The skies outside our Bodega are leaden with rain, the temperature hovering between 8 and 12°C (45-55°F), with hardly any variation between day and night. The damp, cold weather penetrates through to the bone – the worst possible weather to be out in the vineyards pruning. At this time of year there is not a lot of activity in the bodega itself, apart from  in the office where Luisa is busy with our year-end accounts! The only other development worthy of note is the continued maturation of the 2012 wines as they sit quietly on their lees, waiting to be racked in the spring. (We do, of course, have to make regular tastings to ensure that all is well, and that no ‘off flavours’ are developing).

All the ‘action’ is really outdoors, the unenviable job of pruning our 11 hectares. I say unenviable simply because the weather is so awful at the moment – perhaps the typical Galician winter, but pretty grim nonetheless. There has been a lot of rain so far this winter, and the ground is completely sodden, some vineyards (not ours) are actually under water as there is simply nowhere for the water to escape. There have been very few sunny days, in fact, it has been quite rare to see the sun at all and so there is really nothing to warm things up.

I suppose we shouldn’t complain as, yet again, we witness forest fires raging in Australia, and other parts of Europe that have stumbled to a halt under a blanket of snow. Roll on the Spring…. please!

The skies outside our Bodega are leaden with rain, the temperature hovering between 8 and 12°C (45-55°F), with hardly any variation between day and night. The damp, cold weather penetrates through to the bone – the worst possible weather to be out in the vineyards pruning. At this time of year there is not a lot of activity in the bodega itself, apart from  in the office where Luisa is busy with our year-end accounts! The only other development worthy of note is the continued maturation of the 2012 wines as they sit quietly on their lees, waiting to be racked in the spring. (We do, of course, have to make regular tastings to ensure that all is well, and that no ‘off flavours’ are developing).

All the ‘action’ is really outdoors, the unenviable job of pruning our 11 hectares. I say unenviable simply because the weather is so awful at the moment – perhaps the typical Galician winter, but pretty grim nonetheless. There has been a lot of rain so far this winter, and the ground is completely sodden, some vineyards (not ours) are actually under water as there is simply nowhere for the water to escape. There have been very few sunny days, in fact, it has been quite rare to see the sun at all and so there is really nothing to warm things up.

I suppose we shouldn’t complain as, yet again, we witness forest fires raging in Australia, and other parts of Europe that have stumbled to a halt under a blanket of snow. Roll on the Spring…. please!