…..To buy a really good Castro Martin albariño of course!

A few days ago we welcomed a rather unexpected visitor to our door, actually quite ready to step inside if we hadn’t stopped him (or was it her?) It was the proverbial chicken, quite literally crossing the road in front of our bodega – perhaps just to get to the other side, or maybe in an attempt to escape the oven? (Sorry, that’s a very cruel thing to say, even if possibly true). Subsistence farming is still very common practice in many rural parts of Galicia. The good news is that we simply returned this poor lost soul to the coop.

Meanwhile, it seems that summer could be here! As I have mentioned before, we managed to escape completely from the recent freak heatwave that gripped the rest of Europe for a while. Indeed, we actually experienced a few cool cloudy days over this period. However, we now have sun and temperatures approaching 30°C (86°F), or at least we do for the rest of this week. Who knows what next week might bring?

In the vineyards our fruit is actually quite healthy, despite the changeable conditions, and is well into it’s growing cycle. The next month or two will therefore, be focused on ‘canopy management’ – thinning the leaves where necessary to give the bunches the correct amount of sunlight.