Castro Martin already proudly sells wine to cruise ships, including the famous Cunard ‘Queens’, and the new P&O flagship Britannia. In addition to this our wines are now sailing on board a completely unique type of ‘cruise’ ship – The World – a Residence at Sea.

To explain this format in simple terms ‘The World’, at 644ft, is the largest private residential ship on the planet, providing floating luxury accommodation for those who can afford it (and want it). Guests, or should I say residents, of this huge floating home simply spend their whole time sailing around the world, again, and again, and again! The accommodation for each resident is not so much a cabin, but is actually a self contained apartment , with pretty much all the amenities of home – except perhaps the underground parking.

As you might imagine, the ship is loaded from top to bottom with different forms of entertainment – fitness, yoga, swimming, diving, kayaks, golf (the water hazards are quite impressive), and even a full-sized tennis court. Apart from numerous bars and restaurants it also caters for a wide multitude of hobbies (including wine tasting), boasts a cinema and theatre, and also has it’s own library. I am sure that this lifestyle will appeal to some, if not many, enjoying a different view from your window every day, but I’m afraid to admit that it certainly wouldn’t work for me.

On the plus side they do stock a great albariño!

Not only do our wines appear on various cruise ships around the Mediterranean, but now they are also available on dry land, in the middle of the Med on the island of Malta. Historically one of Europe’s most strategic islands, located between Sicily and the North African coast. Over the centuries it has fallen under the rule of many a different regime and/or country including the Romans, Phoenecians. Moors, Spanish, French and the British, before finally achieving independence in 1964.

Our new customer – the Farsons Group, is not only a wine import company, but also owns a large brewery, manages some very well-known food franchises, and is an important food importer and distributor on the island. We are naturally quite delighted that such an important business has decided to represent our wines.

Of course , with it’s warm Mediterranean climate Malta is the perfect place to enjoy a chilled glass of albariño this summer (or any summer for that matter)!

This morning I had three separate chores to do in the centre of Pontevedra – visiting three separate businesses. The problem was that I had no idea what time they opened, and so I made a quick search on Google. The result was not really what I wanted. One opened at 8am, the second at 9am, and the last one at 9.30am. Clearly I didn’t want to hang around in town waiting for the third business to open, so the only option was to wait at home until just before 9.30. This was really frustrating and I just felt like I was wasting my morning….

It occurred to me that the situation is actually much worse than this, if you examine Spanish business hours in general. Businesses can open at more or less any hour between 8am and 10/10.30am in the morning, and then close again for lunch at any time between 1.30pm and 2.30pm. And guess what? This very same scenario is repeated again in the evening! Shops and offices re-open between 3.30pm and 5.30pm, and then close again at any time up until about 10pm. I have to say that this system doesn’t strike me as being particularly efficient (or convenient). For example, unless you know the opening and closing times of every business that you want to contact or visit, then it can be quite complicated. (Without mentioning the fact that the very same businesses can, and do, vary their hours between winter and summer!)

Weekends are another story…. Many shops still close for the weekend at lunch time on Saturday, which would appear to be a bit of an archaic practice – especially in times of recession when you really need to maximise your income. Shops are closed on Sundays here in the provinces (but much less so in the big cities these days). Here in the ‘sticks’ shops are allowed to open for a limited (and controlled) number of Sundays throughout the year, normally around Christmas or ‘Sale’ periods.

At Castro Martin we only make one small adjustment to our timetable during the year, between winter and summer. In winter we start an hour later at 9am, but this is simply because of daylight hours. On winter mornings our guys cannot prune vines in the dark, hence the fact that we start a little later.

You may have notice that there have been no posts on our sites for the last week or so, and that’s quite simply because we have been travelling. Now, the hotel where we stayed in London claimed to have free internet – and it did – provided that you didn’t mind waiting half an hour to download a simple document or e-mail…. Completely useless! That’s another story, but does explain why we have been silent.

Of all the travelling that we do and the visits that we make, by far the most productive use of our time is training. We were invited by our UK importer to hold a “Materclass” for their London sales team – an opportunity just too good to refuse. Visiting individual customers and holding small tastings is one thing, but having the opportunity to ‘educate’ a large group of sales people is something else. It’s what I call the ‘cascade effect’. By preaching our message to one small group, this can, potentially, be transmitted down to hundreds of customers at the business end of our supply chain. Of course, it goes without saying that the more knowledge that we pass on to the team, then hopefully, the more confident they will be in going out to push our wines. The long and short of it is that we love doing these presentations, and above all else, our goal is that we will be creating new ambassadors for Castro Martin and our brands.

I think our presentation was well received, but more importantly, our wines showed really well as we tasted our way through them. We can talk and educate until we are blue in the face, but our wines? Well, we let them speak for themselves….

After the holidays of Christmas and then Reyes, we are finally back to work – schools have returned and people are back at their desks. Refreshed and ready for the challenges of 2016, assuming that you have managed to get out of bed! The reason I say that is because if you are one of those people who likes to lay in bed and listen to the rain on your window (tucked up warm under the duvet), then it’s possible that you might be starting to develop bed sores….. The weather in Galicia since the beginning of the year has been appalling, almost to the extent of being mildly depressing. It has been raining almost non-stop throughout the day and night. Skies have been dark, grey and leaden – on some days it has remained dark well into the morning, so much so that have been sitting at home with the lights on. For anyone that has taken an extended holiday over this period (which includes our bodega) it has been a complete washout. Even going out for the traditional Spanish ‘paseo’ (an evening walk before dinner), has been almost impossible, or at the very least, quite unpleasant.

It has also been quite mild, which unfortunately, is not great for our vineyards. All vines need an extended period of cold weather simply for them to recover from the exertions of producing fruit – in other words, winter! The rain also makes the already difficult job of pruning even more unpleasant – on sodden ground, with the rain in your face (as you reach up to work on the pergolas overhead)…..

The last couple of days have been quite frantic in our bodega, as we have conducted two consecutive days of bottling. The reason for this was quite simple – we were running very low on bottled stock. Of course this is perhaps the way that it should be at this time of year, cleaning out the cellar at Christmas and then starting the new year with fresh stock. Precise planning I think it’s called…. 

Being very honest we did cut it a bit fine at the end of last year, but I am pleased to say that at least we didn’t run out of any wine, and that every order was fulfilled in a timely fashion (something that we pride ourselves on). Having said that, it’s really just as well that we did replenish our stocks so early in the New Year – the new bottlings have arrived just as a number of importers also need to replenish their own cellars after the holidays. Anyone in our business who thought that there might be a lull in our January workload has been sadly mistaken, but happily for all the right reasons. Quite naturally we have our fingers crossed that this positive start will continue throughout 2015!

The last couple of days have been quite frantic in our bodega, as we have conducted two consecutive days of bottling. The reason for this was quite simple – we were running very low on bottled stock. Of course this is perhaps the way that it should be at this time of year, cleaning out the cellar at Christmas and then starting the new year with fresh stock. Precise planning I think it’s called…. 

Being very honest we did cut it a bit fine at the end of last year, but I am pleased to say that at least we didn’t run out of any wine, and that every order was fulfilled in a timely fashion (something that we pride ourselves on). Having said that, it’s really just as well that we did replenish our stocks so early in the New Year – the new bottlings have arrived just as a number of importers also need to replenish their own cellars after the holidays. Anyone in our business who thought that there might be a lull in our January workload has been sadly mistaken, but happily for all the right reasons. Quite naturally we have our fingers crossed that this positive start will continue throughout 2015!

I’m sorry that my posts have been a bit infrequent recently, we have been doing a bit of re-modelling at home that has been occupying rather a lot of time. A poor excuse I know, but if I tell you that the project was started in June, you might understand my desire to get it finished before the holidays. I should mention that the main delay was in waiting for bathroom furniture and fittings, manufactured by Roca, a well-known Spanish company – I will say no more!

Meanwhile back at the bodega, we have been quite busy preparing gifts packs for Christmas. Like many retailers, our gift pack business just helps to gift our year end sales a bit of a boost – the proverbial icing on the (Christmas) cake. Regrettably, many of these order are all a bit last-minute, and it’s quite time consuming to repack the bottles, but we still pride ourselves in turning them around quickly. 

Out in the vineyards, the long, difficult slog of pruning continues, come rain or shine.

I’m sorry that my posts have been a bit infrequent recently, we have been doing a bit of re-modelling at home that has been occupying rather a lot of time. A poor excuse I know, but if I tell you that the project was started in June, you might understand my desire to get it finished before the holidays. I should mention that the main delay was in waiting for bathroom furniture and fittings, manufactured by Roca, a well-known Spanish company – I will say no more!

Meanwhile back at the bodega, we have been quite busy preparing gifts packs for Christmas. Like many retailers, our gift pack business just helps to gift our year end sales a bit of a boost – the proverbial icing on the (Christmas) cake. Regrettably, many of these order are all a bit last-minute, and it’s quite time consuming to repack the bottles, but we still pride ourselves in turning them around quickly. 

Out in the vineyards, the long, difficult slog of pruning continues, come rain or shine.

One of the problems of running a small, family-owned bodega is that we all have to be very flexible in the many and varied rolls that we have to cover. Angela, for example, is not only our oenologist, but she is also our vineyard specialist (with degrees in both Biology and Viticulture) and also the administrator of the business. So the question arises, if you have an appointment with your solicitor in the morning, and then need to collect samples in the vineyard during the afternoon, what do you wear for work? Angela’s solution to this dilemma was simply a change of shoes – as you can clearly see in today’s photo! Now, it’s not uncommon these days to see celebs wearing shorts or dresses accessorised with oversized boots….. but a pair of wellies?! Who knows, this could be the start of a new trend.

On a more serious note, Angela was actually out collecting grape samples to check on the progress of our crop. She was quite pleased with her early analysis, albeit we still have a little way to go before the fruit will be ripe for picking. Perhaps another 10 days or so before we kick off the 2014 harvest.

One of the problems of running a small, family-owned bodega is that we all have to be very flexible in the many and varied rolls that we have to cover. Angela, for example, is not only our oenologist, but she is also our vineyard specialist (with degrees in both Biology and Viticulture) and also the administrator of the business. So the question arises, if you have an appointment with your solicitor in the morning, and then need to collect samples in the vineyard during the afternoon, what do you wear for work? Angela’s solution to this dilemma was simply a change of shoes – as you can clearly see in today’s photo! Now, it’s not uncommon these days to see celebs wearing shorts or dresses accessorised with oversized boots….. but a pair of wellies?! Who knows, this could be the start of a new trend.

On a more serious note, Angela was actually out collecting grape samples to check on the progress of our crop. She was quite pleased with her early analysis, albeit we still have a little way to go before the fruit will be ripe for picking. Perhaps another 10 days or so before we kick off the 2014 harvest.

Last week was a busy week for visits – on Monday a small group comprised of some of the UK’s top wine journalists, followed later in the week by two days with a group from our U.S. importer (Frederick Wildman & Sons), and their distributors. Angela and I are completely worn out and have decided that we should create ‘virtual visits’ to use in future if only to save our vocal chords. Actually, that wouldn’t work at all – you really have to visit the region to discover it’s true beauty, especially when the sun shines, as it did for us this week.

Apart from the usual tastings and tour of the bodega and vineyards we took our American friends up a hill….. to the Mirador of San Cibrán – a viewing point that overlooks almost the entire Salnés Valley (where our Bodega is located). I think that the panorama is probably greater than 18o° and on a clear day is really quite breathtaking (even to those who were visiting from New York City). Quite a different skyline, but providing a great photo opportunity just the same.

Last week was a busy week for visits – on Monday a small group comprised of some of the UK’s top wine journalists, followed later in the week by two days with a group from our U.S. importer (Frederick Wildman & Sons), and their distributors. Angela and I are completely worn out and have decided that we should create ‘virtual visits’ to use in future if only to save our vocal chords. Actually, that wouldn’t work at all – you really have to visit the region to discover it’s true beauty, especially when the sun shines, as it did for us this week.

Apart from the usual tastings and tour of the bodega and vineyards we took our American friends up a hill….. to the Mirador of San Cibrán – a viewing point that overlooks almost the entire Salnés Valley (where our Bodega is located). I think that the panorama is probably greater than 18o° and on a clear day is really quite breathtaking (even to those who were visiting from New York City). Quite a different skyline, but providing a great photo opportunity just the same.

I have just read an article which has left me a bit nonplussed, about a fight between the mighty Veuve Clicquot, and a small Italian sparkling wine producer – a real David and Goliath battle. And the reason for this fight? The colour of their label! Apparently, it would appear, that Veuve Clicquot have now laid claim to wine labels using every shade of yellow! If you look at the picture you will see what I mean. Maybe I’m going colour blind, but they really don’t look the same to me…. The Veuve Clicquot label is described as a yellow-orange shade which corresponds to the colour Pantone 137C, and has been registered as a European Trade Mark. So, effectively, this has now lead to the LVMH group (owners of Veuve Cliquot) focusing their considerable wealth and resources onto this small Italian winery. Ciro Picariello, a family owned producer in Campania, makes only 3,500 bottles of this wine, and so it would appear that LVMH may have lost a bit of perspective (and perhaps their sense of decency) in this particular instance.

Having said that, I can completely empathise with the Italians, as only a few years ago Bodegas Castro Martin lost a similar battle with the mega-rich French mineral water producer Evian. We had legally registered a wine brand called Avian (relating to birds, not water), but the huge French conglomerate Danone took exception, and eventually simply out-muscled us into dropping the name. It was hardly a level playing field, so I know exactly how these poor Italians must be feeling. 

I have just read an article which has left me a bit nonplussed, about a fight between the mighty Veuve Clicquot, and a small Italian sparkling wine producer – a real David and Goliath battle. And the reason for this fight? The colour of their label! Apparently, it would appear, that Veuve Clicquot have now laid claim to wine labels using every shade of yellow! If you look at the picture you will see what I mean. Maybe I’m going colour blind, but they really don’t look the same to me…. The Veuve Clicquot label is described as a yellow-orange shade which corresponds to the colour Pantone 137C, and has been registered as a European Trade Mark. So, effectively, this has now lead to the LVMH group (owners of Veuve Cliquot) focusing their considerable wealth and resources onto this small Italian winery. Ciro Picariello, a family owned producer in Campania, makes only 3,500 bottles of this wine, and so it would appear that LVMH may have lost a bit of perspective (and perhaps their sense of decency) in this particular instance.

Having said that, I can completely empathise with the Italians, as only a few years ago Bodegas Castro Martin lost a similar battle with the mega-rich French mineral water producer Evian. We had legally registered a wine brand called Avian (relating to birds, not water), but the huge French conglomerate Danone took exception, and eventually simply out-muscled us into dropping the name. It was hardly a level playing field, so I know exactly how these poor Italians must be feeling.