It was October of last year when I wrote about a new local roadsign that was troubling me, simply because the colour of the background made the sign impossible to read until you were virtually on top of it. Well, perhaps the local council read my blog, because they have finally done something about it!

At the time I think I described the background colour as a “sickly, fluorescent mustard-yellow colour” which on reflection was probably quite accurate. Prior to the sickly yellow, the background colour used for all historic monuments was brown, and guess what?….. The old colour has now been restored (see above).

How does the expression go? If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it (especially if it’s going to cost the local taxpayer)!

Now you would think that one of the most important wine producing countries in the world would have it’s own wine TV channel, wouldn’t you? Well, apparently not – the French government is blocking plans to set one up!

The French, quite incredibly, have probably the most draconian laws prohibiting the advertising and promotion of wine outside of the Muslim world. The law states quite simply that “all direct or indirect propaganda in favour of alcoholic drinks” on television, is completely forbidden. Apparently the controlling body will only give permission to the proposed channel if it drops its’ plans for programmes featuring wine-tastings and expert discussions on wine – but then what would be the point?

Reluctantly, the production company is now looking at alternatives – for example, basing themselves in Luxembourg and broadcasting to France via satellite, or possibly setting up in the UK. Whatever the solution, the founder of the channel has said “It’s not just surprising, it’s a scandal,” and to be very honest I tend to agree with him!

Two new products in one week is probably too much for some, but I guess it’s just that time of year in our bodega – when we finally start to ‘roll out’ the wines of the new vintage.

This latest addition is however, quite a revelation….. an Albariño Rosada (rosé). Earlier this year, when we were studying the demonination rules for making our ‘sobre lias’ wine, we stumbled across some old documents relating to the production of rosé. As you may or may not be aware, there are already a couple of red wines made here in the Rias Baixas area, using grape varieties such as Caiño Tinto and Mencìa. On their own, not always very exciting, and often a little expensive, but they do have much greater potential when it comes to blending – the word ‘blending’ being very significant here.

Nearly every rosé wine is made by taking red grapes, crushing them, and then leaving the skins in contact with the juice for a short time, to macerate and extract a little colour. (I love the expression that the Americans use for this when they make their Zinfandel, calling it a ‘blush’ wine). There is however, another method, formerly used in Champagne making I think – simply blending a little red into their white wine to make it pink. This blending is the method that we have adopted for our exciting new Albariño, giving us greater opportunity to control both the exact flavour and hue of the finished wine.

By taking a little Caiño (up to 15%) and blending it with our Albariño wine, we emerge with a rather pleasing rosé wine. The marriage of red and white grapes yields an elegant, yet intensely fruity wine that finishes with just a hint of spice and the flavour of crushed strawberry – a super refreshing summer wine.

For the packaging we have named our new baby Casita Martin, and used a bright, clean, fresh image, in keeping with the wine. As it contains less than 15% of Caiño, we are still allowed to mention Albariño Rosado on the label.

We antcipate that this new product will be a big hit this summer, and will be especially popular for weddings. With my own personal interest in Photoshop I am actually contemplating personalised labels, incorporating a photo of the happy couple….. this might be a bit over ambitious, but we shall see!

Today is the first day of a new era in our bodega! As we made the first bottling of our 2009 wine for the Spanish market, so we introduced a new label for our Casal Caeiro brand – but not only that…..

You will notice that we have added the term ‘Sobre Lias’ to the label (or ‘Sur Lie’ as the French would call it). In recent years this expression has started to pop up on a few premium wines in our area – and I say premium simply because they are always a limited production, sold at a higher price. In our case, not so.

The main reason that we are always slower than others to release our new vintage is because of this process. Every wine that we make is aged on it’s lees for an extended period of between 5 and 6 months, and is therefore never available before April/May at the earliest.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, the ‘lees’ or ‘lias’ are the exhausted yeast cells that fall to the bottom of the tank during fermentation. This does not mean however, that they are rendered completely useless, as even at this point they still contain certain nutrients that feed the wine, adding depth of flavour and greater complexity. Angela will happily explain all the technical stuff, telling you about the manoproteins and how they can help to protect against oxidation and reduce astringency etc., but the long and short of it is that it makes our wine taste better – and that’s all you really need to understand!

Of course the process does have to be controlled, and to start off with the ‘lees’ have to be clean and healthy, otherwise they will simply taint the wine with reductive ‘off’ flavours. Even more importantly, when the wine is on it’s lees it has to be tasted at very regular intervals (as we always do anyway), in order to chose the optimum moment to rack it off. No, I am not being rude, racking is simply the term for drawing the clean wine from the top of the tank, leaving the lees behind at the bottom, once they have finally completed their work.

To summarise, our philosophy, is, was and always will be, to make the best wines that we can – wines that have longevity, and do not fall apart after a couple of months in bottle. Ageing our wines on the lees has played an important part in this process for years now, the only difference being that we have now chosen to advertise it on our labels, not only as a point of difference, but also giving you and your customers a bit of ‘added value’ for the same money.

As always, selling you a premium product at a very modest price!

No, I’m not being rude, the baboons really are stealing – not that this is anything new. Tourist offices around the world often issue warnings to visitors about the aggressive behaviour of these primates. They advise people not to stand around with food in their hands or leave the car with open boot (trunk), windows or doors. They also tell you that baboons will steal food and bags from inside the car, and of course, that you should take extra care when planning a picnic – these animals will simply run up to you and grab your food! The more you feed them, the more bold and aggressive they become.

Unfortunately the problem has now spread to wine country – Chachma Baboons in South Africa’s Western Cape wine region have recently developed a taste for Chardonnay grapes and are terrorising farmers, munching their way through tonnes of grapes that are ready for harvesting. Farms in the Franschhoek Valley have been devastated by rampaging baboons, who sneak into secured plots and help themselves to top grade grapes. In some cases up to 40 percent of the harvest has been lost!

I have read that there are apparently only 360 baboons remaining on the Cape Peninsula. They have been there for hundreds, if not thousands of years but are now threatened due to conflict with humans. It goes without saying that the conservationists are keen to protect the last baboons on the tip of Africa, but at what cost to the wine producers?

Similar to my Coho Salmon story of only a few weeks ago – yet another conflict between man and beast……

First of all I would like to wish all our Irish readers (assuming that there are a few) a very Happy St Patrick’s Day. Of course, with a surname like McCarthy I should be celebrating myself, but I have to admit that my Irish roots go back very many generations, probably originating in or around Cork, where every second person shares that name.

A sentiment somewhat lost in translation

The scourge of many a European country these days is that of teenage binge drinking, or “le binge drinking” as the French call it. In Spain it is known as the “Botellon”, and those of you who follow my blog will know that I have written about this many times in the past.

The reason that I have resurrected the tale of this troubling phenomenon is largely because of a story that I read about a new French initiative….. education. No, not teaching the kids how to drink more, but an attempt to teach them a little more about wine, and wine appreciation. A government report is recommending that university canteens hold wine-tasting sessions to educate the young in the virtues of moderate consumption!

With typical Gallic flair and imagination a well-known French gastronaut explained in a radio interview, “Why is there sexual education and not viticultural education? You can learn wine too. Drinking is not drinking a bottle. Wine is pleasure. It’s like love. It’s the same.”

OK, we all know that the French are a very passionate lot, but perhaps this type of reasoning could be stretching the point just a little too far…… It’s like love???

A former director of the Sorbonne added “In order to avoid the total freak-out that happens every Friday night and Saturday night … we want to try to teach students a sense of responsibility, to allow them to taste wine in very moderate quantities, and to show them that it is both a pleasure, good for their health … and a part of their national heritage.”

Unfortunately not everyone is in agreement with the idea of serving wine to students in their lunch break, saying that it is simply naive to think that this approach will reduce binge drinking, and adding that it is more likely to serve as a form of marketing for the wine industry.

On final, rather sobering, statistic is that, according to the Paris authorities, a fifth of 17-year-olds now drink at least five glasses of wine in a single sitting at least three times a month.