2007 Harvest – Rudera, South Africa

February 26th, 2007 | Uncategorized

Teddy Hall – one of South Africa’s finest

Over my years in the world of wine I have been privileged to meet and taste with some of the finest wine makers on the planet. When it comes to Chenin Blanc I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction, that probably the best of all is a good friend of mine – Teddy Hall of Rudera Wines in South Africa.

Teddy and his family spent three weeks with us just before the 2005 harvest, not only for a holiday, but also for an exchange of viticultural ideas (pictured above with Angela). Suffice to say that we learned a lot during our ‘New World meets Old World summit’.

At this time of year Teddy is busy with his 2007 harvest, and you can actually witness his progress, and see some stunning South African scenery in this short video clip.

Tom Cannavan’s wine-pages

February 26th, 2007 | Uncategorized
WINE OF THE WEEK
“Wines which really impressed me, but also cost less than £10. Most Wines of the Week are widely available across the UK, and often they are available internationally too.”

Castro Martin (Spain) Albariño Rias-Baixas Family Reserve 2005

“The Martin family has been at the forefront of the wine revolution that has swept Galicia in the last two decades. Founded in 1981, the company was one of the first to vinify the indigenous Albariño with modern techniques and equipment. Angela Martin has been winemaker since 1993, and is married to Englishman Andrew McCarthy who runs the marketing and export operations.

The Castro Martin Family Reserve Albariño is mineral and fine. There is a distinct salty minerality on the nose, with a whiff of seaside ozone, then no shortage of pure, clean, limpid white fruit aromas. The palate almost shimmers with tang and vibrancy, and though it has a steely precision, there is just loads of fruit too that has a peachy, pear-like quality backed up by a vivid streak of lemon and mineral acidity. Delicious stuff.”

Footnote: Tom Cannavan is the publisher of wine-pages.com, one of the world’s most popular and longest running wine sites, established in 1995. He is also the editor of Fine Expressions, a bi-monthly glossy magazine about the world of wine and other premium drinks and for several years was wine columnist for Harpers Wine & Spirit Weekly, and for The Sunday Post (Scotland’s biggest-selling newspaper). He also enjoys a successful freelance wine writing career, appearing in The Sunday Times, The Independent, Decanter and Wine Magazines. He has occasionally appeared on BBC radio and television.

News Flash – Silver in Berlin for Casal Caeiro

February 21st, 2007 | Uncategorized
Berlin Wine Trophy
The international wine competition in the capital city of Berlin

“Since 1994, Deutsche Weinmarketing has been organising a wine-tasting competition within the frame of the Berlin Wine Fair, which is the largest consumer wine fair in Germany.
From the beginning, this event has been monitored by the Berlin State Wine Office. In 2003, the OIV – the International Organisation of Vine and Wine – supervised and rated the performance of the event. Due to an excellent rating, the Berlin Wine Trophy has been running every year under the aegis of the OIV. This is the highest distinction for the Berlin Wine Trophy event.
However, at the national level, a change in the wine law regulations was necessary to be able to organise a recognised wine-tasting event in Berlin as a non-wine-growing Federal Land like in all other world capitals. After this obstacle was removed in December 2005, the Berlin Senate recognised Deutsche Weinmarketing as the carrier of the international competition “Berlin Wine Trophy” and notified the Federal Ministry and the European Commission accordingly.
We are glad that producers are now able to affix the rankings obtained during the Berlin Wine Trophy as a medal on the respective bottles. An ideal marketing aid assisting consumers with their decision when purchasing high-quality wines. Deutsche Weinmarketing and the whole team of Berlin Wine Trophy are looking forward to present their wines to the international jury for an award during the next wine-tasting event 2007.”
Your Berlin Wine Trophy Team
Footnote: Text taken direct from the Wine Trophy website. Is it politically correct to say that this explanation sounds a bit “Vorsprung Durch Technik”?

Coming soon to a cinema near you……

February 21st, 2007 | Uncategorized

Well, maybe not to a cinema near you, unless you happen to live in Melbourne, Australia!
March 1st sees the start of La Mirada, the Festival of Spanish film, and yes, you’ve guessed it – they’re going to be serving Castro Martin. Four Spanish wines have been chosen to be served on the opening night and at the media launch, and we are delighted to have been included in the selection.
The festival is jointly sponsored by Australia’s top Spanish wine importer, together with the best Spanish Restaurant in the country – ‘Mo Vida’.
We invite all our readers to attend the opening night and enjoy a refreshing glass of Castro Martin (plane tickets not included!)

Under the weather

February 16th, 2007 | Uncategorized
What’s up doc?

Over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed that my posts have been a bit few and far between, and I think I possibly have my wife Angela to thank for that…..

After a long weekend in Barcelona she returned to Galicia with a very bad dose of flu, probably contracted in the cabin of the plane home (making it more like aviation flu than avian flu!) Well, within 24 hours I was down with it too, and suffice to say that this was a particularly virulent strain leaving us both feeling as if we had been run over by a truck.

After several days out of the office we are both finally back, and it’s only now that we’ve started to catch up with the backlog.

Please note that next year I intend to be first in the queue for flu jabs!

Fish n’ Albariño

February 16th, 2007 | Uncategorized

Lunchtime is never a good time to post a mouthwatering photograph of food, especially when all you have in the wine cellar fridge for your own lunch is a cheese and ham sandwich!
In the February issue of Spain’s ‘Mi Vino’ magazine the wine writer Bartolomé Sánchez has selected six Spanish white wines as a possible accompaniment for a delicious cod dish (from the Restaurant Safrá in Barcelona). Of the six possible wines selected only two were rated as “Excellent” – with three stars out of three.

One was our very own Avian Albariño 2005 which Sr Sanchez described as “una simbiosis total” with the fish – I don’t think any translation is required….

Global warming, Peter Green and the 5 W’s

January 30th, 2007 | Uncategorized
2006/2007 – a warm, wet winter in Galicia
So, who on earth is Peter Green I hear you ask? Well, Peter Green was my old geography teacher back in the 70’s (he was also my tennis coach in the good old days when school children were obliged to participate in real sport, rather than just Playstation virtual sport!) OK, so back to the point….
In our meteorology class one of the nmemonics that Mr Green taught us was the 5 W’s – the warm, wet, westerly winds in winter. Obviously, for the UK at least, our winters were always moderated by these warm westerly winds (or the ‘North Atlantic drift’ as I think they are also known).
In a similar way the climate of Galicia is also influenced enormously by the Atlantic Ocean, and inevitably we share many of the very same weather systems that skim across the Bay of Biscay en route to the UK.
A Galician winter would normally generate at least some frost, albeit always at night and rarely surviving more than a couple of hours of winter sun. This year however, there has hardly been any frost at all, as night time temperatures have rarely dropped below 5 or 6°C (41°F). Days have also been mild, and mostly wet, with average temperatures of around 12-14°C (55°F). Of course we welcome the additional rain after two or three very dry winters, but a little frost is also very useful, helping to kill off some of the more unwelcome insects, and giving the vines a welcome rest bite during the winter months…..
So, is this just another sign of global warming, together with the excellent Balfour Brut (English “Champagne”) that I tasted in London last week?

A different way to chill out….

January 27th, 2007 | Uncategorized
Ahhh……. that´s better!
This week we were in London, not hunting for last minute bargains in the January sales, but attending the annual tasting of one of our biggest importers.
Anyone who has ever attended this type of tasting (or indeed any exhibition that requires you to stand in one place for hours on end) will know exactly how tough this can be. Sore feet, stiff legs, aching back – you get the idea…. And, as the day drags on, different ideas for pain relief start to infiltrate your head – the dream of soaking in a hot bath, or perhaps a full body massage for example.
Well, for at least one of our colleagues at the tasting he simply couldn´t wait to fulfill his particular fantasy, and as soon as the last customer had left he whipped off his shoes and socks and simply waded into one of the ice buckets to soothe his aching feet. Perhaps just as well you can´t smell this blog!

Caught in the act – Angela sneaks a quick snack

2007 Reviews

January 22nd, 2007 | Uncategorized


So let’s start with Peñin 2007 and his comment for our Castro Martin 2005 (this is lifted verbatim from the English version of the guide).

“Bright yellow with greenish streaks. Intense nose, green fruit, traces of citrus fruit flesh and fine herbs. Fresh palate, fruity, excellent structure, spicy background, good fruit/acidity balance.”

Translating a taste into words must be one of the most difficult things ever, and everyone has (and should have) their own vocabulary for doing this – one man’s cat’s pee is possibly another man’s freshly cut grass! The reason I say this is that I am always puzzled when an expression like fine herbs is used to describe our wine – personally this idea has never entered my head, which all goes to prove that all tasting is subjective and very personal.

As a former wine buyer Mr Peñin’s words that please me the most are “excellent structure”, as for me structure is probably the single most important factor in finding a good wine – having said that good fruit/acidity balance also helps!

The cupboard is bare….

January 8th, 2007 | Uncategorized
The rush to bottle more wine!

We have to bottle more wine as a matter of urgency…….

After all this year’s Christmas orders and gift packages left the wine cellar we were left with precisely two cases of wine to sell! This is not a joke, or even an exaggeration, it is the truth.

Of course this can be construed as either excellent planning or simply ‘cutting it a bit too fine’, depending on your point of view. Suffice to say that it is the first time that we have almost ‘sold out’ over the Christmas period, albeit that not a single order was refused.

January is usually a quiet month and gives us time to gather our thoughts and start our planning for 2007 – obviously the next week or so will be occupied by bottling a couple of tanks, and this will be followed by planning our travels for the coming year (this actually starts with our first London tasting at the end of the month).

Oh, and by the way – a very Happy New Year to you all.

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