Amidst all the excitement of starting the 2012 harvest yesterday, I forgot to mention that this year celebrates our 30th harvest in the current Castro Martin bodega. Although it was actually constructed in 1981, the first vintage was not produced until 1982. At that time our cellar was certainly one of the biggest in the area, and also the first to employ stainless steel tanks in the winemaking. Not so remarkable you might think, but it’s easy to forget that the denomination of Rias Baixas itself was not actually created until 1987. Not only was this a huge investment, but also was something of a major gamble on the part of Angela’s father, Domingo. It was a gamble that we would like to believe has certainly paid off, as our wines are now widely available around the world…..

In the meantime, back in 2012, today’s weather is fine and dry, again with a strong breeze, providing very good conditions for collecting healthy albariño grapes.

By the way, today’s photo shows Fran’s latest invention – a trailer! However, this is a special trailer made from an old, re-cycled chasis (saved from the scrap heap) designed especially for collecting grapes. Whilst we use large trailers and vans for moving fruit to the bodega, we still have to move the fruit from between the rows of vines to those waiting vehicles. Because we have an overhead canopy this means that there is limited headroom, and the vast majority of vehicles cannot enter between the vines. We therefore needed a special ‘low slung’ trailer to navigate up and down each row. Our multi-talented cellar hand Fran came up with the answer once again – not only is it a custom build, but we also saved quite a bit of money by using re-cycled materials….

Our second day, a Saturday, was busy by design. Again we worked hard to maximise the fine weather, and by lunch time the third pressing was already under way. We find that the secret to a smoother harvest is to get the presses working as quickly as possible, meaning at the other end of the day we will reap the benefit and finish that bit earlier too.

Amidst all the excitement of starting the 2012 harvest yesterday, I forgot to mention that this year celebrates our 30th harvest in the current Castro Martin bodega. Although it was actually constructed in 1981, the first vintage was not produced until 1982. At that time our cellar was certainly one of the biggest in the area, and also the first to employ stainless steel tanks in the winemaking. Not so remarkable you might think, but it’s easy to forget that the denomination of Rias Baixas itself was not actually created until 1987. Not only was this a huge investment, but also was something of a major gamble on the part of Angela’s father, Domingo. It was a gamble that we would like to believe has certainly paid off, as our wines are now widely available around the world…..

In the meantime, back in 2012, today’s weather is fine and dry, again with a strong breeze, providing very good conditions for collecting healthy albariño grapes.

By the way, today’s photo shows Fran’s latest invention – a trailer! However, this is a special trailer made from an old, re-cycled chasis (saved from the scrap heap) designed especially for collecting grapes. Whilst we use large trailers and vans for moving fruit to the bodega, we still have to move the fruit from between the rows of vines to those waiting vehicles. Because we have an overhead canopy this means that there is limited headroom, and the vast majority of vehicles cannot enter between the vines. We therefore needed a special ‘low slung’ trailer to navigate up and down each row. Our multi-talented cellar hand Fran came up with the answer once again – not only is it a custom build, but we also saved quite a bit of money by using re-cycled materials….

Our second day, a Saturday, was busy by design. Again we worked hard to maximise the fine weather, and by lunch time the third pressing was already under way. We find that the secret to a smoother harvest is to get the presses working as quickly as possible, meaning at the other end of the day we will reap the benefit and finish that bit earlier too.