Well, last weekend we celebrated the annual Albariño Festival here in Galicia, or in Cambados to be more precise. The programme of events included one of my very favourite tastings of the year, when it is possible to taste more than 150 wines (mostly albariño) under one roof. It is known as the Tunnel of Wine, and has grown in popularity over the last 12 years, since the idea was originally conceived. Entry is now controlled to a maximum number of tasters during each session, but for me the solution is, and always has been, to arrive early and start at 11am prompt when the doors open. In this way I can normally taste in relative peace and quite for the first hour or so, and by that time I usually completed a few tables and so am well away from the entrance door.

I think that I have always said, since my very first taste of the tanks, that I consider the 2022 vintage to be pretty good, and this was indeed reflected in my notes. Overall the standard of 2022 wines is quite a bit higher than 2021 (which, after all, had proved to be quite a difficult vintage), and I believe that there were quite a few potential stars in the making – including our own Castro Martin wines, of course!

As more and more consumers are coming to realise, albariño wines from the Rias Baixas denomination can, and do improve with age, albeit some much better than others (it really depends on the producer and the style of wine they make). I fully believe however, that our own Family Estate wine could evolve into something really exceptional over the next year or two. Only time will tell.

Back in April the process for selecting Galicia’s best wines was launched by the Xunta de Galicia. Wineries from every Denomination Ribeiro, Valdeorras, Rías Baixas, Monterrei and Ribeira Sacra, were invited to submit their wines, as well as the ‘Viños da Terra’ from other Galician communities. There were special categories for small, boutique wineries, oak-aged wines, sparkling wines, ecological wines and even ‘toasted’ wines (although I have to admit that I am not entirely clear as to what that last category actually represents, I usually associate this with oak-aged).

A blind tasting of the 405 entries was held in Santiago de Compostela last week, judged by a panel of some 20 experts, including our very own winemaker, Angela. As a member of the official tasting panel of the D.O. Rias Baixas Angela was invited to adjudicate at the event, over a period of 4 days. Naturally each session was divided into regions and categories, and each session comprised of between 20 and 30 samples.

Tastings like this might sound like a fairly glamorous experience, but I can tell you, from my previous life as a buyer, intense tastings like this is actually very demanding, both physically and mentally. To do the job well, and professionally, requires total concentration from the very first wine, to the very last – every wine must be given a fair and equal opportunity, even if your palate starts to feel a little jaded.

Every tank of wine that we sell is tasted by a panel of local experts at our D.O. offices, before the official Rias Baixas ‘tirilla’ (small strip label) can be issued to endorse the quality of our wine.

Naturally, they use the tried and tested criteria for judging – sight, smell, taste etc. However, these days, in a move towards more natural, biological and biodynamic wines, it could be that one or two of these measurements might have to be reconsidered.

For example, at Castro Martin, in a move towards more natural wine making, some of the processes that we used in the past, have now been shelved. In the case of some of our wines, the process of cold-stabilisation and filtration have been discontinued. Even these simple changes can make a significant difference to the finished bottle. Every time that a wine is moved and undergoes these ‘technical’ processes, a small part of the character of a wine is removed (not to mention the risk of oxidation as a wine changes tanks). Of course, there are downsides. A wine that is not cold stabilised can produce tartrate crystals in the bottle, in much the same way that red wine might throw a small deposit. And whilst any deposit in a bottle might be aesthetically unattractive, in the case of both the red and white wines, they are completely harmless.

In the same way, a wine that is not filtered, might not have quite the same level of ‘polish’ when held up to the light. However, by sacrificing a ‘squeaky clean’ appearance, the wine may well actually taste better! It’s really just about aesthetics (perhaps more than the taste).

So, as an example, when we submit a tank to our D.O. for tasting, if it is not absolutely crystal clear in the glass, then there is a chance that the sample could be rejected, even if it is much better on the palate. Maybe this could be time to rethink the rules a little?

People who drink albariño may already know that our denomination gets its name from the ‘Rias’ (River Estuaries) of Galicia. The Rias Altas (Upper Estuaries) in the North, between La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, and the Rias Baixas (Lower Estuaries), between Santiago and the Portuguese border in the south.

Within the denomination there are five sub-zones and Castro Martin can be found in the Salnés Valley. Salnés is often described as the heart, the birthplace, or the cradle of albariño. It’s true to say that the wine region evolved with Salnés at it’s very core and even today our zone still accounts for more than 65% of all albariño production in the demonination.

Salnés itself is bordered in the south by the Ría of Pontevedra, and in the north by the Ría de Arousa. Naturally, you would be forgiven for asking, “so what about the Salnés river?”. If Castro Martin is located in the Salnés Valley, then surely there should be a river of that name? But no…. the name is actually a ‘comarca’, which is simply a group of municipalities lying within the province of Pontevedra. Pontevedra itself being one of the provinces that makes up the autonomy of Galicia. To make this even more complicated our own village of Barrantes is in the municipality of Ribadumia (which is in the province of Pontevedra, in the autonomy of Galicia… in Spain!) Simple!

I am happy to say that Ribadumia actually does get it’s name from a small river – the River Umia, which runs through the valley of Salnés, and flows into the Ría de Arousa near the town of Cambados. Geography lesson now over, I leave you with a beautiful picture of the Umia.

A few weeks ago we were perhaps beginning to believe that the worst of the pandemic was behind us. Of course, we were wrong as parts of Galicia are once again facing varying degrees of lockdown. One of the affected areas is the city of Pontevedra where the headquarters of our Denomination is based.

This week we joined one of the first virtual Denomination meetings (via Zoom) to review the export business of our region and to discuss the marketing plans for 2021. Of course, the possibility of staging many of the planned events will still, almost entirely, be determined by virus. For example, the vast majority of events, and nearly all of the biggest wine exhibitions were cancelled this year. It goes without saying that tasting and selecting wine is really something that has to be done in person, and simply does not work in a virtual world!

Of course, contracting Covid could be devastating for a wine buyer (with the loss of smell and taste), and so until the technology exists to replace them, we must still rely on these senses.

Every tank of wine that we sell has to be tasted, and hopefully approved, by the official Rias Baixas tasting panel, before it can receive the official D.O. sticker allowing it to go on public sale. Before a tank can be bottled a number of samples are collected by the D.O. and taken to the Pontevedra office for tasting. The samples are also analysed and compared with our own analysis that we are obliged to send with the bottles. After everything is completed, we finally receive the stickers – known here as ‘tirillas’. This whole process can take a week or more.

Once a year these official tastings are suspended for a period of about six weeks. The reason?… Harvest time! (When the  members of the D.O. team are simply too busy to organise tastings). Of course, sales and shipments don’t stop during the harvest period, and so if a bodega experiences an unexpected surge in sales and hasn’t pre-prepared enough stock, then it’s just too bad, they simply have to wait for tastings to re-start!

In our own cellar the fermentations are almost at an end, and so we now have to re-focus our efforts into getting some wine out onto the streets! Thankfully, we do have a slight backlog of orders (even during a crisis), and so this week we have been busy restocking our warehouse in time for the holiday orders to be fulfilled.

Every year, as part of the Annual albariño festival, there is a ‘Tunnel of Wine’ tasting. There are usually between 150 and 200 wine to taste, the majority being albariño and mostly from the current vintage – this year the 2018’s. In addition there are a number of blended wines (many that include albariño in the mix), a table of red Rias Baixas wines, a table of sparkling wines, and three tables of older vintages (often presented as the ‘prestige’, limited edition wines).

If you refer to my recent notes about the 2018 vintage, you may have read that I consider 2018 to be a-typical, and this theory was largely supported by the tasting. For example, there were very few albariños in the room with less than 13% alcohol, some with 13.5% and even one or two with 14%. In circumstances such as this then it is really down to the winemaker, and how they are able to ‘handle’ the alcohol and ensure that it is well-integrated into the finished wine. For example, there can be nothing worse than an albariño with alcoholic ‘afterburn’ (a slight burning sensation in the throat), in a wine that is normally considered to be light, clean and refreshing.

Of course, many of the top bodegas have still made very good wines (albeit there were also one or two slight disappointments). On the other hand, there were also a few wines that provided a pleasant surprise too – always an opportunity to discover something new or perhaps a label that you didn’t really know before.

Having said that, the best wine in the entire tasting was a 2015 wine on the prestige table. Although I must also say, trying to be completely objective for a moment, that our very own 2018 Castro Martin fared rather well too – certainly in my own top 10!

The first weekend of August signals the start of the annual Albariño Festival in Cambados. There are pretty much two completely different ways to approach the weekend’s celebrations. For the majority it is simply a case of visiting the numerous stands set up in the town centre, each representing a specific wine cellar, where you can buy a chilled glass of albariño to drink at your leisure. There is a lunch session, which is quite quiet and civilised, and an evening session with can be really, really busy and very boisterous – this ‘evening’ session will usually extend long into the night. Personally, this is not the option that I take.

The second way to enjoy the festival is the ‘tunnel of wine’ – approximately 160 wines from more than 60 bodegas, set up as a huge tasting, and much more suited to wine professionals and also visitors that want to see a real cross section of the wines from our denomination. This is probably my favourite tasting of the year. Each wine is accompanied by it’s own technical sheet, so it is easy to focus, and taste in a quiet and calm environment. With 160 samples on offer, I taste everything, but over a two day period – even a hardened professional really couldn’t do it all in one hit!

Behind the scenes in certain Galician offices there have been some, more or less, secret discussions. Apparently, for the last couple of years, our denomination have been discussing the idea of renaming our very own wine region – Rias Baixas. Their concern has been that many consumers outside Spain are a bit intimidated by the name, especially when it comes to the pronunciation. Of course, the word Albariño is comparatively simple for most people to wrap their tongue around, but when it come to our ‘lower estuaries’, then it becomes more of a problem.

Their solution, apparently, is a slight revamping, which at first glace, I have to admit, looks a bit odd. The reason is that the new name is pretty much what you might describe as being ‘Spanglish’ – half Spanish and half English (but rolls much more easily off the tongue). In the near future an official announcement will be made, no doubt involving huge wine press coverage and some fanfare.

I do not have the official date, but I can tell you (even though I’m not exactly sure that I’m supposed to), that very soon we will know as the ‘Low Rias’ wine region – complete with brand new logo.

It takes a bit of getting used to, but in the long term, if it makes it easier for the consumer, then it does make some sense.