From time to time we are lucky enough to get direct feedback from our customers in different parts of the world, and I am pleased to say that the vast majority of it is very positive.

The most usual mail that we get is when someone has tried our wine in a restaurant and simply wants to know where they can buy it. Naturally we always reply quicky to this type of request to put them in touch with either our importer or a local distributor.

Today however, we have received a rather unusual story from Caracas, Venezuela where a supporter of our bodega bought a bottle of Casal Caeiro to accompany a dish of mussels that they enjoyed at home with their friends. They went on to tell us that they started the evening with Veuve Cliquot as an aperitif, followed by our albariño, moving on to a magnum of Chateau Cheval Blanc and rounded off with a bottle of Chateau Gilette (Sauternes) 1937!

I urgently need to find some friends like this – please send CV and details of your private cellar to the following address……

Just in case you thought we might be snowed in, I’m happy to tell you that we have not seen one single snowflake here in the Pontevedra area….. yet! They say that we might see a bit of snow tomorrow, so I wait with baited breath and camera poised, just in case.

No, the reason that I have not posted for a while is simply that we have been closed for a few days around the Reyes holiday that falls on the 6th January. I must confess that our brains are still in ‘relaxation mode’ and as always the first day back is a tough one.

So what is the Xacobeo I hear you ask? Well, to cut a very long story short it is a special religious year in Galicia, with festivities centred around Santiago de Compostela, and it’s wonderful cathedral.

It has been celebrated since the Middle Ages, and occurs whenever the feast day of the Apostle Saint James (Santiago), 25th July, falls on a Sunday. Owing to leap years this does not happen at regular intervals, and can be every 5, 6 or 11 years….. I think (the maths are a little complicated). For example, the last three celebrations were in 1993, 1999 and 2004, and following 2010, the next will be in 2021.

If you feel the need to study the whole story then there is a website (Spanish, English and Galician), although it is perhaps not the easiest in the world to find what you are looking for.

I thought that I had probably already made my last blog entry of 2009…… until I opened my e-mail this morning. OK, so it might be just a bit of ‘schoolboy’ humour, but it did make me smile for a moment.

The e-mail was from an agency offering pretty girls and/or models to ‘pose’ on our stand at the Alimentaria trade fair next spring.

And the name of the individual who sent this mail? The very aptly named Gloria Bosom…….Ho, ho, ho!

I guess it would be fair to say that some traditions become distorted or at least mis-interpreted over time, and others perhaps completely lost. I have noticed that some younger people actually struggle to explain why we ‘religiously’ follow certain traditions, but that simply makes it all the more interesting to re-discover their origins.

This being the case, I thought that I would look back at a couple of Christmas traditions myself and share my findings with you now…..

Let’s start with a big one – Father Christmas, Père Noël or Santa Claus (to mention but a few of his pseudonyms). Did you know for example, that the current rotund, red-suited Santa we have all come to know and love was actually created in 1935 for a Coca-Cola advertising campaign? In his previous incarnation, he was a much thinner, paler character based on the 4th century Greek bishop, St Nicholas, who was the patron saint of children. It was in Holland, where he’s known as Sinterklaas, that he earned his reputation for giving away Christmas gifts (although legend has it that it was possibly St Nicolas himself who started the tradition by distributing gold to the poor).

Now here’s another interesting one – have you ever stopped to wonder why you put a pine tree in your living room at Christmas (albeit these days it is may well be plastic)? One theory at least is that it has pagan origins, when an evergreen tree was decorated with fruits to celebrate the winter solstice on 21st December. Later in history the Germans hung crackers on the tree to represent the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the English eventually replacing the fruit with the glass balls and candles that are more familiar today. The tradition was apparently popularised in the UK by Queen Victoria’s German-born husband, Albert, who started the decorating of trees for Christmas in the mid-19th century. (Artificial trees were first created in the 1930s by the Addis Company, who allegedly manufactured them using spare capacity in their toilet-brush factory!)

And finally, the Christmas cracker (completely unknown here in Spain), was invented by Tom Smith, a London sweet shop owner. After spotting French bonbons wrapped in paper with a twist at each end, he sold similar sweets with a “love motto” inside, and later added a trinket and a bang. His ‘Bangs of Expectation’ included gifts such as jewellery and miniature dolls, and by 1900, was apparently selling around 13 million a year!

Of course there are many more traditions associated with this holiday, but I will save a few for the coming years.

For the whole of November and the first half of December the sun never appeared in Ribadumia, instead only grey sky and a lot of rain.

Apparently this had something to do with the wind direction. Blowing from just off the coast of West Africa, these extra mild winds were able to carry a lot more moisture than the more customary, cooler winds from the north. True, the temperatures have been mild, rarely dipping below 9 or 10°C (even at night), but boy has it been wet, even by Galician standards.

It was actually the 14th December before we witnessed the first clear skies and touch of frost, but only in very sheltered, low-lying areas. This of course provides the ideal weather for pruning which is now under way in our vineyards. As I know I have written many times before, far better to be pruning in a bit of mild winter sunshine, than with rain beating down in your face!

It would appear that many other parts of Europe have also been affected by this cold snap, with many countries suffering heavy snow and freezing temperatures. I guess we should at least be thankful that we have not been stranded on a train in the Channel tunnel for hours on end, like some other poor souls over the weekend…… What a nightmare!

We have a friend in Melbourne who runs one of Australia’s best restaurants, that just happens to be Spanish. His name is Frank Camorra, and his restaurant is MoVida (also MoVida Next Door, which not surprisingly is located immediately adjacent to the main restaurant)

Over the last few years he has made several trips to Spain, touring the countryside, gathering information and recipes etc., compiling books about Spanish food. I hesitate to call them recipe books, because in reality they are much more than that – Frank delves into the background and traditions behind the food that he includes, meeting the local people who cook the dishes as part of their daily lives. Not professional chefs, but ordinary people who prepare local fare using methods handed down over generations.

The latest of his three books, just released, is called Movida Rustica, and is co-authored by Australian food writer and critic, Richard Cornish.

Whilst we are not mentioned by name, we are actually pictured picnicking in our ‘El Pazo’ vineyard, tucking into some great local dishes such as ’empanada de vieiras’ (a corn pie made with fresh scallops). I know that I say it every time, but I will say it again – a perfect dish to eat accompanied by a glass of Castro Martin albariño.

In the picture taken from the book, you can just make out Angela on the left, and see the back of my head (which many say is my best side!)

We are delighted, in the last few hours, to have picked up a new customer in Scandinavia, and at exactly the same moment our transporter has given me an inspired idea for the packaging….

Scandinavia is of course, the home of ‘flat-pack’ furniture, so why not ‘flat-pack’ wine as illustrated in the photograph above? Compacted into it’s new, re-shaped, designer plastic wrapping is (believe it or not) a six bottle carton of wine, reduced to only a few centimetres thick!

Imagine how this new idea could revolutionise the home delivery of wine – if you are not at home the delivery driver will simply be able to slip it through your letter box. It might make a bit of a mess of your floor, but at least you won’t have to wait for it to be re-delivered.

It’s amazing how some great ideas are often discovered completely by accident…. quite literally.

Now, I really like Gordon Ramsey, albeit that times have been pretty tough for him in the last year or so. I always think it’s a bit of a mistake when a really talented chef leaves his kitchen and starts empire building – effectively risking his good name and reputation. It rarely seems to work, and usually the only thing that appears to suffer is quality. Almost an inevitability when you stop and think about it.

You can therefore imagine my surprise to see him on TV, dangling from the end of a rope at the bottom of a 300ft cliff in search of a Galician seafood delicacy – Percebes, otherwise known as Goose Barnicles (or maybe dinosaur feet as one of my friends calls them). In fact, swinging at the end of a rope he looked more like the bait than the fisherman…. it was quite dramatic.

Filming for his Channel 4 series ‘The F Word’, I think it’s fair to say that he used more than his fair share of expletives as the crashing waves smashed him against the rocks. In the circumstances I can hardly blame him. Ironically, after a small degree of success he was finally submerged by one huge wave that swept away his precious harvest. I doubt if he will be doing that again in a hurry!

And so back to the Perecebes themselves. An expensive delicacy on any dinner table, and when you see how they are harvested you may begin to understand why. Apparently the Galician coast is especially suited to this type of barnacle, as the fast flowing waters of the Atlantic ocean against the rocky outcrops make the necks of the percebes stronger, fatter and therefore tastier to eat. I have been lucky enough to savour them on a couple of occassions, and when they are really fresh, the flavour of the sea literally burst from the necks as you bite into them….. delicious!

Of course, as always, I can’t close without reminding you that they are alsolutely perfect to eat accompanied by a refreshing glass of Castro Martin albariño.