Just when you think that all the hard work, collecting grapes is done, then it all starts again inside the bodega. We have two huge programmes running simultaneously with one another…. The first is a deep clean, and when I say deep clean, it really has to be deep! Grape juice must be one of the stickiest substances on the planet (perhaps it could give Gorilla Glue a run for it’s money!) To be honest it’s not really ‘super’ sticky but it’s special property is that it simply transfers everywhere – there are few places that escape, so much so that a full change of clothes and shoes is really essential at the end of each working day. So now the task in hand is that we have to unstick everything, by far the most difficult chore being the presses – the epicentre of juice production.

The second, and most important project is getting the fermentation under way. I did post a quick photo a day or two ago, taken as we started to re-hydrate the yeast, but once this is done then it has to be carefully and slowly added to each tank, one-by-one. The process of seeding a single large tank (see photo) can take up to 4 or 5 hours – the smaller tanks are a bit quicker, taking about 3 hours. Of course this time includes the pumping-over after the yeast is added. Pumping over is simply a mixing process, when we connect the top of the tank to the bottom using hoses, and then circulate the juice and yeast mixture in a cyclical motion for a couple of hours.

The timing of fermentation is determined by the juice, when, after cold settling, the temperature recovers to a level warm enough to support the yeast. If the juice is too cold, then the yeast will simply die of shock – the result? No fermentation!

This year the temperature dictated that we were here for the entire weekend, meaning that for the last two or three weeks, none of us have had a break! Who was it said that running a wine cellar is a romantic profession?!

So now that the last grape is safely in, and the cold settling period is concluded, we embark on the small matter of wine making. Year-on-year there is never too much variation in what we do – we might make some small adjustments according to the vintage, and perhaps trial a new product or two in one odd tank, but the majority of what we do remains largely unchanged.

There is one characteristic of the 2018 vintage that I haven’t really mentioned as yet…. alcohol. I did say that we had been surprised by the quality of the fruit, and that it was quite viscose (rescued by a dry and warm August and September), but the other side effect of heat is alcohol. My guess is that we will see the FIRST EVER Castro Martin wines of 13% Alcohol!

We had already seen a number of 13% wines appearing last year, whereas our own mean average alcohol for 2017 was somewhere between 12.5% and 13% (the label has to be within 0.5% of the actual). This year we will almost certainly break this barrier, whilst bearing in mind that many people are still picking in 32°C heat (heaven only knows what level of alcohol this fruit will yield). Could we see albariños approaching 14% in 2018?

Oh, and by the way, don’t simply dismiss today’s picture as just another ‘moon shot’ – this is actually the yeast being mixed, just before it is added to one of our tanks!

Perhaps the biggest disaster of the harvest (so far) was reserved for the penultimate night. Last night our ‘bodeguero’ (chief cellar hand) and pressing specialist fell, and slid down a flight of stairs! Fortunately he was not seriously injured, but after hospital tests, returned with his arm in a sling and restricted to a purely supervisory role.

Today will almost certainly be our final day, and another scorcher for working. The last day is always a bit frustrating as we spend hours with almost nothing to do (in the grape reception) and then we are hit with one final rush at the end of the day. After several hard days so far, it hardly seems fair on our fantastic cellar team, but unfortunately, that’s the way the cookie crumbles….

To keep the team occupied during these final hours of waiting, we deliberately leave one small corner of our ‘bodega’ vineyard unpicked, and so in these periods of calm they can take a bit of fresh air and enjoy the view! (see today’s photo of our small but happy team).

Tomorrow we may turn to the wine making, embarking on step two of the 2018 campaign.

Yet another beautifully sunny morning (which should now be the pattern until the end of the coming week). With temperatures now touching 30°C (86°F), it makes for very hot work – but better this than rain!

Unfortunately another minor incident occurred during the night when the very last pressing of the day suddenly stopped. However, with a 24 hour call-out service during harvest time, a technician quickly rectified the problem, and the last press of the day was completed (about 4am).

It transpires that Sunday turned out to be a completely manic day, and by late afternoon a short queue of vehicles had accumulated waiting to discharge their grapes. The heat was clearly taking it’s toll on everyone as the torrent of grapes continued throughout the evening without remission. By the end of the day we had by far exceeded our daily target, bringing the end of our 2018 harvest almost within touching distance. Perhaps one day more?

Meanwhile, downstairs in our lab, every single delivery of grapes was being analysed from the obligatory sample taken upon arrival. The results were better than we could have hoped (certainly after such poor spring weather). Of course the yield of juice per kilo was slightly less than normal, but it was the viscosity and balance of the juice that surprised us a little.

We arrived to work on Saturday morning under a beautiful clear blue sky, and according to the forecast – this should now continue well into next week and the end of the harvest (probably Tuesday).

In terms of kilos picked we are already more or less at the half way point, and apart from my big transport error on the first day, it has been comparatively smooth sailing. Of course there are always minor issues, the latest being the new, dynamic case washing machine being delivered without one of it’s main filters! Very annoying and inconvenient, but at least not terminal to the operation.

Indeed, the story of our latest addition made me laugh. Whilst we were getting excited about this modest new piece of kit, our neighbours down the road (at one of the regions Co-operatives), were just inaugurating their brand new 300,000 Euro grape reception! In a different league altogether… whilst we remain small, humble, but very beautiful.

Meanwhile back in the real world, grapes flowed in very nicely, and with our well-drilled team they were swept through the cellar in a very efficient and timely manner. (A backlog is the last thing that we require on a Saturday which is, as always, by far the busiest day of the week).

The view in today’s photo shows smoke – not heat haze, sea mist or cloud, but smoke. A fire somewhere in a forest nearby filled the afternoon air, but fortunately it would seem that it was quickly extinguished.

Last night we spent a long time deliberating about the weather – some website said 75% chance of rain, and some said 20% – so who to believe? In the end we used our old saying, ‘open the curtains in the morning and take a look’! There was no rain, and indeed the sun was just about poking through.

As the picking continued unabated in our vineyards, so we embarked upon our work inside the wine cellar. After a period of ‘cold-settling’ we racked the grape must (juice) into clean tanks. This year the cold settling (when all the pips, stalks, soil etc. ‘settle’ to the bottom of the tank), is especially significant. As there has been little or no rainfall for the last couple of months the vineyards are obviously very dry, and one of the consequences is dust! When the grapes enter the bodega they are, inevitably, covered in a very fine, invisible layer of dust that unfortunately ends up in the presses. As a result, the juice is a dark green/grey colour with a slightly brown hue. The average consumer would certainly be shocked by this and would probably wonder how on earth this dark, opaque juice could eventually end up being a bright, clear white wine. That is really the function of the cold settling…. after a period of 48 hours we end up with a limpid, clean grape juice.

Today’s photo shows the special glass link that we connect to the tank to monitor the clarity of the juice as we transfer it. In Spanish this is known as a ‘mirilla’ – almost like a looking glass, but without Alice!

After a slightly fraught, late night yesterday, the new morning didn’t start so well. One of our famous Ocean mists had rolled in from the Atlantic leaving the whole area shrouded in a cold, damp cloud. We knew however, that the sun would eventually burn through, and by mid-morning it had done exactly that – picking was not delayed.

Today’s minor trauma was a puncture! The trailer on one of our tractors burst a tyre, but quite fortunately, just as it was arriving at the bodega and not in the middle of it’s journey. Of course we had the equipment on hand to make a relatively speedy repair, and so I guess it was hardly worth mentioning!

In the meantime the grapes continue to arrive, today in a steady flow, rather than yesterday’s late rush. Apart from yield that I mentioned yesterday, there is another attribute that we have noticed in this year’s fruit. There appears to be more variation in bunch sizes (related to individual vineyard sites), than in previous years, which is why we always pick plot-by-plot in a strict order. Obviously this variation is down purely to our Spring weather – cool, damp and hardly ideal for the flowering period. On a more positive note, the warm, dry conditions during August and September have probably yielded better quality than we had anticipated.

By the way, as I mentioned in my previous (special) post, the new case washing machine has had an amazing impact on our grape reception – cases can now be washed the moment that they are emptied into the presses. No more stacks of dirty cases, and no more hosepipes!

This is a special post simply to explain a significant delivery that arrived late last night. A few days ago I wrote about a window that we had made in the wall of our grape reception to accommodate a new piece of kit – well, the ‘kit’ finally arrived late last night (at 11pm, and much, much later than promised!). It is a new machine for washing the plastic cases that we use for picking, before we re-cycle them and send them out to be re-used.

Until now this was a job done by hand, with a hosepipe – it was slow and very labour intensive, especially when you consider that we have up t o 2,000 cases in circulation during harvest (and each one will be re-used several times).

When the machine arrived we were still busy, but we did not hesitate to connect it straight away, and press it into service. At that point there was still quite a backlog of cases to be washed, but within 20 minutes half of the mountain had disappeared, using two guys and leaving our cases almost spotlessly clean.

I am absolutely convinced that this will be a great investment, and will significantly streamline our operation. By next week we will probably be asking “why didn’t we buy this years ago?”

Well, after a spring and summer of variable and sometimes unexpected weather the 2018 harvest is finally upon us. Despite all these fluctuations the start date is pretty much as we anticipated – we had always predicted around the third week of September, and here we are, 19th September…

The great news is that the weather is being kind to us, in the morning there was a slight autumnal chill in the air, but with a clear blue sky. As the day progressed the temperature both inside and outside the bodega started to rise, and by midday the first grapes were already in the cellar. The familiar droning noise of the presses (that will continue unabated for the next 7 days or so), started to fill the air.

Unfortunately, owing to a slight (transport) miscalculation on my part the grapes did not arrive as quickly as we would have hoped, indeed the last grapes to arrive were rather late….. mea culpa! The good news is that they were all quite healthy, the only difference being that we have noticed that they are not yielding quite as much juice as we would normally expect when we press them – more on that as the days progress.

(Today’s video showing the first delivery of 2018 grapes is probably the shortest ever made – I really must learn how to control my new mobile phone!)

With the 2018 harvest only a few days away, as happens every year, our attention turns to the weather. At this time I seem to spend a lot of my spare time browsing weather websites – sad, but true. As I have said many, many times before, it then just becomes a question of deciding which forecast/website to believe. Being so close to the Ocean there is nearly always some degree of variation, and there is a great temptation to select only the sites showing the most favourable conditions. Unfortunately history has shown that this does not work, and generally speaking it’s best to keep an open mind – almost to expect the unexpected. Even when every site is showing wall-to-wall sunshine it is still advisable to check at least once or twice a day, as they can sometimes change on almost an hourly basis. It’s often a tough call knowing what to do, especially when the information is slightly contradictory.

For the last few days Angela has been busy analysing grape samples from different locations, and despite the relatively good weather in August, and so far this month, there is still some variation in ripeness, and we will have to pick in a strictly controlled order – plot by plot (weather permitting, of course!).