Our Review: Katavi, l'Alfàs del Pi

This is the first post in a new series: our own honest reviews of the places we run tastings and tours. Not sponsored, no scores from a committee. Just what we think of the rooms we keep coming back to, starting with the one that started everything for us.

What Katavi is

Katavi is a wine shop in l'Alfàs del Pi, a short walk from the old town. It is the room where we now host our guided blind tastings, and the shelves double as the wine list: what you taste is what you can carry home.

How we found it

Katavi found us before we found it. Some friends of mine threw a surprise wine tasting for me here. I had always wanted to taste Vega Sicilia, and my friends knew it. Instead of simply buying me a bottle, they built a whole experience around it: a blind tasting with the Vega Sicilia hidden among smaller producers across very different price ranges.

The tasting

Chiara was our guide on the day. We tasted five wines, three reds and two whites, every bottle hidden in a black bag so the labels could not do the talking. For each one, Chiara walked us through how to taste properly: how to observe the colour, how to find the scents, tobacco in one glass, watermelon in another. Every impression went up on a big paper board in marker pen, and the whole thing was interactive from the first pour. Best of all, we were encouraged to describe each wine in our own words instead of wine speak. It kept the table laughing and honest at the same time.

The reveal

When the bags came off, I was pleased to find I had ranked the Vega Sicilia highest. But that was not really the point. The afternoon was a brilliant demonstration that price and label do not dictate how much you enjoy a wine. Some of the smaller bottles held their own against one of Spain's most famous names, and once you know that, you never buy wine quite the same way again.

Our verdict

Two things stayed with us. First, Katavi makes a point of pouring local producers, partly to support the relationships they have built around l'Alfàs del Pi and partly to gather honest feedback they can pass back to the winemakers. That generosity runs through the place. Second, nobody leaves hungry: after the tasting they kept the tapas coming, hams, cheeses, croquettes and fresh bread, until we were full.

That surprise afternoon is why our blind tastings live at Katavi today. If you want to taste it the way we did, our Blind Tasting at Katavi runs as a small guided evening: no labels, no pressure, and an expert host to keep the guessing honest.