funny how that is always the first thing on my mind... oh well)

Well, Mrs. C. is currently not drinking, so what should a boy do for a drink for one? Opening a bottle for one seems a bit extreme mid-week. I could obviously chose NOT to drink it all and lave some for tomorrow, but as we are off to sunny Devon that didn't seem practical either. M'mmm... I know. Beer! But which beer to drink?

Well, just arrived in the warehouse that very same afternoon were a clutch of new beers (See Andrew B's Blog post from yesterday). One in particular I had been keen to try ever since I saw it's reappearance on our beer suppliers list: Mahou beer from Spain. In fact, Mahou Five Star beeris Spain’s best selling domestic beer brand- don't say you don't learn something new with each Blog post ;). It was a staff as well as customer favourite when we last stocked it and it only disappeared from our list when we couldn't obtain anymore. Glad to see it back - but would it taste as good as I remembered?

I should have worried, Mahou **** lived up to expectations: Lovely crisp refreshing taste, not too heavy or gassy. Perfect for drinking while I watch the prawns on skewers gently turn fro pink to light gold. Went perfectly with the garlicky, lemony prawns - and didn't lave me with too much of a bad head next day (well, being a mid-week light-weight I only had a couple - it's no fun drinking alone!)

Mahou beer from Spain available by the case @ £34.50 for 24 x 33cl