Tony,
By all means please ignore the political posts and share with us your insights on golf architecture.
But at least please pay me the courtesy of reproducing the full quote for proper context. If you had, you and any other reader that came behind you would know that what you quoted was not addressed to Steve, that it was in response to a specific question asked by Dick Daley, and that I was certainly not equating Obama to Fidel.
Sean,
I haven't been to Spain for some 14 years when the table wines at times were cheaper than bottled water. It doesn't surprise me that prices have gone up with higher acclaim and demand.
BTW, I would put Spanish courses in the same class as their food. I do like a good paella, jamoncito gallego, and a spanish omlette, and also enjoyed playing the Old Course at Sotogrande and Las Brisas, but they're mid fare at best. I suspect you agree as well.
Spanish food is alright, not my favourite, but it suits the wine - ha.
Yes, Spanish wine used to be dirt cheap and often times awful until maybe 15 years ago. Some of it still is awful, but the quality in general has improved immensely. However, very good wine can still be had for comfortably less than a tenner, but not Priorat. It has only just recently started to hit some shelves in the UK. Rioja has been dominant for so long and the Priorat region produces such small quantities that there is no fear of it becoming popular.
Now if we could only get the Portuguese to send us more Dao & Bairrada instead of Douro then the world will be right - with me anyway.
Ciao