Over the last few months there have been some fairly serious supply chain issues – shortages of bottles, slow deliveries and not to mention some really significant price increases.

At one point the supply of bottles was a serious concern to us, as we were accumulating orders that we couldn’t fulfil, simply because we didn’t have the necessary materials in stock. The problem of bottle supply was complicated by the co-operatives and other larger bodegas who were virtually ‘cornering’ the bottle market, as they filled their yards and warehouses with bottles. As a slightly smaller bodega we were left scratching around, doing our best to acquire some stock (almost to the point of begging). It was a huge concern.

Eventually, the problem started to ease a little (as I guess, the big players had all the stock that they could handle) and we were finally able to procure a few pallets….. well, I say a few, but in reality we bought rather a lot!

Although it is possible to leave pallets of bottles in the open air, we prefer to keep them under cover to eliminate the risk of contamination by dust and humidity. Suffice to say that our already limited storage space came under severe pressure with pallets piled high, approaching every square millimetre of our warehouse.

At one point we were almost inclined to answer our phones as “Botellas Castro Martin” rather than Bodegas!!

I wrote just a few days ago about our changing weather, and how we had transitioned from damp, changeable conditions to dry, arid conditions, all within the space of a few weeks. As you will have no doubt seen on the news, these dry, scorched conditions have resulted in some very serious forest fires across almost the whole of Europe. Galicia has not escaped, and whilst the outbreaks have not been as catastrophic as the fires in the southwest of France, they have still been quite significant. Fortunately, many were brought under control quite quickly.

Apart from the fires, the lack of water in our vineyards is now starting to hit home, and although the developing fruit is very healthy, it could turn out to be yet another year of high alcohol, low yields, and (as I mentioned before) high prices. After an extremely dry and hot month in July, August has started slightly differently. Close to the Ocean there have been some very thick sea fogs (much thicker and more persistent than the usual sea mists that roll up our ‘Rias’ from time to time). Clearly, this not only reduces the amount of sun, but also reduces the temperature quite dramatically. It does not, however, provide us any much needed rain. Having said that, in the last two days it has been somewhat grey and overcast, and we have finally experienced just a few rain showers – unfortunately barely enough to penetrate the canopy, let alone add any significant moisture to the soil. Indeed, after such long dry periods, the first rainfall does not really penetrate and tends to simply run off the surface. An now, the latest forecast predicts that the dry, sunny weather will return…

Today’s photos show an outbreak of fire in the hills not far from the City of Pontevedra. The first taken at about 9.30 pm, the second and hour or two later, and the third the following morning when the fire has moved down the hillside, albeit that the air is still filled with smoke.

As little as four or five weeks ago I was writing about vine vigour, when a combination of alternating periods of warm, sunny weather followed by heavy rain had precipitated quite intensive growth in our vines. Today that picture has changed somewhat.

This all changed at the beginning of July when we experienced some quite extreme temperatures (around 40°C or 104°F) – fortunately this intense heat only lasted for a day or two. Having said that the high temperatures continued, mostly in the upper 20’s °C, but with many days actually over 30°C (around 90°F). Apart from one short, sharp downpour, July was almost entirely hot and sunny.

Over the last few days much of the coastal area in the Salnés Valley has been shrouded in a heavy sea mist/fog. In some areas (perhaps a few kilometres inland), this mist ‘burns off’ during the day, and sunny, but marginally cooler temperatures are restored (when I say cooler, I really mean the mid-20’s°C or around 75°F). Despite this mist and slightly reduced temperatures, there is still no sign of rain, and so our vineyards remain just a little parched at the moment.

OK, so I should start by saying that today’s post about ‘Black Holes’ has nothing to do with the James Webb Space Telescope and the plethora of discoveries that have started to unfold since its launch. Believe it or not this is to do with Spanish banking!

Some years ago, when an importer purchased wine from a bodega payment would be made quite simply by sending a cheque through the post (hence the often abused expression “the cheque is in the post”!).

These days, thanks to advances in technology, this old system has almost completely disappeared, and invoices are now mostly settled by electronic transfer. Using this system money can be moved almost instantaneously, although transfers between businesses usually take up to 24 hours within the same country, whilst overseas transfers should normally be completed within two working days (depending on the countries involved). Well, that’s the theory at least….

My experience in Spain, however, is not quite so straightforward, and perhaps could best be described as erratic. When a customer pays us by transfer we usually receive confirmation (a copy of the transaction), providing us with the exact time and date that it was completed. Unfortunately, this is where, on some occasions, our money vanishes into a ‘banking black hole’ and then magically re-appears up to a week later in our account. This normally only happens when we start to follow up the missing transfer. Personally I think that this is a scandal, and certainly should not happen in this day and age. Do you sometimes get the feeling that your money is being manipulated?….

In the last week or two, despite the baking temperatures, we have been clearing the corner of one of our vineyards. Yes, this did involve cutting a few trees, but I should emphasise that we did seek the appropriate permissions, and that the trees that we cut were mostly eucalyptus, not indigenous to Galicia, considered by many to be invasive, and the cause of many a forest fire in our region. There were two, or perhaps three reasons for doing this work….

Firstly, because we are obliged by law to clear forest areas and scrub land, precisely to reduce the risk of fires. Secondly, because this small piece of land is actually registered as a vineyard, and has never been exploited as such. And thirdly, because of the price of grapes at the moment!

This third reason is actually a major concern for Rias Baixas this year, and all because of one single bodega! I shall not name the property concerned (perhaps for liable reasons), but every bodega locally knows exactly who they are, and that they are owned by a much larger Company from outside Galicia. The simple fact is that they are desperate for grapes, and as such have been making ridiculous, unsustainable offers to local growers, often going door-to-door and poaching thousands of kilos of grapes from their neighbouring wine cellars. I should mention they the size of the bodegas that they are plundering from are not small, and have been left very, very angry indeed (something of an understatement).

Suffice to say that these tactics (apart from being completely unethical), have caused an artificial surge in the demand for grapes, and will no doubt result in highly inflated prices, just at a time when consumers are reducing their spending, and perhaps seeking opportunities to trade-down a little. Enough said, I will stop before my blood boils!

A few days ago I was a guest on a ‘digital tasting’ organised by Tim Atkin MW. Tim had visited our bodega a couple of weeks earlier, and during our conversation I had described our recent weather as a bit topsy-turvy (upside down, or in a state of confusion). Little did I know that Tim would quote me on this during his introduction.

In the last couple of days, since this Zoom tasting (all the participants were sent sample bottles), there has been yet another example of the extremes of our recent, crazy weather. On Saturday temperatures hit about 36°C (97°F) and our local beaches were packed (for those who could stand the heat). On Sunday the cloud rolled in, and by Sunday afternoon, through until Monday, the thermometer never hit much more that 16°C (61°F) – less than half of the previous days temperature. This was accompanied  by a very fine ‘mizzle’ hanging in the air (a cross between a light drizzle and mist from the Ocean).

Today, Tuesday, we are bracing ourselves, with a forecast high of more that 40°C (104°F). This temperature is expected to continue at least until the weekend. Having said that, a week of two ago most of Spain was affected by these high temperatures, but luckily, our small, isolated corner of northwest Spain had pretty much escaped. This week it appears that we are not quite so lucky.

Well, I really don’t know what more I can say about our weather, except that it continues to be both changeable and unpredictable. Having said that, I am sure that many wine regions around the world are telling the very same story. There has been no sustained period of any type of ‘settled’ weather, and indeed it continues to vary wildly almost from day to day. Take this weekend for example – Saturday sunny, with a warm wind and temperatures in the high 20’s °C (towards 80°F), and then Sunday morning cold and wet, with temperatures nearly 10°C lower at about 17°C (63°F). The other weather characteristic of 2022 is that, when there has been sunshine, the air temperature has often remained cool – refreshing in some ways, but again, not really great conditions for our fruit.

To repeat my story of the other day, our cellar is still full to bursting with prepared orders. Of course, we love this scenario, but we now just want to get them out and on the road! Road hauliers have somehow been reluctant to give us firm dates for collections as yet, and my guess is that this is to do with the current shortages of both containers and drivers. We now find ourselves is the strange situation whereby we have stopped preparing large orders until we have more space!

The good news is that we have orders, but the bad news is that we have nowhere to store them!

Owing to the current supply chain problems and delays to our orders of dry goods, we are now obliged to hold much more floor stock than usual. One of the items in short supply is bottles (which are possibly more valuable than gold to wine producers at the moment). With this combination of additional stock holding, and preparing large orders, we are simply running out of storage space, and this is also compounded by the fact that we are obliged to bottle even more stock again early next week, thereby adding to the congestion.

Yesterday I was was down in our cellar arranging pallets, trying to make the most of every square centimetre of space. Believe it or not I was actually using a tape measure at one point, calculating the best permutations to maximise the space that we have available. In effect, it was really like a huge game of Tetris as the pallets were slotted into their spaces!

Hopefully, we will be able to get some of these big orders on the road

Back in April the process for selecting Galicia’s best wines was launched by the Xunta de Galicia. Wineries from every Denomination Ribeiro, Valdeorras, Rías Baixas, Monterrei and Ribeira Sacra, were invited to submit their wines, as well as the ‘Viños da Terra’ from other Galician communities. There were special categories for small, boutique wineries, oak-aged wines, sparkling wines, ecological wines and even ‘toasted’ wines (although I have to admit that I am not entirely clear as to what that last category actually represents, I usually associate this with oak-aged).

A blind tasting of the 405 entries was held in Santiago de Compostela last week, judged by a panel of some 20 experts, including our very own winemaker, Angela. As a member of the official tasting panel of the D.O. Rias Baixas Angela was invited to adjudicate at the event, over a period of 4 days. Naturally each session was divided into regions and categories, and each session comprised of between 20 and 30 samples.

Tastings like this might sound like a fairly glamorous experience, but I can tell you, from my previous life as a buyer, intense tastings like this is actually very demanding, both physically and mentally. To do the job well, and professionally, requires total concentration from the very first wine, to the very last – every wine must be given a fair and equal opportunity, even if your palate starts to feel a little jaded.

Galicia and the northern coast of this country is often referred to as ‘Green Spain’. This year, however, it should probably be known as ‘Exceptionally Green Spain’! The months of May and June have been alternating between warm sunshine (shorts and t-shirts) and days of persistent rain (raincoats and umbrellas). Great if you’re a plant, but perhaps not so great for grape producers. Whilst our vines are growing like wildfire, these are also the best conditions for spawning disease and infection in the plants. (These are exactly the type of conditions that make it very, very difficult to produce wines that are certified organic or biodynamic – the risks of losing an entire crop are simply too great).

Fortunately for us, our flowering took place during the latter half of May, which was largely dry and sunny, but no sooner had the flowering finished, than the rain returned yet again. Conditions have sometimes been fluctuating on an hourly basis.

Our normally well manicured vineyards are almost looking a bit abandoned, even though we are working around the clock to keep vegetation, both on the vine ‘canopy’ and also the ground below, under control. This wild growth is known as ‘Vine Vigour’, which in 2022, seems like something of an understatement! Let’s see what the summer brings.