My friends, partners and colleagues Ryan and Gabriella Opaz have always found interesting ways to share a passion for the wines of Spain and Portugal. Whether it was regular blog posts (when no-one had heard of wine blogs), virtual tastings or videos, they brought the wines to us, virtually.

Now I’m very excited to see two new collaborations for Catavino that will put great wines in the hands of wine drinkers – not just virtually, but physically.

1. The Catavino Holiday Off-Event Survival Kit: this is a case of fantastic wines that have been selected by Ryan and Gab to bring you a taste of Spain for Christmas. The innovation is that it is a six-pack for a fixed price, including delivery ANYWHERE in Europe (including the UK), for only €85 (or about £68).

The details of the Catavino holiday wine pack are on their site, but it includes a VIÑA TONDONIA RESERVA BLANCO 1997 (retail around £30 in UK) and RAVENTÓS I BLANC L’HEREU RESERVA BRUT 2009 (retail around £16 in UK) that together are worth most of the cost of the case; so this has to be worth buying. What are you waiting for?

2. Catavino have also teamed up with Nico James, a long-time friend, to run wine tours – so if you are heading to Barcelona and want to have a great wine experience, check it out.

I’ve recently become more involved with Catavino, writing and editing a few articles and I look forward to getting more involved in exciting projects like these.