Perhaps I shouldn’t mention that we have chosen to ignore today’s General Strike, for Castro Martin business carries on as usual. I will not comment on the sentiment behind the strike except to say that there is no doubt that the Spanish Government will be forced to make cuts, whether we like it or not….

Several months ago Angela exchanged her desktop PC for a new laptop. It has revolutionised her life as she is now able to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whether that is true or not is not really the issue, but the reality is that it now enables her to work more or less wherever she wants. After all, a Blackberry still has its limitations despite being an indispensable piece of kit.

During those months I have been observing jealously that Angela is no longer a slave to her desk, and although my desktop still works pretty well (despite being a dinosaur in computer years), I have finally taken the plunge. Yesterday I received my shining new laptop, fully equipped with all the very latest technology. Of course the immediate downside is that I first have to load it with all the appropriate software, before I can even contemplate transferring any files. I have my fingers crossed that all goes well over the coming few days.

In the meantime, on the very same day, our office received a huge box containing a brand new photocopier. (Heaven only knows how they got it up the stairs to the first floor.) Anyway, calling it a simple photocopier does it a serious injustice, as not only is this a colour machine, but it also serves as a fax machine and scanner….. and all done by wi-fi! Gone have the days of waiting at the machine to send faxes typed on bits of paper – the 21st century has officially arrived!

Now where’s that handbook, I must check to see if can make me a cup of tea…..

It’s probably quite appropriate that in this age of instant information this relatively new technology is known as a QR, or Quick Response Code (to give it it’s proper title). I believe that this two-dimensional matrix barcode was originally developed for the car manufacturing industry, where it was used for marking cars and their parts. (You may have noticed it years ago at your local car dealership, or even on the documentation of your new car). Its big advantage over the usual UPC barcode is that it’s much quicker to read, and by virtue of its design, has a much larger storage capacity.

Originally its use was confined to industry, but now, with the advent of smart phones, we are all pretty much carrying around a portable QR scanner in our pockets (or handbags). By downloading a simple App we now have the ability to gather information on pretty much anything, including our favourite wine cellar, Bodegas Castro Martin. On a recent visit to London I even saw them being used outside restaurants to replace the traditional curled-up menu in a glass box, so that a potential customer can now browse the menu at his or her leisure.

From the 2011 vintage QR codes will be added to all our labels, for you to download instantly all the relevant information about the contents of your glass. 

………beam me up Scotty!

It’s been a bad time for us recently on the technical front…… Our Blackberries have been out of action on-and-off for the last three days, the server for our website failed over the weekend, and now we have a backup problem with our server here in the office. Where would we be without all this technology?!

It’s actually one of those things - we all take our gadgets for granted – until they don’t work. For example, in the case of Blackeberry we have become so accustomed to picking up our e-mails anywhere in the world, that the minute it stops we start to get withdrawl syptoms. How on earth did we survive before I ask myself?

I also have to admit that the problem with our website nearly gave me a heart attack, for the simple reason that, when it was eventually restored, the last two months worth of my blog posts were missing (including the whole harvest period)! Thankfully, only this morning, the problem was completely resolved, as appears to be the Blackberry saga.

Now, if only I can sort out the problem with our own server….

There is always an element of showmanship (or “cinema” as the French would call it), involved when a professional sommelier opens a bottle of wine at your table – and long may it continue, is my own opinion. It would appear that, over time, we are becoming more and more impatient, and want everything to happen in an instant, but I’m afraid to admit that the screwcap just doesn’t do it for me, especially in a restaurant scenario. If I’m paying decent money for a decent bottle then I want to savour the experience, and the opening ‘ceremony’ forms an integral part of the whole performance. Perhaps I am just old-fashioned?

Anyway, that is not the reason for my story……

It appears that scientists at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have now developed a kind of robo-sommelier, or electronic tongue, which can distinguish between different Cavas. Well, actually, only three to be precise – brut nature, brut and medium dry. As a human being is capable of detecting over 10,000 different scents and aromas, as well as being able to distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter, acidic and savoury flavours, my guess is that sommeliers won’t exactly be rushing to the job centres just yet. Besides, they would still need to develop a further machine to pull the cork and serve!

Other wine related electronic noses have already been developed in France and Sweden, but all have very limited capabilities, so far.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Oxygen Transfer Rate (OTR), and how the type of closure can influence the quality of our wine long after it leaves the cellar. Of course the conditions chosen for bottle storage will also determine its evolution, meaning that the loft (attic) of your house is really not an ideal location, but then that’s another story…..

We have already established that Nomacorc is the best closure for our wine, and select the most suitable quality for our products no matter what the cost (synthetic is by no means cheaper than natural cork). However, in our constant quest for improvement, and with the help and advice from our friends at Nomacorc, we are now taking our cork expertise to the next level.

The new Nomacorc Select Series is available in three categories – not based on quality, but based on the density of the material. The differing densities have a significant influence on OTR, and therefore have a direct effect on how the bottled wine will evolve.

It would be easy for us to simply read the published statistics and to follow the recommendations of Nomacorc, but for such an important decision we have decided to make an analysis based on our own test bottlings. Under controlled conditions we have bottled three batches of the same wine, using the three different examples of the Select Series. Over the next 6 to 12 months we will pull corks at regular intervals, and then taste and analyse each bottle to determine how the three different corks influence the development of our wines.

If we discover that any one of the three works better than our current quality, then we will make the change. If there is no improvment then we will simply continue as we are, thus applying one of my favourite philosophies – if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!