[:en]At this time of year, when the bodega is quiet, it is clearly the best time to carry out any equipment maintenance. Sometimes it is fairly basic work that we can carry out ‘in house’, whilst on other occasions it is slightly more complicated and we have to leave it to the experts.

One of the most important pieces of equipment that we own are our presses – without presses at harvest time then there would, quite simply, be no wine. Even the breakdown of one of our two presses during the picking can cause us huge problems, creating a severe bottleneck and restricting the smooth flow of grapes through the cellar.

Keeping the presses in good working order is therefore a major priority for us, and therefore this winter we decided to completely overhaul the motors in both machines. Unfortunately the best engineers that we know are not local, actually based in Barcelona on the opposite side of the country. Consequently the two motors were disconnected, packed and dispatched on a holiday for treatment and pampering to the Costa Brava.

A day or two ago they returned, fully overhauled, with many parts replaced, and trussed up in plastic like two giant Christmas turkeys (see photo). It’s now just a small matter of reconnecting and testing, but we are told they should operate like new. Vamos a ver![:es]At this time of year, when the bodega is quiet, it is clearly the best time to carry out any equipment maintenance. Sometimes it is fairly basic work that we can carry out ‘in house’, whilst on other occasions it is slightly more complicated and we have to leave it to the experts.

One of the most important pieces of equipment that we own are our presses – without presses at harvest time then there would, quite simply, be no wine. Even the breakdown of one of our two presses during the picking can cause us huge problems, creating a severe bottleneck and restricting the smooth flow of grapes through the cellar.

Keeping the presses in good working order is therefore a major priority for us, and therefore this winter we decided to completely overhaul the motors in both machines. Unfortunately the best engineers that we know are not local, actually based in Barcelona on the opposite side of the country. Consequently the two motors were disconnected, packed and dispatched on a holiday for treatment and pampering to the Costa Brava.

A day or two ago they returned, fully overhauled, with many parts replaced, and trussed up in plastic like two giant Christmas turkeys (see photo). It’s now just a small matter of reconnecting and testing, but we are told they should operate like new. Vamos a ver![:]