Today is, of course, Cyber Monday, an opportunity for retailers to offer even more discounts supposedly on ‘tech’ goods, albeit the reality is that this now includes any other product or service under the sun. My two favourite reductions to date have been seen in a local car park offering discounted parking, and a hairdresser with a 2 for 1 offer (although I’m not quite sure how that would work – two haircuts on the same day, or maybe bring a friend?).

Anyway, it seems that more and more observers (including the press), are now viewing these ‘Black’ days and ‘Cyber’ days as just a cynical exploitation of consumers, and that many of the bargains on offer are simply not bargains at all. In addition to this, the larger retailers are not simply restricting it to a one day, one-off sale, but they are extending their Black days into a week or sometimes even more.

The latest development I have noticed is that a few traders are already trying to re-invent this slightly over exploited concept by changing the name. For example, last week I received discounted offers for Black Friday, Yellow Friday, Blue Friday and Green Friday!

I guess that normal business might not resume until January, after all the holidays are done for the year….

We wish all our friends and customers in the United States a very Happy Thanksgiving!

So what are we in Europe thankful for? Perhaps for Donald J. Trump for keeping us all entertained? (I was very tempted to post the photo of his latest incarnation as Rock Balboa, but decided that I should add a serious picture instead!)

Today’s picture features the latest marketing campaign from our D.O. office, claiming that the albariño of Rias Baixas “Goes with everything”…. Whilst I might not personally agree 100% with that claim, it would certainly not go too badly with your Thanksgiving turkey!

Our Christmas/Holiday orders here at Castro Martin can usually be split into more or less two main categories – palletised orders that are shipped overseas, and the domestic gift market.

Our overseas orders are already long-gone, indeed, the planning and preparation of these orders started some months ago. Of course transit times vary according to where the importer is located, but obviously they have to make sure that their stock is already in place long before the holiday rush begins. (Bear in mind that for our restaurant customers the office Christmas party season starts long before 25th December).

On the other hand our Christmas gift market here in Spain is quite another story. Whilst we are very grateful for every order that we get, we actually receive quite a number of them at the last minute. In these circumstances all we can do is to make sure that we have all the materials (and people) available to set up our mini ‘production line’ for making gift packs. Today’s photo shows a large, recent order, thankfully received in plenty of time and already with our customer.

Only a few days ago I said that points and medals were not our ‘raison d’être’ here at Castro Martin. Of course, as luck would have it, just a few days later, we win accolades for two or our wines!

Back in the summer I submitted a couple of bottles to the Wines from Spain Awards, organised by ICEX in London. These awards were quite different in that they were judging all the wines of Spain and not only albariños. Of course, the wines were categorised and tasted in organised flights, but the objective was to simply identify the best wines of Spain, regardless of whether their origin was Catalonia, La Mancha or Galicia.

In the end, there were no Gold, Silver of Bronze medals, just the top 100 Wine from Spain (judged by a few notable MW’s) Result?……

The two wines that we submitted were BOTH voted into the top 100, and we were the only Bodega in Galicia to achieve this distinction!

In recent times I have noticed that a few reputable journalists have started to question our popular, and sometimes long-held beliefs about wine. Some of the doubts being raised are, for example, the use of points to rate wines, and more recently, the development and definition of ‘natural’ wines.

As you may already know I have never been a big fan of wines being rated or categorised by points – there are just too many possible anomalies. Some fear that the worldwide influence of the points system will eventually mean that certain styles will dominate (and possibly all taste that same), and that lighter wines could lose out, simply because they are less likely to get a attract good scores. Wine shop managers sometimes dismiss ratings as overly simplistic — numbers devoid of context, such as a wine merchant’s sense and knowledge of individual customer tastes. Finally, I have to add that over the years, points and medals have occasionally (in a few proven cases) been abused in order to mislead consumers. Conclusion? That the points system just might not be as effective as we have all come to expect.

It is the lack of official regulation or certification for using the phrase “natural wine” that has now created something of an existential crisis. It’s up to winemakers and those who sell, promote and drink their wines to decide whether a bottle fits the ‘natural’ bill. In an effort to distance themselves from this watered-down, misused and sometimes abused term, some producers who truly work with minimal intervention are now turning their backs on this new movement as a whole. For consumers, that only results in further muddying of a term and ideology that’s already steeped in confusion.

In our business we already have organic, biodynamic and sustainable wine making – the first two of these can be certified, and the third simply relies on producers to use common-sense and mindful wine making practices. However, this should not mean that we abandon or ignore the advances in wine making technology that has been made over the last decades – certainly we all want wines with character, but we also want wines that are reasonably stable and will not fall-apart too quickly!

The UK Prime Minister has aged noticeably during his short term in office!

…….that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, face down in a ditch…..

Sorry! I studied Shakespeare many years ago at school, and could not resist taking this well-known soliloquy and giving my own twist at the end. If you have been following Brexit then you might just understand my ditch reference.

My point is that Brexit was scheduled for today, and in the end it simply did not happen. It all now hinges on a UK General Election, the result of which is also in the balance. To say that it is a period of uncertainty would be something of an understatement. The only thing that I can say for sure is that both Castro Martin and our UK importers are prepared (or at least as best we can be)!

A week or two ago I mentioned that our 2019 wines have finished fermenting, and so this week we have attempted our first serious tasting. It’s still very early days, but using our experience of past vintages we should be able to glean at least some idea of the overall quality of the vintage.

The first thing that I should say is that every tank is still a little saturated with CO2 (which is perfectly normal and no bad thing at this point). The wines are therefore just a bit gassy and also completely opaque. There are fine particles of yeast, bentonite etc., still ‘suspended’ in the liquid, and they will need more time to settle before the wine becomes completely limpid.

Our first sensory impressions are often those of residues of sulphur and/or yeast, but as with the opaque colour, these will dissipate over time. Our challenge at this moment is to try to ‘see through’ these minor diversions and explore the underlying wine.

The first characteristic of 2019 is the fresh, ripe, floral nose – perhaps not as full and ripe as 2018, but actually more in keeping with a typical albariño vintage. At this time there is also a noticeable saline ‘lick’ on the palate (a characteristic that I love), and more importantly the wines are well structured and balanced by a zesty, citric, green apple acidity. This green apple component is typical when the wines are very young, but this will evolve over time, more especially after our extended period of lees ageing. I always say that a good albariño can but a little ‘angular’ when it is youthful, but will always soften and that these harsh edges will round off with age.

In summary, the 2019 is actually much better than I thought it would be, in the sense that I thought it could be slightly a-typical and more like our 2018. This is not the case, and I have a feeling that we could be sitting on something very good – the only pity being that lower yields means that we have less wine that we would have liked.

There is a moment during the fermentation when the grape juice (or must) becomes wine – obviously when the degree of alcohol in the must passes a certain point. This week we have finally reached the end of our fermentation period, and so, without hesitation, we can say that we have wine. Our 2019 albariño “est arrivé”  (as they might say in Beaujolais)! Naturally, we are quite anxious to taste the new wine to see what the harvest has given us, but to be honest, this is probably the most difficult time of their entire evolution to try to pass any definitive judgement. The wine are still cloudy, extremely raw, and full of carbon dioxide (which at this point, is no bad thing, as it helps to preserve the wine and keep it fresh). It will be at least another few weeks before we have our tasting glasses poised, ready to draw any serious conclusions.

In the meantime, our renovation and repair work continues, but as the weather has now taken a turn for the worse (some periods of heavy, wintery rain), we have now moved indoors. In our stock storage cellar, we had a bit of a problem with the penetration of damp, and so, rather than just giving the area a quick lick of paint and hoping for the best, we decided to rip the cement rendering off completely and start again. In today’s photo you can see our guys hard at work doing the preparation work – we are just so lucky to have such flexible and versatile people!

Now that the wine making is all but finished (with fermentations nearing an end), we have a bit of a lull in proceedings before we are able to start pruning. Orders have been prepared and most have been sent out, meaning that we will probably replenish with some new bottlings next week, but in the meantime there is still plenty of work to be done. It is the time of year for maintenance and repairs, and a couple of days of very pleasant sunshine has provided us with the opportunity to work outside. The huge metal doors and shutters that we have on nearly all sides of the bodega require a new coat of paint. Even the limited amount of sun that we have here in Galicia eventually takes its toll on the special enamel paint that we use.

Meanwhile, inside the bodega, with some fermentations almost complete, a slightly clearer picture is starting to emerge of how the final wine might actually unfold. Certainly, the alcohol will be somewhere between 12.5% and 13.0% (maybe a touch less than our 2018’s). The other factor that differentiates the two vintages is that the acidity in 2019 is just a bit more prominent, meaning that the style of the finished wine might be slightly nearer to that of a typical albariño.

Allow me to repeat yet again. Please don’t misunderstand me, our 2018 is really a very good wine – certainly a bit riper and fuller in style than usual, but still a very good wine that will not disappoint in any way. If anything our 2019 might be even better, ripe, fruity, attractive but whilst also retaining it’s usual fresh acidity. Only time will tell whether I am right or I am wrong, but then that’s the great thing about wine…. every vintage leaves it’s own signature, and proves that wine is a unique product that has it’s very own character and style!

The minute that the last press is emptied, and the last drop of juice is safely delivered to our tanks, the cleaning can begin. And this is a pretty big job because, as I have mentioned many times before, grape juice is very, very sticky!

Every piece of equipment that has been used has to be dismantled, the most difficult of all being our presses. Floors, walls, hoses, tanks (obviously only those that are now empty!) – everything item has to be washed and scrubbed until it is spotless. Today’s photo shows our case washing machine, which whilst never comes into direct contact with the wine or must, is still stripped to its bare skeleton to be cleaned.

Meanwhile, in the cellar, the wine making continues, carefully monitoring the progress of the fermentation, perhaps adjusting the temperature of a tank by a degree or two, to control how quickly it is advancing – nurturing and encouraging each tank like a small child!

At the same time we cannot afford to forget that we also have customer orders to prepare – as I said to someone only today, our job at the moment is like a juggling act – trying to keep everything up-in-the-air and moving along.