The front of our Bodega is south facing, and during the peak summer months is not only one of the hottest places on earth, but is also one of the brightest. I think that to call it a ‘sun trap’ would be something of an understatement, and I’m surprised that my car tyres have not melted before now….. you get the general idea – it’s hot and very sunny.

One of the downsides of this used to be that the minute you stepped in through our front door, you were immediately faced with a very stark contrast (and not only in temperature). I think it would be fair to say that our entrance hall was a little bit dull, with not too much much natural light, and also a style of decor was just a little bit dated and on the drab side. Entering from the very bright sunlight it did not exactly lift your spirits!

Of course, all that has changed. A lick of fresh white paint, some drastically improved lighting, and a huge montage of brightly coloured photos on our wall, now add a bit of sunshine to our interior too.

This new selection of photos actually serves two purposes; not only does it add to the colour, but it also includes various pictures of the cellar and vineyards at work. So if you happen to be visting on a dark day in the middle of November, you can still get an impression of how Castro Martin looks at brighter and busier times of year.

Just as a footnote for any budding photographers amongst our readers – my pictures were actually printed and mounted in Germany, using a company called Whitewall. They offer a very wide selection of frames and mountings using only top quality materials. For example, we opted for original photo prints with aluminium backing (Lambda print on Fujicolor crystal archive paper with UV foil protection). Whitewall also provide their customers with a very efficient professional colour management service, and all at a very reasonable cost.

And no, before you ask, they are not paying me any commission!

We live a very dull and sheltered life here in Galicia, where simple things (such as renovating an old outbuilding),  become just a little more exciting and important than they probably should. To give you an example, the highlight of our weekend could be a visit the town centre of Barrantes to watch the traffic lights change or perhaps a visit to the local supermarket…… as you may surmise, not much happens here in this quiet corner of Spain, and more especially in winter!

What I guess I am trying to say is that you’re probably all quite bored with my story of rebuilding our ‘garden shed’, but I did at least felt compelled to bring this tale to some sort of logical conclusion.

Above, you can see the rather dramatic transformation – from a pretty run down, delapidated storage area, with old wooden beams, exposed brick walls and a leaky roof, into something altogether a bit more modern, weatherproof and presentable.

It all goes to show that our work here is not always as glamourous as you might think!

A few years ago Bodegas Castro Martin celebrated 25 years in it’s current location (built in 1981, first vintage in 1982), although Angela’s family had been vinifying albariño for generations before that.

In 2010 Galicia’s largest and best known co-operative Martin Codax also celebrated 25 years since their foundation, back in the year 1985. To celebrate this special anniversary they published a magazine which included a lengthy article written by the co-op’s first President – Manuel Noya Figueroa.

Imagine our delight to read in this article an acknowledgement of the help given by Castro Martin in the birth of Martin Codax, and therefore in the development of the denomination as a whole.

We have always been very proud of the foresight shown by Angela’s father Domingo Martin Morales in building one of the first ‘industrial’ sized bodegas in the area – also the first to incorporate stainless steel tanks for wine storage in Rias Baixas. Very few people will realise however, that these futuristic facilities were also utilized by what was to become, the regions biggest co-operative.

Before the building of Martin Codax was completed, their first vintage was bottled by hand and then transported to Castro Martin in cars and small trucks to be corked (obviously the prevention of oxidation was less of a priority at that time)!

I should also mention that in 1985 Castro Martin was already an established name in the area, and Angela believes that it was not a co-incidence that this new co-operative decided to incorporate the name Martin in their brand……

Yet more building work….. if it isn’t laying concrete or adding a new roof, then it might be putting up a new cattle shed – you can’t say that our work is not varied!

Yes, this week our guys are busy building yet another shed, but this time in the corner of our Pazo vineyard. It’s not for keeping our tractor, but it is for housing our new grass cutting equipment – a small flock of sheep.

I often make mention of the fact that we do not use herbicides, preferring instead to let the grass grow between the vines and cutting it manually (keeping our practices as eco-friendly as possible). Now we are taking this a step further, by introducing a handful of sheep to graze under the pergolas during the winter months. Not only will this help to keep the grass down, but it may also add a little natural fertilizer to the soil!

There are other bodegas that already do this, but then one of the fundamental pre-requisites is that you need a fully enclosed vineyard. Naturally our ‘Pazo’ vineyard qualifies admirably and is completely ‘walled’ as its name implies (similar to ‘Clos’ in French), making a perfect pasture. There is another bodega, local to us, that uses geese instead of sheep, and this seems to work pretty well, so we shall see….

No doubt I will keep you informed as to how this experiment works out.

It occured to me the other day that although I had written about our “Sobre Lias” wines I hadn’t taken too many pictures of the subtly amended labels. With this in mind I rushed home yesterday afternoon to take a few snaps before the sun disappeared – the forecast had correctly predicted that it would be raining today (which in reality turned our to be something of an understatement).

Whilst the pictures were not actually taken on a roof per say, they were taken on a roof  terrace overlooking the local town, and if you look carefully you can see a reflection of this on the shoulder of each bottle.

On the subject of roofs (or should that be rooves?), our outbuilding that has been undergoing renovation is now nearing completion, and thank goodness the new roof was fully in place before today’s torrential rain. Next week I will post a couple of before and after photos….. the transformation is quite dramatic.

Last week we removed the roof from one of our outbuildings, and replaced all the lintels with something a bit more substantial, as you can see from my photo. The concrete looks a bit more secure than the old tree trunks that we took down!

Being on the Atlantic coast as we are, there can be some pretty fierce storms during the winter, not to mention the high winds that accompany them. The previous roof was very much on its last legs, and was already supported by a couple of jacks, and so its replacement was pretty much imperative before the onset of winter.

And speaking of weather (as I always do), the sky over Galicia is still blue and the amount of rain since June remains as truly minimal. Not that I’m wishing it upon us, but it really does have to change soon.

With only 30 days left until Thanksgiving it just gives you enough time to place your order for some Albariño (and a bit longer if you want to drink it with your Christmas turkey)!

OK, so it may be a bit of a ploy to boost our sales a little, but I am really not joking when I say that our wine is particularly good with poultry. Obviously it depends on the type of trimmings that you are planning to serve with your bird, whether you decide to make a traditional turkey gravy using the giblets and the neck, or whether you decide to ‘spice it up’ a little, as I often do. Now when I say spice it up, I don’t mean spice in the sense of pepper, chillis or anything hot, I mean spice it up by perhaps introducing a few less traditional flavours. For example, one that I use quite a lot with chicken or turkey is a lemon and tarragon gravy – simply adding a sprig or two of tarragon and the juice of half a lemon to my sauce. This just gives the gravy a nice tangy ‘lift’, and adds a bit of an unconventional twist to the traditional recipe.

It goes without saying that your tender, juicy turkey meat with just a hint of tarragon and lemon makes an ideal partner for our albariño….. don’t just take my word for it, try it and see for yourself!

Well, yes, technically our new albariño has arrived, but not really in a state that you would want to drink it. (My picture shows a glass drawn from the tank earlier today)

After a long, slow alcoholic fermentation the wine is finally “made”, in the sense that all the sugar has now been converted to alcohol, and as there will be no malolactic fermentation this year (owing to the must having perfect acidity), there is not really much left to do, except wait…..

The wine has now been sulphured to protect it from oxidation, and the only thing that remains is an extended period of lees contact, and lots of tasting along the way. The moment that we chose to remove the wine from the lees is almost like knowing the optimum time to start picking the grapes – it is a question of experience and professional judgement and not to mention, personal taste. The length of time on the lees will ultimately determine the character of the finished wine, and we assess this by trying to replicate our ‘house style’. In other words, we look for the individual personality to which our customers have become accustomed – rather like they do in Champagne. Each Champagne house has it’s own distinctive style, which is not only a part of their tradition, but is also a tribute to the skill of the winemaker, who produces the taste that their regular followers will recognise, and appreciate. In our case you may call it the ‘personalised signature’ of Angela Martin.

As I have said many times before every wine is different, not just within our denomination, but in every wine region of the world. For example, I have mentioned that our 2010 wine will not be ready for release for several months, whereas, at the other extreme, some other bodegas are already about to start bottling their new vintage. Hence the title of today’s blog – some albariños will actually be beating Beaujolais into the nouveau market of 2010!

I was going to try to attract some additional attention to our blog by putting in a title such as ‘Castro Martin goes topless’, but then I discovered that I had already used it (a couple of years ago when we had our tanks repaired, and the workmen had to cut all the tops off ). Believe it or not, it does, temporarily at least, increase the traffic to our site as web surfers use their search engines to look for more interesting pictures. Imagine their disappointment when all they get is a wide angle shot of one of our old storage sheds with no roof!

Now, speaking of old sheds (or perhaps I should call it an out-building) the one that we are currently re-building looks like it could easily date from biblical times. It is in such a poor state of repair, which is why we decided to work on it before it fell down. Joking apart, the roof beams (made from bare tree trunks), have been supported by jacks for some time now, and although the building is only used for storage, it had actually become a little dangerous. It is doubtful that it would have survived another stormy Galician winter.

As you will see from the photo, we decided to take advantage of the continued good weather, by ripping the old roof off before some new concrete beams are delivered later this week. Once the roof is back on, we can then make the interior a bit more presentable by slapping a bit of plaster on the inside walls. Of course, this old building is tucked away at the back of the bodega, and will never receive visitors, but even so, it will give us an excuse to keep the place a bit more tidy in the future…..

Having said a couple of days ago that Albariño is in decline, the press are now dramatically declaring that it is “on the brinkof International Stardom”!

It would seem that plantings have been made in a couple of new areas, in different countries, which whilst being quite exciting, hardly constitutes an explosion of new plantings as implied in the article.

We already know that albariño is being grown in California, Oregon and Australia to name but a few, but it is now apparently taking root in Corbières and the Languedoc of south-west France. In Corbières these new plantings will not produce until around 2015, and the growers in question have suggested that their new wine could possibly be blended with other varietals such as viognier, grenache gris and grenache blanc. Hmmm, very interesting.

Perhaps another, even more interesting new area is to be found in the Lebanon – not the Bekaa Valley, but in a different area, unfortunately not specified in the article.

To be honest I do not consider this as competition to albariño from Rias Baixas, mainly owing to the fact that the different soils and climates will inevitably give these new wines their own distinctive character. On the contrary, I will actually be very keen to taste some of these new examples when they eventually come to market.

Finally, the article included one very interesting comment that I would like to quote as follows: “We are seeing a trend with consumers at the moment towards lighter, fresh and aromatic styles – albariño clearly fits this profile”.

I couldn’t agree more…..