Stupid question? Hmm, well, you might not believe the answer, depending on which brand you have been buying! For example, in the case of Red Bicyclette your pinot noir has, until now, been made of a blend of pinot, syrah and merlot! Produced for the wine giant E&J; Gallo in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, the authorities became suspicious when they discovered that the volume of pinot noir being sold to Gallo actually exceeded the total production for the region.

The actual numbers were fairly spectacular – Between 2006-08, Sieur d’Arques apparently sold 135,000 hectolitres of the vin de Pays d’Oc labelled pinot noir to E&J; Gallo at a value of 4 million Euros. Yet the total actual Pinot Noir production from the winemakers supplying the distributors was just 15,000 hectolitres a year, so even if the region’s entire Pinot Noir acreage was devoted to making Red Bicyclette for E & J in the States, it would still be impossible.

To make matters worse, this was the defence offered in the ensuing court case: The pinot ‘manufacturers’ claimed that “Pinot Noir could be considered as a brand, expressing a taste and given qualities and not a particular variety”! Imagine the possible consequences if this wisdom was to be widely adopted…… Chateau Cheval Blanc made from a blend of cinsault and gamay, Batard Montrachet from reichensteiner and muscadelle? The entire wine world would be turned on it’s head.

The other defence argument was that “personne n’a été trompé, puisque tous savaient.” No one was conned, they say, because everybody along the chain knew about it, and nobody was harmed – except of course the poor end consumer who was paying for his pinot noir in good faith.

Apart from being totally unscrupulous and beyond belief, it does actually raise some fairly serious questions about the origins of wine, and it’s authenticity. Even in our own region rumours abound as cheap wines appear on shop shelves despite the rising price of grapes, but of course this might be just petty jealousy or hearsay – you just never know.

The only thing that I can guarantee our own customers is that every bottle that leaves our cellar is 100% Albariño (our regulations dictate that it has to be 100% to mention the Albariño variety on the label). I therefore challenge anyone to carry out whatever tests, or tastings that they wish to prove otherwise.

If your answer was Marlborough, Hawkes Bay or indeed any part of New Zealand, then I’m afraid you’d be wrong. This particular Kiwi Cuvee, as you may imagine, is made from sauvignon blanc, but actually originates from the Loire Valley in France!

The battle of wine origin and name protection has been played out in court on many occassions over recent years, but more often than not with the French as plaintiffs. They have fought long and hard to protect famous names such as Champagne, Chablis et al, pointing to the laws of appellation d’origine as their justification.

Now, with delicious irony, an Australian tribunal has just prevented this French ‘Kiwi’ brand name from being registered down under, citing the obvious reason – that the name is quite simply misleading to consumers (which it clearly is). In their defence, the French argued that the word Kiwi is actually colloquial, and does not relate to a specific geographical place, which I guess is also true.

However, from my own point of view this story has it’s own special significance….

Back in the 80’s and 90’s when I was a wine buyer I used to travel extensively in France. This was the time when ‘new world’ wines were still very much in their infancy, and whilst London was considered to be the ‘shop window of the world’ for these new discoveries, they were (and perhaps still are) largely unknown in France. By way of education, and partly out of mischief, I would sometimes travel to Sancerre and Pouilly-sur-Loire with bottles of new world sauvignon blanc in the boot of my car (trunk to my American readers). As I poured the Chilean, New Zealand or perhaps South African sauvignon for my French suppliers, the reaction was unequivocal and unanimous, the wine was “rubbish” – and that is the polite translation!

It would appear therefore, that in a few short years, the story has gone full circle. The French market share has shrunk so dramatically, that in an attempt to regain lost ground, they have actually started to imitate their new world competitors.

How times change!

It would seem that my report of the weekend storm which swept across the north of Europe was more than a little premature. Of course much of my initial blog entry was based on our own personal experience here in Galicia, where with hindsight, we escaped rather lightly.

Almost inevitably with this type of natural disaster, it takes time for the reporting of fatalities and destruction to be collated, especially over such a wide area, and very regrettably, it now emerges that the number of deaths is much higher than I first reported.

Nearly 50 people have lost their lives, the worst hit being the west coast of France, around the Vendee and Charente-Maritime (an area just north of Bordeaux, and the centre of production for Cognac and Pineau des Charentes). Many of the victims were drowned in the rapidly rising waters, whilst others were killed either by falling trees or parts of buildings.

The aftermath of this powerful Atlantic storm, named Xynthia, has been declared a National Disaster in France, where the priority now is to help those with flooded or damaged homes, and to restore electricity to the large areas that have been cut off.

Our thoughts are with them, and also with the people of Chile and Haiti…..

Strong winds, driving rain, a little flooding, a few fallen trees and some very minor structural damage – that’s about the extent of the problem caused by yesterday’s storm.

Having said that, 3 people did lose their lives across Europe – two killed by falling trees, and one woman, here in Galicia, killed when a wall collapsed. During the height of the storm some gusts were recorded at up to 150kph (just over 90mph).

So the alerts and warnings were mainly precautionary, and to be honest you can not blame the Spanish government for being over cautious. Much better to be prepared, and ‘batten down the hatches’ than to be taken completely by surprise, as famously happened in the UK at the end of the 1980’s.

On that occasion a BBC weather forecaster publicly dismissed a severe weather warning that had been isssued by his counterparts in France. That night a mini-hurricane swept across the southeast of England (including London) leaving some fairly major destruction in it’s path.

What is it they say? Better to be safe than sorry.

Close all your doors and windows, don’t venture outside, leave the car at home, lock up your daughters…… well, maybe not the last one. These are some of the warnings that we have received over the last 12 hours, as a rather powerful storm heads towards the northwest of Spain and the Bay of Biscay.

Barely a week ago Funchal, the capital city of Madeira, was ravaged by storms, killing just over 40 people (and possibly more as they still search for the missing). In this case the heavy rain was compounded by mud slides and flash floods that destroyed houses and swept victims away, leaving the area without water, power and communication.

A second weather system, carried by the same jet-stream, is following a similar path across the north Atlantic, and is now gaining strength as it heads towards mainland Portugal and the northwest of Spain. Forecasters are predicting winds of up to 150/160 kph (100 mph), which is obviously a cause for concern. The storm is also rain-wrapped, so there is also a strong possibility of flooding in low lying areas.

Over the last few months we have already experienced more than our average total rainfall for the year, and this was before last Wednesday when we had heavy, torrential rain pretty much non-stop for the whole day and into the night.

Now let’s see what mother nature holds in store for the next 12 hours!

At least winter is still upon us, with fresh snow falling everywhere (except at the Olympics in Vancouver). With this in mind it therefore does not seem quite so odd to still make mention of Christmas.

A friend of mine in New Zealand has just faxed me a copy of an article published in the January issue of Decanter magazine, which included their Christmas holiday wine recommendations! Yes, I am puzzled too, and I can only assume that the January issue would probably be released in December, as is often the way with magazines. Anyway, he has only just received his copy down in NZ….

In the Decanter article they recommended one wine for each of the twelve days of Christmas, and I am delighted to say that one of the selected wines was our very own Albariño – receiving four stars and 17.5 out of 20 (one of the highest of their Christmas choices). Their tasting note reads as follows:

“Delightful, fresh and vibrant, but invitingly smooth as well. There’s lot’s of interest here with fragrant apple blossom, green fruit, peel, juicy acidity, minerality and a great tangy finish”.

Perhaps this was their recommendation for Christmas 2010? Remember, only 260 shopping days left, so grab your Albariño now before the last minute rush!

Missed it! In the land where every type of food is commemorated in local fiestas, I am ashamed to admit that I sadly missed the annual celebration of our Galician national dish….. Cocido Gallega.

Cocido is a type of local stew or casserole made by cooking various types of meat and vegetables in stock – in many ways similar to the French ‘Pot au Feu’ (except using different meats). Usually a traditional Galician cocido would be made from a selection of salt pork cuts, including the head, ears or tail, together with pieces of cock or chicken. Chorizo and pork belly or bacon, are also added. The selection of vegetables includes potato (a food staple of the Galician diet), grelos, which are actually the leaves of turnips (although cabbage can be used as an alternative to this), and finally garbanzos, or chickpeas to you and me.

Cocido is served in nearly every local Galician restaurant, but not necessarily every day of the week – on the days that it is however, you can guarantee that the place will be packed. To be very honest I believe that there are some people who would eat it every day of the week, given the opportunity!

By complete co-incidence we will be preparing a cocido next week to serve to some Spanish guests here in the Bodega. Whilst we have a large ‘salon’ with dining tables, which can also serve as a meeting room, we do not actually have a kitchen, so the cocido will be prepared outside, and then ‘shipped in’ using one very large cooking pot. The stock, or broth that the cocido is cooked in is often served as a starter, perhaps with a few chickpeas thrown in – the pork, chicken and veg will then make up the main dish.

Cocido Gallega – yum, yum! (well, actually, not for me)

The other day Angela’s beloved desktop laser printer started chewing up the pages she was trying to print. To be very honest I was not surprised for one moment, as she does insist on shoving re-cycled paper into the poor thing. Of course using re-cycled paper should only be applauded, but not when the second-hand sheets are creased, folded or occasionally included the odd staple! So, the obvious solution was to look for some sort of paper jam, but regrettably, this revealed nothing….

Now, I am a great believer in internet forums, and wasted no time in visiting the site for this particular brand of printer – the prognosis was not good – it looked like the fuser film sleeve needed replacing, simply through old age (don’t worry, I had no idea what this was either). I had no doubt that the cost of sending the machine away for repair would be more than it’s replacement value, which left me with only two options. Either scrap the machine, or try to repair it myself, assuming I could find the part – more websites.

I eventually stumbled across a site not surprisingly called ‘fixyourownprinter.com’ in the United States, that could send me the repair kit for only $46 + postage. Believe it or not only 3-4 days later, I had the replacement fuser film sleeve in my hand….. but that was the easy part!

Fortunately the kit included a blow-by-blow DVD, like an idiots guide of how to attempt something really difficult (actually 7.5 out of 10 on their difficulty scale), but as I had absolutely nothing to lose, I thought I would give it a go.

After about an hour or so, I had the printer in pieces, screws and brackets everywhere, covering a fairly large table, and I was filled with trepidation as I realised that I had to put them all back together again!

I shouldn’t have worried, after another hour and a half, I plugged it back in, and presto, one restored printer. Of course my repair comes with a 20/20 guarantee – 20 minutes or 20 printed pages, whichever comes first – but it did fill me with a certain satisfaction, even if it does break down again next week.

Living on the Atlantic coast as we do, has it’s benefits, and I’m not just talking about the beaches. It helps to moderate our climate, and means that in summer we do not suffer the extremes of temperature that they do a little further inland. The downside of this, as I am sure I have mentioned many times before, is that we have quite a lot of rain….. although in some ways this is no bad thing, as we do need the water to help vegetation. The real problem lies with the unpredictability of our weather. Martime climates are rarely settled, and can change in a heartbeat.

It was only Saturday afternoon when I made the post about my famous ‘fried eggs’ (sunshine with a little light cloud) – a weather forecast for our area taken from the web. By Monday night, just over 48 hours later, this forecast had changed to what you see above – normal pruning weather had been restored.

A sudden change in the weather at this time of year is not however, too much of a disaster, and simply means that the guys that are pruning have to pack their waterproofs. It becomes much more of an issue in summer and autumn.

In summer, on the occassions that we do have to treat our vines, we not only need a bit of dry weather, but for the treatment to be properly distributed, we also need a period that is not too windy. If the treatment that we give does not have time to dry and at least a short contact with the vines, then we might as well pour it down the drain. The real issue being that the best and most eco-friendly applications are always the most expensive, and we simply cannot afford to waste the time and money.

In autumn we have our harvest, when quite naturally, we pray for good weather to gather our crop.

It has always puzzled me as to why people think that running a small hotel, or a restaurant, is a romantic idea. I can honestly tell you, from my previous life in hotel management (many, many years ago), that it is not. It is tough, physically demanding work – long hours on your feet, working evenings and weekends, quite logically, when all around you are relaxing….