Another fine and sunny day in Galicia for our fourth day of harvest. I believe that yesterday we hit the dizzy heights of 26°C (79°F), and today should be more of the same. Of course this just means that there is one less thing to worry about, and we can concentrate on our work. 

The good news is that, despite the recent rains, there are still some very positive noises coming from our laboratory where Angela spends most of her time secreted away at this time of year. She is very upbeat her tests and tastings of the grape must, saying that it is extremely fruity, floral and well balanced….. and who am I to question her judgement (she is the boss after all!)

Today we are continuing our work in our ‘El Pazo’ vineyard – our single biggest vineyard site of 5 hectares (just over 12 acres). This is the vineyard that provides most of the fruit for our Castro Martin ‘Family Estate’ wine. Even with more than 50 people working  it will still take more than two days to strip this site of its precious harvest. Fortunately this site is only a couple of kilometres from the bodega, which means that we can transport the fruit to our presses with the minimum of delay. As with every vineyard, in every harvest, we have a permanent shuttle of vehicles running between the picking location and the bodega. It’s all about logistics….

After three extremely busy days, our fourth day seemed to be slightly more ‘relaxed’ as most of the grapes supplied by other growers had already made it into our tanks (weekends are traditionally the busiest days). Perhaps it’s all relative, and only appears to be quieter because we have finally hit our stride, because the truth of the matter is that on day four we had only made two pressings less than Sunday, our busiest day so far.

Another fine and sunny day in Galicia for our fourth day of harvest. I believe that yesterday we hit the dizzy heights of 26°C (79°F), and today should be more of the same. Of course this just means that there is one less thing to worry about, and we can concentrate on our work. 

The good news is that, despite the recent rains, there are still some very positive noises coming from our laboratory where Angela spends most of her time secreted away at this time of year. She is very upbeat her tests and tastings of the grape must, saying that it is extremely fruity, floral and well balanced….. and who am I to question her judgement (she is the boss after all!)

Today we are continuing our work in our ‘El Pazo’ vineyard – our single biggest vineyard site of 5 hectares (just over 12 acres). This is the vineyard that provides most of the fruit for our Castro Martin ‘Family Estate’ wine. Even with more than 50 people working  it will still take more than two days to strip this site of its precious harvest. Fortunately this site is only a couple of kilometres from the bodega, which means that we can transport the fruit to our presses with the minimum of delay. As with every vineyard, in every harvest, we have a permanent shuttle of vehicles running between the picking location and the bodega. It’s all about logistics….

After three extremely busy days, our fourth day seemed to be slightly more ‘relaxed’ as most of the grapes supplied by other growers had already made it into our tanks (weekends are traditionally the busiest days). Perhaps it’s all relative, and only appears to be quieter because we have finally hit our stride, because the truth of the matter is that on day four we had only made two pressings less than Sunday, our busiest day so far.