Whilst our pre-harvest work is well under way, cleaning equipment in the bodega and cutting grass in the vineyards etc., the bodega itself is surrounded by storms! The first day of September has bought a sudden downturn to the weather – yesterday very much a beach day, and today very much not. At this moment it is not actually raining, albeit we can hear the odd rumble of thunder in the distance, but this in itself, is not the most worrying development.

Yesterday evening, in our Provincial capital of Pontevedra (about 20km from the bodega) we had hail storms! Including some quite sizeable pieces (see photo), certainly enough to do some serious damage if they were to fall in the wrong areas. We have already witnessed some serious hail damage in both the Ribera del Duero and the Loire Valley in France a couple of months ago, and so we have our fingers firmly crossed that this type of event is not repeated here. Unfortunately, with hailstorms they are not only completely unpredictable, but they are often also very localised, some vineyards being hit, whilst other neighbouring vineyards are not. It really is in the lap of the weather Gods.