It seems to me like I’m always shouting about what we do with our wines around the world, paying little attention to our impact on the local market. Well, as if further references were needed, here’s quite a good one – El Corte Ingles.

For those of you who don’t know, the Corte Ingles is a chain of upmarket department stores located throughout Spain – every city in Spain has at least one, Madrid boasts several, as does Barcelona. Many stores include high quality ‘supermarkets’ and nearly all have cafeterias and restaurants.

It is a proud boast of ours that we have been featured in the restaurants and supermarkets of the Corte Ingles here in Galicia for around 20 years now – many Albariños on their list come and go, but we are happy to say that our Casal Caeiro albariño has been a permanent feature.

Every summer the local restaurants of the Corte Ingles celebrate Galician Gastronomy with special menus comprising, as you might imagine, mostly fish and seafood dishes (albeit there are a few meat dishes thrown in for the carnivors among us).

Naturally the featured wines are Galician too, and we proudly list our Casal Caeiro brand amongst the handful of Albariños on offer. So, if you find yourself in Galicia over the next few weeks why not take a break from your shopping, put your feet up, and enjoy a refreshing glass of albariño!

There is no doubt that Spain produces some great wines, and is probably one of the most exciting countries in the world when it comes to the development and discovery of new wines and wine regions.

Like it or not we now live in the age of carbon footprints, global warming and all sorts of different (and sometimes contradictory) ecological issues. One topic that I have covered very recently is that of re-cycling, and more especially, packaging…..

After 44 years of famine Spain’s national football team, that has so often promised so much, finally delivered….. Champions of Euro 2008 (second only to the World Cup here in Europe).

During the game streets were completely deserted, and it appeared that even the dogs had stopped barking as the entire nation sat glued to their TV screens. After 90 minutes of drama, anxiety, expectation (and some breathtaking football on the part of the Spanish), the celebration finally exploded on to the streets – and I mean exploded. Every small town and village witnessed dancing, fireworks and a cacophony of car horns as the country went completely wild. If there was ever an excuse for fiesta – then this was the fiesta to end all fiestas!

Despite being English, and the England team failing to qualify for the finals of this competition, I still feel at least slightly justified in sharing the Spanish excitement. I am a fervent supporter of Liverpool FC, who not only have a Spanish manager, but also supplied 4 of the 22 players to the winning Spanish squad. In addition, dare I mention that the scorer of the winning goal in last nights final was Fernando Torres – of Liverpool FC!

It is always nice to know that your wine is sold, and appreciated around the world, and as a wine producer being listed in top restaurants is actually one of the best accolades that you can receive. At this point I could drop a few names, but I will resist the temptation on this occasion….

As I think I have mentioned before our wine is quite widely sold ‘down under’, in Australia, and thankfully Castro Martin has found it’s way onto the list of many a top restaurant. Included amongst this group is the highly acclaimed MoVida tapas bar in Melbourne. Owned and run by Frank Camorra who was born in Barcelona and raised in Cordoba before his family emigrated to Australia when he was a small boy.

Frank’s passion for Spanish food (and wine) never left him, and after working in many top Australian restaurants, he travelled back to Spain to top up his knowledge of classic Spanish cuisine, before opening his MoVida tapas bar in 2002.

He has never looked back, not only receiving numerous awards for his cooking, but also somehow finding the time to co-write a book entitled ‘MoVida – Spanish culinary adventures’. And that is exactly what it is – much more than just another cookery book, it is also an insight into the origins of the food that he so lovingly prepares.

Inspired by the success of the first book, Frank and his co-author Richard Cornish, are on the road again, collecting material for MoVida2.

Frank chats with Angela under the pergolas

Two days into the strike and the casualty list is starting to grow, and I am not refering to business casualties – very regretably I am talking about human life. One picket in Spain, and another in Portugal have been killed as they tried to prevent trucks from running the gauntlet. In another incident a driver has been badly burned as he slept in his cab, when his vehicle was set alight. Of course this is not only a tragic waste, but also begs the question, what if anything, can actually be done to supress the spiralling price of oil? Perhaps the drivers should be picketing OPEC instead…..

It would appear that the effect on consumers varies enormously according to the area of Spain in which you live. From Madrid for example, we hear reports of shops running out of fresh food, and garages running out of fuel, whilst here in Galicia, it would appear that there has been little or no effect – so far. On Monday morning our local garage here in Barrantes had a queue for fuel, but on subsequent days I have seen at least two tankers actually delivering fuel to other forecourts in the area. Heaven only knows where these trucks came from, or how they got there, but the most important thing is that they were able to replenish stocks.

As far as I am aware there have been no reports of local food shortages, and the only real problem that we have experienced is that we are not able to deliver wine!

Every year our local village of Barrantes holds a ‘Fiesta do Vino Tinto’ in celebration of the red wines of the Rias Baixas region. Now, to be honest, the Rias Baixas region does not actually produce too many red wines, and within the D.O. there are actually very few Bodegas that make it. There are however a couple of grape varieties, such as Mencia and Caiño, that can produce a half-decent glass, but in reality the red grape struggles in our climate, to reach full maturity.

There is a National transport strike in Spain starting this weekend, and we are not sure exactly how long it will last, or more importantly, what the knock-on effects will be. Hopefully, most of our customers will have received notification that this was about to happen, albeit that we were not able to give too much warning.

Whilst we did not have lorries exactly queueing at the door to get wine out, we have still had a very busy week, and our best effort was turning around a 400 case export order in less than 24 hours – from the time that the order was received, including packing and paperwork etc, to the time that is was collected by the transporter. Not bad going….

So, all collections have now been made, and we are closing our doors for the weekend. On Monday we will know better how life has been affected, and as always, we will do our best to keep you informed.