Owing to this year’s exceptional circumstances we are somewhat delayed in some of our chores. One process that would normally have been completed a month or two ago is racking the tanks of our 2019 vintage (removing the clean wine from it’s ‘bed’ of fine lees where it has been quietly resting). Now that we have returned we are systematically working through the backlog.

There is nothing particularly exciting about the racking process, indeed, the majority of our time is spent simply waiting for wine to be moved from one tank to another. The only real task is to monitor the turbidity of the wine (visually) using a special glass joint that connects the tank to the hose.

Meanwhile, outside the bodega, we are slowly being baked. Pretty much since the beginning of July we have been experiencing wall-to-wall sunshine, with temperatures regularly hovering around the 30°C (86°F) mark. Of course, sunshine is much better than wet weather for our vines, as long as the extreme temperatures don’t continue for too long.

During these difficult times it can be really difficult to find something positive and upbeat to write about. The television news has become somewhat boring and repetitive, as there is clearly only one story that people want to talk about… I will not mention it by name for the sake of my own sanity!

Meanwhile, the good news is that in Spain we are now enjoying our increased levels of freedom, and together with a bit a warm sunshine, this is certainly helping to lift our spirits. Work is of course, continuing in our vineyards, and recent  periods of rain and sunshine have served to provoke some quite vigorous growth. The downside of these the warm and humid conditions is that some spraying has been necessary in order to reduce the risk of potential disease.

Finally, on a more positive note, pallets have been packed and dispatched to the U.S.A.! Of course, they will take some time to cross the Atlantic and so we can only assume that our importer feels that the re-opening of their market is imminent. We hope that this level of renewed optimism might be contagious, not only in the U.S., but also in our other export markets around the world. Having said that, for the moment at least,we all need to remain patient.

As one or two countries slowly start to emerge from this horrific pandemic, world leaders are now scratching their heads trying to figure out what the next safe step out of lockdown might be. They are all searching for the elusive road map that will lead us towards what has now become known as the “new normal” (whatever that might be). It seems that every Government is waiting to see who will make the first move, and when they do, what the result/consequence might be. Suffice to say that there is a lot of indecision and procrastination, and in many cases, where guidelines have be set out, regrettably they can still be ambiguous and are not always clear.

Of course, certain industries have been particularly hard hit, the restaurant sector being just one of them. In many markets the re-opening of restaurants is perhaps still a month or two away, and when they eventually do, there will be crippling restrictions applied as to how they can operate.

For example, the problem with a reduced-capacity opening (especially in cities with high rent areas), is that unless places are say, perhaps 80% full, then they will probably be making a loss. Therefore, if restaurants do get the green light to re-open, but with distancing in place (and Government support withdrawn), then many outlets will be forced to stay closed to avoid racking up massive losses. It’s a real conundrum…

After more than a month of complete lockdown, life in Spain is a very long way from anything that resembles normality. Although we are, technically, allowed to continue working, there is really not too much happening in the bodega – with the exception of the vineyards, where work continues as normal. With the hotel and restaurant industry at a complete standstill, not only in Spain, but around the world, there is almost no turnover of stock. I guess the fortunate part is that, in the short term, our wine will not deteriorate and will still be available to sell once the markets recover. Perhaps the only significant consequence could be that, depending on how long our sales are curtailed, that we might need to adjust the volume of wine that we make in 2020. This is more to do with tank space than anything else.

In the wine cellar itself we are constantly reminded about how quickly the lockdown took effect. Shortly before it all started we had just embarked on a programme of upgrades to our equipment and infrastructure. For example, replacing all windows in the bodega was put on hold, as was work on an upgrade to our temperature control system. In the tank cooling system were are adding digital sensors and touch screen controls (with remote access), to give us greater control and the potential to monitor temperatures from home during fermentation. (I should quickly add that we do not work from home during the harvest, but we do occasionally go home to sleep!) Suffice to say that tools were quite literally ‘downed’ as we more or less abandoned the cellar, and we can only hope that work will be resumed, and completed in time for the next harvest!

Whilst Spain is almost at the end of its second week of lock down, the news is still very grim – in the last 48 hours we have seen the death toll increase to nearly 700 per day. Obviously it is the most populous areas, such as Madrid, that have been hit the worst, and locals were very worried when, shortly prior to the lock down, hundreds of Madridlenos decided to flee the city to seek refuge out in their Galician summer homes. Apart from the obvious health risk, the infrastructure (now in winter mode), was, and is, simply not geared up for this sudden influx of visitors. Supermarkets were stripped bare (in a country where panic buying hasn’t really been an issue at all).

Our streets are completely deserted, but today they were frequented by a rather unusual type of vehicle; a farm tractor with treatment tank being used for spraying the streets – presumably with disinfectant, and not a treatment for protecting grapes! Probably just as well there were no pedestrians….

Since last weekend Spain has been on total lockdown, everything is closed and the streets are deserted. It’s actually very eerie! Supermarkets are still operating, but as you will see from today’s photo, the public are carefully observing the rules of ‘social distancing’ as shops allow only a few people at a time to enter.

As a comparatively small business, we are already beginning to feel the impact, but all we can do in these difficult circumstances, is to continue monitoring government advice and react accordingly.

In the meantime, our primary thoughts are with our customers, staff, family and friends.

I guess that our guys are quite grateful that today we have a day inside the bodega making cartons. After 4 or 5 days of warm sunshine, today is quite grey and miserable, and so we are preparing the materials required for bottling a tank of wine tomorrow.

Our albariño is always stored in tank, and only bottled as and when it is required. We follow quite a simple rule (especially relevant for white wine), that the larger the storage vessel, the longer the wine will stay fresh. So obviously, storing wine in a air-tight tank, topped up with nitrogen, will preserve its freshness better than it would by bottling the whole vintage as soon as the wine making is complete. In the same way, a magnum generally keeps better than a bottle, and a bottle better than a half bottle, but of course all this will depend on how any sized bottle is stored.

Anyway, it occurred to me, that in all the posts I have ever made, I have never really mentioned our cartons. They arrive flat-packed and therefore have to be assembled. We normally do this the day before in order that they don’t absorb too much humidity from our damp, Galician climate. I should also mention that whilst some of our cases might not be the prettiest, they are actually selected for their strength, and how well they can protect our wine in transit…. after all, it’s a long journey from our bottling hall to say, a restaurant table in Melbourne!

In Spanish, if you want to encourage someone to ‘get a move on’, one of the expressions that is used is “ponte las pilas”, which translated means ‘put the batteries’. Today at Castro Martin, we were, quite literally, putting the batteries!

We have a small, electric pallet truck that we use for stacking our stock in the bodega. Technically, I think it is known as a pedestrian operated pallet truck, simply as it is not a model that you can actually sit on. Like all re-chargeable electric vehicles, it’s battery has a limited ‘shelf-life’ which, not unlike your mobile phone, will eventually stop holding a charge (or at least charge for such a short time that it becomes almost redundant). Our pallet truck has now reached that point.

The replacement battery was sent in advance, so that it would be ready, in situ, for the technician to simply come and install. Although, as often happens, things are never quite that simple…. Firstly, we had to use a second forklift just to hmanoeuvre the super-heavy battery in and out of our small machine. Then, having taken out the old one, we lowered the new one into position, only to discover that the manufacturer had sent the wrong size (and capacity) for the model we have!

At the end of all this time and effort, we eventually ended up exactly where we started – with a battery that doesn’t hold its charge.

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!