Dear members I hope that you have had an enjoyable month. Since my last newsletter, members have enjoyed the Autumn wine trip (for the report click {HERE}) and the Tasting of Vinos de Pago led by Tony and Cherry (for the report click {HERE}). In preparation for 2026, the Tasting Team has been busy planning the year ahead and the provisional venues, volunteers and event descriptions can be found {HERE}. A note from our Treasurer: The committee do not intend to increase the subscription from last year, it will remain as €30 per person.  Therefore you are invited to pay your subscription from today, using the usual bank account (ES81…

Dear members I hope that you are enjoying the heat, humidity and general hustle and bustle of summer! It seems difficult to imagine that in only a couple of months we’ll be thinking about warmer clothes and possibly putting on the heating. So for the next few weeks enjoy your chilled wines and barbecues.  As a general point of information, please be aware that the new lower drink, driving limits are now in place in Spain, with the new limits being much lower than in England and Wales and many other countries. I mentioned in my last newsletter that at our January AGM we will be proposing an increase in…

Dear members Be careful what you wish for! Earlier in the year when we were experiencing cool and wet weather in the Costa Blanca, we couldn’t wait for summer to start. Today in Moraira we have an extreme weather warning of up to 39 degrees! So, as a wine society we know that means serving your white and rosado wines well chilled, and putting your red wine in the fridge for an hour or so, so that it can be served at the correct temperature of 16 to 18 degrees. Any higher temperature than this and red wine will (according to Jancis Robinson) taste ‘hot and thin’. It also starts…

Dear Members I am writing this newsletter in sunny Moraira, with temperatures around the mid 20s. It’s getting to the time of year to decide which wines go best with barbecued food, there is no wrong answer, it’s whichever you prefer. A couple of matters to update you on      – I am delighted to announce that Sylvie Vande Pitte and Stewart Cusden have accepted our invitation to join the CBWS Committee. I am sure that they will be tremendous additions to your committee.      – We now have 150 members.  As this is the maximum number approved at our AGM, we have now commenced a waiting list for future applicants. In early…

Dear members I hope that you had an enjoyable Easter and are now looking forward to the improved weather which those of us based on the Costa Blanca expect in late Spring and early Summer. We currently have 141 members. As usual, a small number of members were unable to renew their membership, mainly due to relocation and health reasons. This means that we are able to admit another 9 members to take us up to our capacity. So, if you have any friends or family who would like to benefit from being members of CBWS, please encourage them to fill in the application form soon. On 24 April, Tony…

Dear members As we head towards our third Tasting of 2025 there seems to be a lot to report on our CBWS activities, so I’ll try to keep it brief. On 20 February we had an enthusiastic and informative presentation of a great variety (grapes and prices) of wines by Steve Sanchis of Bodegas Leopoldo. His subject ‘The Art of Tasting Wine’ coincided with the issuance of our new wine scoring sheet. I’ll give a refresher about scoring at the next couple of tastings, in the meantime I can strongly recommend that you read the updated pages on  ‘Scoring Guidance’ and ‘Describing Wine’ on the Wine Tasting section of the CBWS…

Dear members A belated Happy New Year to everyone.  Our programme of events for 2025 is on the website and offers a great variety of types of event, locations and wines to be tasted, for example, this year we are including a tasting of one of Spains most iconic (and possibly least understood) wines – sherry!  Also, in September, we are holding an event called ‘Who do you think we are?’ For this event we will be presenting some of the fascinating experiences/achievements (sporting, musical, volunteering, endurance, political, etc) of 5 of our members, together with their favourite wines. So, what we are asking is that you nominate a member (with…