Only a day or so ago our local denomination office announced that the official yield for the 2011 vintage will be increased from 12,000 kilos per hectare to 13,900 kilos – an increment of some 15.8%

I am happy to tell you that our own yields fall far below this, for one simple reason. I was always taught that the lower the yield, the better the concentration, and therefore the better the finished wine. Indeed, as I travelled the world as a buyer I clearly remember many growers proudly telling me how low there yields were, thus implying that thay made a superior quality wine. In many instances this was due to the age of their vines. As the vine plant passes its peak production, so the yield gets progressively smaller with each vintage. Conversely, the concentration and quality of the grape juice increases and this is usually refected in the bottle.

If you stop and think about it for a second the same rule applies to the majority of fruit and veggies that we buy. Stretched, over-produced fruit will never have the same depth of flavour as that produced with more restrained yields.

Of course this latest announcement will not affect anything that we do in our own vineyards, and I can assure you that your glass of Castro Martin will never taste thin or watered down.

Only a day or so ago our local denomination office announced that the official yield for the 2011 vintage will be increased from 12,000 kilos per hectare to 13,900 kilos – an increment of some 15.8%

I am happy to tell you that our own yields fall far below this, for one simple reason. I was always taught that the lower the yield, the better the concentration, and therefore the better the finished wine. Indeed, as I travelled the world as a buyer I clearly remember many growers proudly telling me how low there yields were, thus implying that thay made a superior quality wine. In many instances this was due to the age of their vines. As the vine plant passes its peak production, so the yield gets progressively smaller with each vintage. Conversely, the concentration and quality of the grape juice increases and this is usually reflected in the bottle.

If you stop and think about it for a second the same rule applies to the majority of fruit and veggies that we buy. Stretched, over-produced fruit will never have the same depth of flavour as that produced with more restrained yields.

Of course this latest announcement will not affect anything that we do in our own vineyards, and I can assure you that your glass of Castro Martin will never taste thin or watered down.

I will start by confessing that the most expensive bottle of wine that I have ever bought in a restaurant, in my entire life, was a Château d’Yquem – but not the 1811 vintage I hasten to add. I’m afraid to say that it was one of those occassions where cost of the wine far outstripped the cost of the food, but at least I do have a very clear recollection of the lunch in question….

About a week ago a French collector bought a bottle of d’Yquem 1811 for £75,000 (USD122,600) in a private sale at the Ritz Hotel in London, and although it is claimed that this is the most expensive wine bought privately, this is not strictly true – unless you exclude wine auctions. At auction the most expensive bottle was a Château Cheval Blanc 1947 that was sold at Christie’s last year for £192,000 (USD314,000). So to say that the d’Yquem was the most expensive, it twisting the truth just a little.

The collector who bought this latest wine (bottled at the time of the Emperor Napoleon) intends to drink it in six years time at a dinner in Paris. In the meantime he plans to put it on display at his restaurant in Bali – I do hope that it travels well. From my own experience I have known bottles that did not travel well across the English Channel, never mind to the other side of the world!

Very old bottles like this are frequently re-corked by the producer, and I have to assume that on the last occassion the wine must have been tasted too. About 12 years ago it was described as being like liquid Crème Brulée.

I will start by confessing that the most expensive bottle of wine that I have ever bought in a restaurant, in my entire life, was a Château d’Yquem – but not the 1811 vintage I hasten to add. I’m afraid to say that it was one of those occassions where cost of the wine far outstripped the cost of the food, but at least I do have a very clear recollection of the lunch in question….

About a week ago a French collector bought a bottle of d’Yquem 1811 for £75,000 (USD122,600) in a private sale at the Ritz Hotel in London, and although it is claimed that this is the most expensive wine bought privately, this is not strictly true – unless you exclude wine auctions. At auction the most expensive bottle was a Château Cheval Blanc 1947 that was sold at Christie’s last year for £192,000 (USD314,000). So to say that the d’Yquem was the most expensive, it twisting the truth just a little.

The collector who bought this latest wine (bottled at the time of the Emperor Napoleon) intends to drink it in six years time at a dinner in Paris. In the meantime he plans to put it on display at his restaurant in Bali – I do hope that it travels well. From my own experience I have known bottles that did not travel well across the English Channel, never mind to the other side of the world!

Very old bottles like this are frequently re-corked by the producer, and I have to assume that on the last occassion the wine must have been tasted too. About 12 years ago it was described as being like liquid Crème Brulée.

I wasn’t quite sure whether today’s post should be made on our blog page or under the recipe heading on our new main menu. In the end I decided that the recipe page should be saved for food ideas that originate from here in Galicia, either traditional or modern interpretations of the traditional.

The featured fish dish was taken from last weekend’s Daily Telegraph colour supplement – to give it it’s full title the recipe is Seared Halibut with grilled and roasted vegetables and romesco sauce – quite a mouthful in more ways than one. Details of the recipe and the full article can be found here.

The real significance of this post is the recommended wine – our very own Castro Martin, described as follows: “Albariño comes in a number of guises, from fresh and salty through to peachy and textured. This falls into the latter camp, which is ideal as its gorgeous, aromatic, creamy nuances are wonderful with a dense fish such as halibut. Just as vital is the variety’s signature tongue-tingling lift of acid to parry the romesco sauce”.

You may notice, if you look at the original article, a bit of a ‘typo’ – instead of Albariño ‘Sobre Lias’ (on the lees), the Telegraph have mistakenly named our wine Albariño ‘Sobre Luis’ (on Luis)!

I wasn’t quite sure whether today’s post should be made on our blog page or under the recipe heading on our new main menu. In the end I decided that the recipe page should be saved for food ideas that originate from here in Galicia, either traditional or modern interpretations of the traditional.

The featured fish dish was taken from last weekend’s Daily Telegraph colour supplement – to give it it’s full title the recipe is Seared Halibut with grilled and roasted vegetables and romesco sauce – quite a mouthful in more ways than one. Details of the recipe and the full article can be found here.

The real significance of this post is the recommended wine – our very own Castro Martin, described as follows: “Albariño comes in a number of guises, from fresh and salty through to peachy and textured. This falls into the latter camp, which is ideal as its gorgeous, aromatic, creamy nuances are wonderful with a dense fish such as halibut. Just as vital is the variety’s signature tongue-tingling lift of acid to parry the romesco sauce”.

You may notice, if you look at the original article, a bit of a ‘typo’ – instead of Albariño ‘Sobre Lias’ (on the lees), the Telegraph have mistakenly named our wine Albariño ‘Sobre Luis’ (on Luis)!

It was with some sadness, after more than 5 loyal years, that we severed our relationship with Blogger, and although our blog posts have been moved across (albeit not quite perfectly), we shall miss them.

By way of a keepsake I managed to find a website that can actually print your blog. OK, I know that this goes against the principal of a blog, but I still though it would be nice to keep a copy that I can simply thumb through from time to time, without sitting at my screen.

It’s an American company, imaginatively called Blog2Print, and although the process is not cheap, I have to admit that I was impressed with their speed, efficiency and overall quality. I think the whole process, from finding the site to receiving the 3 volumes that it took, was barely more than a week in total. Impressive!

You may recognise some of the cover shots from this website…..

It was with some sadness, after more than 5 loyal years, that we severed our relationship with Blogger, and although our blog posts have been moved across (albeit not quite perfectly), we shall miss them.

By way of a keepsake I managed to find a website that can actually print your blog. OK, I know that this goes against the principal of a blog, but I still though it would be nice to keep a copy that I can simply thumb through from time to time, without sitting at my screen.

It’s an American company, imaginatively called Blog2Print, and although the process is not cheap, I have to admit that I was impressed with their speed, efficiency and overall quality. I think the whole process, from finding the site to receiving the 3 volumes that it took, was barely more than a week in total. Impressive!

You may recognise some of the cover shots from this website…..

 Now, I have to be honest by telling you that our migration from Blogger to WordPress has not gone as smoothly as we might have hoped. The main problem was that our Spanish host turned out to be a bit unhospitable….. We had a compatibility issue between our hosting and the new software, which resulted in certain functions of the new site simply refusing to do what we wanted.

During the design phase everything went swimmingly and all the pages appeared exactly as they should – unfortunately the problems did not come to light until we actually went live. Strangely, despite using a Spanish host, many of the issues were to be found on the Spanish pages (possibly more to do with the software than the hosting), and try as we might, we could not fix them.

Suffice to say that we have now shifted our hosting to the U.S.A., and as a result (with fingers crossed) we believe that all is now working as it should.

Of course, with all this going on behind the scenes, I have not been able to work on our blog, so please allow me to apologise for those of you who have developed withdrawl symptoms – once again, normal service has been resumed.

Now, I have to be honest by telling you that our migration from Blogger to WordPress has not gone as smoothly as we might have hoped. The main problem was that our Spanish host turned out to be a bit unhospitable….. We had a compatibility issue between our hosting and the new software, which resulted in certain functions of the new site simply refusing to do what we wanted.

During the design phase everything went swimmingly and all the pages appeared exactly as they should – unfortunately the problems did not come to light until we actually went live. Strangely, despite using a Spanish host, many of the issues were to be found on the Spanish pages (possibly more to do with the software than the hosting), and try as we might, we could not fix them.

Suffice to say that we have now shifted our hosting to the U.S.A., and as a result (with fingers crossed) we believe that all is now working as it should.

Of course, with all this going on behind the scenes, I have not been able to work on our blog, so please allow me to apologise for those of you who have developed withdrawl symptoms – once again, normal service has been resumed.

It’s probably quite fitting that one of my last few posts on Blogger (we will hopefully launch our completely new, all singing, all dancing website later this week), should be about the weather.

So far, the month of July has been cool and cloudy. Lots of overcast days, odd spots of sunshine, but also quite a lot of mist and drizzle – just in time for the Galician tourist season that starts to gather momentum at the beginning of the month. The significant point is that, despite the drizzle that we have had, it’s hardly been enough to penetrate the canopy in our vineyards, and the soil has remained mostly dry.

Thursday and Friday of this last week, has however, provided us with the first real rain since February/March. Not torrential rain, but steady rain that persisted throughout the two day period. Of course now that the sun has returned, the damp will be trapped at ground level and the humidity will provide an excellent breeding ground for disease. My guess is that we will probably be spraying at some point in the next few days.

Bearing in mind that we are obliged to occasionally treat our vines, prolonged periods of dry weather obviously mean that we spray less, saving time, money and the environment. Every cloud has a silver lining, if you’ll pardon the pun.It’s probably quite fitting that one of my last few posts on Blogger (we will hopefully launch our completely new, all singing, all dancing website later this week), should be about the weather.

So far, the month of July has been cool and cloudy. Lots of overcast days, odd spots of sunshine, but also quite a lot of mist and drizzle – just in time for the Galician tourist season that starts to gather momentum at the beginning of the month. The significant point is that, despite the drizzle that we have had, it’s hardly been enough to penetrate the canopy in our vineyards, and the soil has remained mostly dry.

Thursday and Friday of this last week, has however, provided us with the first real rain since February/March. Not torrential rain, but steady rain that persisted throughout the two day period. Of course now that the sun has returned, the damp will be trapped at ground level and the humidity will provide an excellent breeding ground for disease. My guess is that we will probably be spraying at some point in the next few days.

Bearing in mind that we are obliged to occasionally treat our vines, prolonged periods of dry weather obviously mean that we spray less, saving time, money and the environment. Every cloud has a silver lining, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I very rarely eat grapes, probably because we making a living out of growing them. (I guess it’s like the people who work in chocolate factories that eventually give up eating chocolate).

The other day, for some unknown reason, I bought a few grapes and popped them in the bottom of my fridge. When I tasted them later I remember thinking to myself that they were a bit acid – I left the remainder of the bunch on my kitchen counter. A little later I picked at a few more, but this time they tasted somewhat sweeter and generally more flavourful. One simple but important difference – they were warmer!

Of course this one of the fundamentals of wine tasting too – how your perception of wine is altered by the temperature at which you drink it.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that you should drink your albariño warm (albeit that this is the best way to expose many potential faults), but conversely, if you drink it too cold, not only will it exaggerate the acidity, but will also help to mask the true character of your wine.

If you find yourself being offered a tooth-shatteringly cold white wine in a restaurant, then cup the bowl of the glass in your two hands, and gently swirl it around until the temperature recovers a little – then, and only then, should you taste and pass your judgement.

Most red wine is served at ‘room temperature’, which to be honest is a little vague. So if your room is a little too warm, your red wine might also be adversely affected. An over heated bottle will throw all the alcohol to the forefront, perhaps giving your glass a bit of alcoholic ‘burn’ – not literally, but just a sensation of heat in the back of your throat. This, quite naturally, is more exaggerated in heavy, alcoholic red wines, and is quite easily remedied by chilling the bottle just a little – but not too much!
If you chill a red wine too much, this will simply exaggerate the tannins and could make your wine taste hard, harsh and maybe even a bit metallic.

As you will gather, temperature can make a big difference to your enjoyment of any wine.

I very rarely eat grapes, probably because we making a living out of growing them. (I guess it’s like the people who work in chocolate factories that eventually give up eating chocolate).

The other day, for some unknown reason, I bought a few grapes and popped them in the bottom of my fridge. When I tasted them later I remember thinking to myself that they were a bit acid – I left the remainder of the bunch on my kitchen counter. A little later I picked at a few more, but this time they tasted somewhat sweeter and generally more flavourful. One simple but important difference – they were warmer!

Of course this one of the fundamentals of wine tasting too – how your perception of wine is altered by the temperature at which you drink it.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that you should drink your albariño warm (albeit that this is the best way to expose many potential faults), but conversely, if you drink it too cold, not only will it exaggerate the acidity, but will also help to mask the true character of your wine.

If you find yourself being offered a tooth-shatteringly cold white wine in a restaurant, then cup the bowl of the glass in your two hands, and gently swirl it around until the temperature recovers a little – then, and only then, should you taste and pass your judgement.

Most red wine is served at ‘room temperature’, which to be honest is a little vague. So if your room is a little too warm, your red wine might also be adversely affected. An over heated bottle will throw all the alcohol to the forefront, perhaps giving your glass a bit of alcoholic ‘burn’ – not literally, but just a sensation of heat in the back of your throat. This, quite naturally, is more exaggerated in heavy, alcoholic red wines, and is quite easily remedied by chilling the bottle just a little – but not too much!
If you chill a red wine too much, this will simply exaggerate the tannins and could make your wine taste hard, harsh and maybe even a bit metallic.

As you will gather, temperature can make a big difference to your enjoyment of any wine.

You may have noticed that our blog has been a little abandoned recently, and as always, there is a perfectly good excuse…..

The screen capture above is a sneak preview of the homepage of our new website, which has been under construction for the last couple of months.

 The framework is done, the pages are set up, and now I am just going through the painfully slow part of adding the text and selecting the photographs that we are going to use. Any spare moment that I have had in front of my computer over the last couple of weeks has been occupied by this task – hence the fact that our blog has been a bit overlooked. Sorry about that.

 We hope to have the full new site up and running in the next week or so. As they say, watch this space!

There is an old saying that goes “a little of what you fancy does you good”, and to prove a point I woke up the other day with a craving for some thick cut marmalade on a slice of hot buttered toast. Fortunately I had all the ingredients in my fridge and cupboards, and savoured every mouthful, accompanied by a mug of piping hot Yorkshire tea. It’s sometimes the really simple pleasures that manage to hit the spot. Another such example – a rare fillet steak with a thick, freshly-made bearnaise sauce. Simple, but truly a match made in heaven….

Fortunately we are all have different tastes and enjoy different things, so when I used to get asked “which wine should I drink?” my reply was always the same – drink the wine that you enjoy.

Referring back to my post of a week or two ago about food and wine matching, I was lucky enough to dine in a good restaurant in Vigo yesterday. They had a special French promotion, which is highly unusual in Spain and so I jumped at the chance of eating (and drinking) some old, familiar favourites. An excellent Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume 2008 from probably the best co-operative that I know (anywhere in the world) – La Chablisienne, and a drop of Sauternes, Chateau d’Arche, with dessert.

The Chablis was super dry, racy and stylish, with a shot of steely gunflint running through it. People often talk about the influence of the soil on wine, and I swear that in this case, I could actually taste the calcareous kimmerigian clay and chalk that dominates the region. An absolute joy with the shellfish that I was eating. It’s really easy to get excited about wine when a humble meal somehow becomes more memorable for all the right reasons.