It has to be said that running a wine cellar is an expensive business, not only buying the materials, and making the wine, but also the long-term upkeep of the building and machinery. It really boils down to re-investment – no pocketing of profits and flying off to the Bahamas for luxury breaks. Our luxury for this year?…… Buying a new tractor!

So, after re-furbishing the front of the Bodega and installing a new logo, comes our latest investment. A brand, spanking-new tractor to replace the old one (which has just celebrated it’s 16th birthday, ‘a good innings’ as the English would say). Included in the purchase is a new crop sprayer, that we are re-assured will be much more efficient, and therefore reduce even further the amount of treatment that we need to use.

I thought I would grab a few photos of the new ‘beast’ before we apply the requisite coating of mud.