Perhaps people outside North America or Northern Europe might not appreciate how bad this winter’s weather has actually been….. so far. For the last month and a half we have been battered by storms on an almost daily basis. For example, the Atlantic coasts of the western Europe are experiencing two or three damaging weather systems per week – there is no time whatsoever to recover before the next storm strikes, and to say that the soil is saturated is something of an understatement. This winter it has almost become the norm to be soaked by the equivalent of a month’s rain within a period of just a few days…. all previous weather records have been completely blown away (almost literally). Experts are now saying that even when this continuous cycle of bad weather is broken it could take months before some of the floods completely subside. 

Only yesterday morning I was on my way back from the denomination office in Pontevedra when I had to stop my car at the side of the road – the rain on my windscreen was so intense that I simply couldn’t see the road in front of me, even with my wipers working at full speed. Water replaced tarmac, as the roads turned to rivers. Possibly the most intense rain that I have experienced since I arrived in Spain. When I did eventually arrive back at the bodega there was no power, which in this day and age obviously causes problems, but fortunately the break in supply only lasted about an hour. 

Of course we have no idea what the spring and summer might bring, we simply have our fingers crossed that it will be a good growing season for our vineyards, without too many extremes of weather, but then again, who knows…..

Perhaps people outside North America or Northern Europe might not appreciate how bad this winter’s weather has actually been….. so far. For the last month and a half we have been battered by storms on an almost daily basis. For example, the Atlantic coasts of the western Europe are experiencing two or three damaging weather systems per week – there is no time whatsoever to recover before the next storm strikes, and to say that the soil is saturated is something of an understatement. This winter it has almost become the norm to be soaked by the equivalent of a month’s rain within a period of just a few days…. all previous weather records have been completely blown away (almost literally). Experts are now saying that even when this continuous cycle of bad weather is broken it could take months before some of the floods completely subside. 

Only yesterday morning I was on my way back from the denomination office in Pontevedra when I had to stop my car at the side of the road – the rain on my windscreen was so intense that I simply couldn’t see the road in front of me, even with my wipers working at full speed. Water replaced tarmac, as the roads turned to rivers. Possibly the most intense rain that I have experienced since I arrived in Spain. When I did eventually arrive back at the bodega there was no power, which in this day and age obviously causes problems, but fortunately the break in supply only lasted about an hour. 

Of course we have no idea what the spring and summer might bring, we simply have our fingers crossed that it will be a good growing season for our vineyards, without too many extremes of weather, but then again, who knows…..