No sooner had we finished our harvest this year than the warm weather arrived! From the middle of September until the middle of October the clouds disappeared and, believe it or not, the temperatures increased. With the barometer firmly lodged at around the mid-20’s locals were still taking advantage of our beautiful local beaches – with all the tourists long gone, it was true bliss….

From mid-October the cloud, rain and drizzle returned, pretty much as is normal at this time of year, but with one significant exception – the temperature. It has continued to remain quite mild, and even nightime temperatures have not fallen by that much. The minimums we have seen at night have probably averaged around 10-12°C (50-55°F), and only on a couple of occasions have fallen as low as 6-8°C (43-46°F). Yesterday morning,for example, at 7.30am it was actually 14°C (57°F).

So what’s the significance of this you are probably asking? Well, it’s to do with the vines – they are not yet dormant for the winter, and in some warmer locations there have even been signs of new growth!

By mid to late December we would hope to have our pruning well under way, but of course, owing to these unseasonably mild conditions, the start has been delayed. The danger is that, if we do not start soon, and spring arrives early again (as it did last year), then we could potentially have a problem.

No sooner had we finished our harvest this year than the warm weather arrived! From the middle of September until the middle of October the clouds disappeared and, believe it or not, the temperatures increased. With the barometer firmly lodged at around the mid-20’s locals were still taking advantage of our beautiful local beaches – with all the tourists long gone, it was true bliss….

From mid-October the cloud, rain and drizzle returned, pretty much as is normal at this time of year, but with one significant exception – the temperature. It has continued to remain quite mild, and even nightime temperatures have not fallen by that much. The minimums we have seen at night have probably averaged around 10-12°C (50-55°F), and only on a couple of occasions have fallen as low as 6-8°C (43-46°F). Yesterday morning,for example, at 7.30am it was actually 14°C (57°F).

So what’s the significance of this you are probably asking? Well, it’s to do with the vines – they are not yet dormant for the winter, and in some warmer locations there have even been signs of new growth!

By mid to late December we would hope to have our pruning well under way, but of course, owing to these unseasonably mild conditions, the start has been delayed. The danger is that, if we do not start soon, and spring arrives early again (as it did last year), then we could potentially have a problem.

We are proud in the knowledge that our wines often find themselves on some of the very best restaurant tables around the world, and it makes us even happier when customers decide to make them a central feature of their dining room.

El Corte Ingles is a very well-known chain of department stores situated throughout Spain, and nearly all have dining facilities for their customers in the shape of either cafeterias and/or restaurants. One of the best restaurants to be found here in Galicia is in Vigo, where our Casal Caeiro albariño has been served for more than 25 years (longer than the denomination of Rias Baixas itself has even existed).

Naturally they serve many a great fish dish on their menu, and it goes without saying that our wine offers the perfect compliment. During a recent campaign, our wines, Casal Caeiro, Casal Caeiro Barrica and Aguardiente were all featured, not only on the menu, but also in an extensive display at the door of the restaurant.

We are proud in the knowledge that our wines often find themselves on some of the very best restaurant tables around the world, and it makes us even happier when customers decide to make them a central feature of their dining room.

El Corte Ingles is a very well-known chain of department stores situated throughout Spain, and nearly all have dining facilities for their customers in the shape of either cafeterias and/or restaurants. One of the best restaurants to be found here in Galicia is in Vigo, where our Casal Caeiro albariño has been served for more than 25 years (longer than the denomination of Rias Baixas itself has even existed).

Naturally they serve many a great fish dish on their menu, and it goes without saying that our wine offers the perfect compliment. During a recent campaign, our wines, Casal Caeiro, Casal Caeiro Barrica and Aguardiente were all featured, not only on the menu, but also in an extensive display at the door of the restaurant.

Coming from the North of England as I do, one of the staples of my diet as a boy was Fish & Chips. Not that my family would eat them on a daily basis, but perhaps once a week, and nearly always on a Friday – it was a sort of tradition. In those days it was not that expensive, and I clearly remember that chips, for example, could be bought for a few pennies, and that the fish on offer was nearly always cod. The other, most significant feature of a Fish & Chip supper was the wrapping – to carry your meal home from the shop, and to help keep it warm, it was always covered with a layer of greaseproof paper and then completely swathed in old newspapers! (Today’s hygiene inspectors would, no doubt, be handing out fines, left, right and centre)

As you can see from the photo – newspaper has been replaced by polystyrene, and they even provide a plastic fork! In my era it was always newspaper and eating with fingers (this may sound a bit crude and uncivilised, but it sure tasted good!)

So the reason for today’s story is the shocking news that the world famous Harry Ramsden’s chip shop in Guiseley, near Leeds, could be about to close. A ‘cathedral’ of Fish & Chips, which traditionally had a permanent queue at the restaurant door, was built in 1931, replacing a small wooden hut where Ramsden started frying in 1928. He chose his site at the junction of two roads leading from Leeds and Bradford to the Yorkshire Dales. His business made the Guinness Book of Records when seating reached 250 and made the building the largest chippy in the world. In 1952 Ramsden celebrated the restaurant’s 21st anniversary by serving 10,000 portions in one single day.

Unfortunately, a series of takeovers and franchises diluted the unique atmosphere, and to be brutally honest, the quality also plummeted, so much so that the queues have long since dried up. Now the writing is on the wall, and the doors could close later this month…..

This tale might not seem completely relevant to our wine business (except that Albariño does go well with fish), but even so, there are still lessons to be learned for any small business – biggest does not always mean best, and maintaining quality should always be paramount.

Coming from the North of England as I do, one of the staples of my diet as a boy was Fish & Chips. Not that my family would eat them on a daily basis, but perhaps once a week, and nearly always on a Friday – it was a sort of tradition. In those days it was not that expensive, and I clearly remember that chips, for example, could be bought for a few pennies, and that the fish on offer was nearly always cod. The other, most significant feature of a Fish & Chip supper was the wrapping – to carry your meal home from the shop, and to help keep it warm, it was always covered with a layer of greaseproof paper and then completely swathed in old newspapers! (Today’s hygiene inspectors would, no doubt, be handing out fines, left, right and centre)

As you can see from the photo – newspaper has been replaced by polystyrene, and they even provide a plastic fork! In my era it was always newspaper and eating with fingers (this may sound a bit crude and uncivilised, but it sure tasted good!)

So the reason for today’s story is the shocking news that the world famous Harry Ramsden’s chip shop in Guiseley, near Leeds, could be about to close. A ‘cathedral’ of Fish & Chips, which traditionally had a permanent queue at the restaurant door, was built in 1931, replacing a small wooden hut where Ramsden started frying in 1928. He chose his site at the junction of two roads leading from Leeds and Bradford to the Yorkshire Dales. His business made the Guinness Book of Records when seating reached 250 and made the building the largest chippy in the world. In 1952 Ramsden celebrated the restaurant’s 21st anniversary by serving 10,000 portions in one single day.

Unfortunately, a series of takeovers and franchises diluted the unique atmosphere, and to be brutally honest, the quality also plummeted, so much so that the queues have long since dried up. Now the writing is on the wall, and the doors could close later this month…..

This tale might not seem completely relevant to our wine business (except that Albariño does go well with fish), but even so, there are still lessons to be learned for any small business – biggest does not always mean best, and maintaining quality should always be paramount.

It was Andy Wahol who once said that everyone would experience at least 15 minutes of fame at some point during their lifetime. In the age of pop culture, fly-on-the-wall TV and YouTube, my guess is this notion has even more chance of becoming a reality. Indeed the whole concept of true fame and stardom has become seriously eroded over recent years as would-be “celebrities” clamour to appear on our screens (either computer or TV) – but that’s another story…..

It was Andy Wahol who once said that everyone would experience at least 15 minutes of fame at some point during their lifetime. In the age of pop culture, fly-on-the-wall TV and YouTube, my guess is this notion has even more chance of becoming a reality. Indeed the whole concept of true fame and stardom has become seriously eroded over recent years as would-be “celebrities” clamour to appear on our screens (either computer or TV) – but that’s another story…..

Over the years, Angela and I have both been interviewed on TV and radio at least a couple of times, but always in a professional capacity, rather than for some perculiar hidden talent. Our last main encounter with the press was actually in Australia where, by pure chance, we happened to arrive on a visit at the exact moment that the authorities discovered that the ‘Albariño’ grape that they had planted, was not in fact Albariño at all! Of course this was big news in a serious wine producing country, and so when the press heard that we were in town, it was quite natural that they came knocking at our door looking for comment and interviews.

This week it was the turn of our local TV channel here in the Rias Baixas region – simply looking to do a short feature on our bodega. No particular reason other than, they had no doubt heard, that we were fabulous people making fabulous wines – and above all else, modest too!

It wasn’t until I arrived home yesterday evening and tuned into the satellite channels on my TV that I remembered it was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It was the full programme of American football fixtures that actually triggered my memory. For men at least, football is one of the big Thanksgiving traditions, possibly whilst the women are busy preparing the turkey dinner – or is that idea just too old fashioned, sexist and stereotypical? (I’m just not that politically correct these days!)

Anyway, Thanksgiving is more or less the American equivalent of the harvest festival that is  celebrated in other parts of the world, giving thanks for peace, and of course, a good harvest.

Another tradition that has sprung up from this particular holiday period, and is now being copied in Europe, is Black Friday – the day following Thanksgiving. This is now the busiest shopping day of the year in the US, as shoppers scramble around frantically to seek out that special ‘one off’ bargain being offered by the retailers for one day only. The term ‘Black Friday’ was first used by police in Philadelphia in the 1960s to describe the massive crowds and traffic jams that hit the sales after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until the 1980s that an alternative theory started to appear, suggesting that it was the day that marked retailers moving from the red to the black, as they started made profits for the first time in the year.

As a footnote to the 2011 sales, not only were all records broken with an estimated 152 million people (nearly half the population) passing through the checkouts, but in Los Angeles up to 20 people were injured when one woman resorted to using a pepper spray on her fellow shoppers in order to secure the best bargains!

It wasn’t until I arrived home yesterday evening and tuned into the satellite channels on my TV that I remembered it was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. It was the full programme of American football fixtures that actually triggered my memory. For men at least, football is one of the big Thanksgiving traditions, possibly whilst the women are busy preparing the turkey dinner – or is that idea just too old fashioned, sexist and stereotypical? (I’m just not that politically correct these days!)

Anyway, Thanksgiving is more or less the American equivalent of the harvest festival that is  celebrated in other parts of the world, giving thanks for peace, and of course, a good harvest.

Another tradition that has sprung up from this particular holiday period, and is now being copied in Europe, is Black Friday – the day following Thanksgiving. This is now the busiest shopping day of the year in the US, as shoppers scramble around frantically to seek out that special ‘one off’ bargain being offered by the retailers for one day only. The term ‘Black Friday’ was first used by police in Philadelphia in the 1960s to describe the massive crowds and traffic jams that hit the sales after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t until the 1980s that an alternative theory started to appear, suggesting that it was the day that marked retailers moving from the red to the black, as they started made profits for the first time in the year.

As a footnote to the 2011 sales, not only were all records broken with an estimated 152 million people (nearly half the population) passing through the checkouts, but in Los Angeles up to 20 people were injured when one woman resorted to using a pepper spray on her fellow shoppers in order to secure the best bargains!

Back in June I mentioned on this blog that we had been measuring the Oxygen Transfer Rate (OTR) in our wines. In case you didn’t read it this is quite simply a measurement of the oxygen levels within the wine in our tanks (before bottling), during bottling (oxygen suspended in the wine when bottled), and also oxygen in the ‘head space’ (the small gap between the wine and the cork). By measuring this we can learn about the effectiveness of the closure that we use to seal our bottles.

Back in June I mentioned on this blog that we had been measuring the Oxygen Transfer Rate (OTR) in our wines. In case you didn’t read it this is quite simply a measurement of the oxygen levels within the wine in our tanks (before bottling), during bottling (oxygen suspended in the wine when bottled), and also oxygen in the ‘head space’ (the small gap between the wine and the cork). By measuring this we can learn about the effectiveness of the closure that we use to seal our bottles.

A dog’s sense of smell is said to be a thousand times more sensitive than that of humans. In fact, a dog has more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose, while humans have only 5 million. Also, I think it’s true to say that the human sense of smell is probably one of the most underutilised and underdeveloped senses that we have, but that over time, it can be trained…….

Certainly, after years in the wine business, and years as a buyer, using my own sense of smell extensively on a daily basis, I am pretty confident that mine is more evolved and sensitive than it was when I was younger – or perhaps it’s just because I’m much more conscious of using it? But then one of the most difficult things when tasting a wine for example, is quite simply converting what you taste and smell into words – but that’s another story.

Singularly the most significant fact is that probably 90% of what we perceive as taste is actually smell, and without smell the job of a wine buyer would be pretty tough. I can clearly recall that getting a cold or a touch of flu at any time of year was a complete disaster for me and rendered me almost useless (albeit that my colleagues might say that I was fairly useless anyway!) For this reason I was always well stocked up on cold remedies and vitamin-C.

The reason that I chose to write about this now is because of an incident that happened to me yesterday. I go running by the sea every day, and as I left the house at 7.30am I caught a sudden whiff of cigarette smoke. About 100 metres down the road an employee of a local hotel had slipped outside (in the open air) to have a quick nicotine fix, and my nose had picked it up from some distance. However, this asset can also be a curse as it can easily detect foul smells as well as attractive ones!

A dog’s sense of smell is said to be a thousand times more sensitive than that of humans. In fact, a dog has more than 220 million olfactory receptors in its nose, while humans have only 5 million. Also, I think it’s true to say that the human sense of smell is probably one of the most underutilised and underdeveloped senses that we have, but that over time, it can be trained…….

Certainly, after years in the wine business, and years as a buyer, using my own sense of smell extensively on a daily basis, I am pretty confident that mine is more evolved and sensitive than it was when I was younger – or perhaps it’s just because I’m much more conscious of using it? But then one of the most difficult things when tasting a wine for example, is quite simply converting what you taste and smell into words – but that’s another story.

Singularly the most significant fact is that probably 90% of what we perceive as taste is actually smell, and without smell the job of a wine buyer would be pretty tough. I can clearly recall that getting a cold or a touch of flu at any time of year was a complete disaster for me and rendered me almost useless (albeit that my colleagues might say that I was fairly useless anyway!) For this reason I was always well stocked up on cold remedies and vitamin-C.

The reason that I chose to write about this now is because of an incident that happened to me yesterday. I go running by the sea every day, and as I left the house at 7.30am I caught a sudden whiff of cigarette smoke. About 100 metres down the road an employee of a local hotel had slipped outside (in the open air) to have a quick nicotine fix, and my nose had picked it up from some distance. However, this asset can also be a curse as it can easily detect foul smells as well as attractive ones!

After a week or two of R&R we are finally back at the helm, steering our Bodega inexorably towards the Christmas rush (we hope!) In anticipation of this we now have to stock up on certain lines, and so the trucks have been arriving over the last couple of days, laiden with all the materials that we need for bottling. Over the next few days our bottling line will be working overtime, as will our staff, as we fill the warehouse with a bit of Christmas cheer……

 Unfortunately, however organised we are (or think we are), there is always something to throw a spanner in the works. Whilst bottling the first tank for example, the capsule machine started to play up, and decided that it would only put capsules on two out of every three bottles. A 33% saving I hear you say – but unfortunately not acceptable to our customers! In the short term the only answer is to have one individual standing in front of the line dispensing capsules by hand as the bottles speed past at roughly 1,500 – 2,000 bottles per hour – that’s about one bottle every two seconds.

Having drawn the short straw I had the task of placing the capsules myself, and I can tell you, not only do you hardly have time to blink, but also, after an hour or two, the whole process has a slightly hypnotic effect (no doubt I will be ‘capsuling’ in my sleep tonight).

So when we tell our customers that Angela and I are very hands-on managers, that’s exactly what we mean!

After a week or two of R&R we are finally back at the helm, steering our Bodega inexorably towards the Christmas rush (we hope!) In anticipation of this we now have to stock up on certain lines, and so the trucks have been arriving over the last couple of days, laiden with all the materials that we need for bottling. Over the next few days our bottling line will be working overtime, as will our staff, as we fill the warehouse with a bit of Christmas cheer……

 Unfortunately, however organised we are (or think we are), there is always something to throw a spanner in the works. Whilst bottling the first tank for example, the capsule machine started to play up, and decided that it would only put capsules on two out of every three bottles. A 33% saving I hear you say – but unfortunately not acceptable to our customers! In the short term the only answer is to have one individual standing in front of the line dispensing capsules by hand as the bottles speed past at roughly 1,500 – 2,000 bottles per hour – that’s about one bottle every two seconds.

Having drawn the short straw I had the task of placing the capsules myself, and I can tell you, not only do you hardly have time to blink, but also, after an hour or two, the whole process has a slightly hypnotic effect (no doubt I will be ‘capsuling’ in my sleep tonight).

So when we tell our customers that Angela and I are very hands-on managers, that’s exactly what we mean!

Just in case you thought it had gone a little quiet, I thought I should explain…. we’re all having a bit of a holiday. We had planned to close the wine cellar for a week during August, in order to give everyone a short break before the onslaught of the harvest. However, owing to the very early start that we had this year, there was simply too much to do, and consequently the closure was cancelled.

So we arrived at the end of October, having completed the wine making, but with everyone exhausted, and still sitting on pretty much their full quota of holiday entitlement. With Christmas (and 2012) fast approaching we thought we’d better do something about it, so we decided to close our doors for a week or two. Around this time of year there are already a few ‘festivo’ days, and so the obvious thing to do was to build a break around this, hence this rather belated holiday.

In fairness the weather has not been too great, after a very warm period during the first half of October, but a break is still a break, and it gives us the chance to catch up on things at home.

Talking about home, it’s really great living by the sea, especially during autumn and winter when it’s so abandoned. This photo was taken early morning on a nearby boardwalk that follows the shore – in winter this forms my own personal running track as I do my best to keep fit. I can tell you that you don’t meet too many Spanish people at 7.30am, they’re not exactly ‘early birds’ like me!

Just in case you thought it had gone a little quiet, I thought I should explain…. we’re all having a bit of a holiday. We had planned to close the wine cellar for a week during August, in order to give everyone a short break before the onslaught of the harvest. However, owing to the very early start that we had this year, there was simply too much to do, and consequently the closure was cancelled.

So we arrived at the end of October, having completed the wine making, but with everyone exhausted, and still sitting on pretty much their full quota of holiday entitlement. With Christmas (and 2012) fast approaching we thought we’d better do something about it, so we decided to close our doors for a week or two. Around this time of year there are already a few ‘festivo’ days, and so the obvious thing to do was to build a break around this, hence this rather belated holiday.

In fairness the weather has not been too great, after a very warm period during the first half of October, but a break is still a break, and it gives us the chance to catch up on things at home.

Talking about home, it’s really great living by the sea, especially during autumn and winter when it’s so abandoned. This photo was taken early morning on a nearby boardwalk that follows the shore – in winter this forms my own personal running track as I do my best to keep fit. I can tell you that you don’t meet too many Spanish people at 7.30am, they’re not exactly ‘early birds’ like me!

And before you even think it….. no, I don’t mean me!

In the period between finishing the fermentation and starting the pruning, it’s traditionally the time of year when we have a bit of a clean out in the bodega.

This year we have attacked one of the storage rooms in the eaves of the building, that, over the years, had become choked with unused materials and equipment most of which is past its sell-by date.

Our big clean up yielded (amongst many other things), this strange looking piece of kit. At first I had absolutely no idea what it could be used for, at least until I examined it a bit more closely. It turns out to be the head for filling bottles by hand, only six at a time. How things have changed – our new machine for example, will handle up to 3,000 bottles per hour (which is still slow compared to some).

If it takes us nearly a day to bottle a tank of wine with our new machine, I cannot imagine how long it must have taken with this – perhaps we had to provide our staff with sleeping bags?

And before you even think it….. no, I don’t mean me!

In the period between finishing the fermentation and starting the pruning, it’s traditionally the time of year when we have a bit of a clean out in the bodega.

This year we have attacked one of the storage rooms in the eaves of the building, that, over the years, had become choked with unused materials and equipment most of which is past its sell-by date.

Our big clean up yielded (amongst many other things), this strange looking piece of kit. At first I had absolutely no idea what it could be used for, at least until I examined it a bit more closely. It turns out to be the head for filling bottles by hand, only six at a time. How things have changed – our new machine for example, will handle up to 3,000 bottles per hour (which is still slow compared to some).

If it takes us nearly a day to bottle a tank of wine with our new machine, I cannot imagine how long it must have taken with this – perhaps we had to provide our staff with sleeping bags?