With Rioja still the most well known region in Spain, it’s nice to see the magazines and reviewers turning back north. After spending much of the past years focused on the fantastic wines and regions exploding onto the US market from other areas of Spain, it’s comforting that they are once again focusing on the region that put Spanish wine on the map. A few months ago the dynamic duo from Catavino.net put up an impressive amount of wine reviews on their blog about Rioja, especially when you think that two people powered through all those wines. Dedication. Along with Catavino’s review recently, the International Wine Review just released their review on Rioja and also has an amazing list of wines from all over Rioja, from the classic styles to the more modern Rioja wines. Both will be great information sources for the novice to the aficionado, and highly recommend reading and searching each different review. Wines of note in both reviews, Bodegas Ondalan, Bodegas Medrano Irazu, Bodegas Miguel Angel Muro, Bodegas Ruiz de Vinaspre and Bodegas Santiago Ijalba.

With a brand new blog set up courtesy of the good people at catavino.net, I figured my first post should be about the fact that the P.R. Grisley Co. is a wine importer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Yes, you read that correctly, Mormontown, U.S.A. Believe it or not, it is legal to drink here if you are of age, but unfortunately it is still illegal to dance in some counties in Southern Utah. While there are too many laws to discuss in detail, I thought I’d share what it is like to buy wine here on a daily basis, especially with two Spanish friends visiting for a few weeks. Here you go-

Carlos, Emi, and myself enter a State Liquor and Wine Store to check out the selection that an average wine store has in Utah. While I must admit, we have a decent selection based on other liquor stores I have been in around the country, there are areas that are definitely lacking, which I’ll save for another day.

The point of this story happens when we went to buy our selected wines and head home for a nice dinner. The store had the A/C pumping as the thermometer rises here, so Emi went outside to save herself from frostbite. Carlos and I, being the perfect gentlemen that we are, went to pay for everything and meet Emi outside. When we approached the cashier, she asked for our I.D.’s, which is nothing out of the ordinary. We obliged, but she insisted that Emi needed to come back inside and show her I.D………..rediculous. While I went outside to retrieve Emi and her elusive Spanish passport, Carlos was being lectured on how the cashier was unable to find the birthdate on Carlos’ I.D. He pointed the date out to her that was clearly printed on his I.D., but because she was unfamiliar with a Spanish drivers liscence, she would not sell us the wine. After trying to explain to her several times, that the Spanish switch placement of the month and date when writing out what day it is, I became fed up. I kindly asked to speak with the manager, who took a glance, said ok and enjoy. REALLY? Is it that simple I thought? Needless to say, we left with several big brown bags in our hands (the mark of a boozehound in Utah) and enjoyed our wine and our dinner. I still have been unsuccessful in explaining what exactly happened at the store to Emi and Carlos, but just wanted to fill everyone else in on how some of the laws work here in Utah and how tourists view them.