Archive for ‘Fiestas’

Christmas wine

December 27th, 2016 | Fiestas

BatardFor the last few years I have always cooked something slightly less traditional for Christmas lunch – often a nice piece of roast beef, which is not a very common dish here in Spain. In a butcher’s shop for example, a piece of beef for roasting is often simply described as ‘rosbif’, and that is how you would order it. There would be no mention of the cut that you might require – rib, sirloin, rump etc., simply rosbif.

This year, as a nod to the British tradition, I decided to cook Turkey, albeit that I did cheat a little – my bird was pre-stuffed with chestnut and macadamia nuts (to be honest, I was quite surprised to find this option). Preceded by seafood and a bit of smoked salmon, the turkey actually turned out quite well, even if I say so myself!

OK, so what about wine? Quite naturally we would usually promote our albariño with turkey, but I’m afraid to say that special occasions sometimes require something a bit different. I recently found a very good sparkling albariño (the first that I have really enjoyed), but I will write more about that in the New Year. Meanwhile, a dusty corner of my cellar turned up a very old bottle white Burgundy, very much in danger of being well past its best. Bâtard-Montrachet, Domaine Paul Pernot 1990 – given to me by the man himself many years ago.

After a bit of surgery with the cork (finally removed completely intact), the wine, as one might imagine, was a deep yellow/gold…. but not one bit oxidised I’m happy to say. The nose was full and fat, dominated by a slightly caramelised, toasted oak and honey. On the palate one of the most surprising factors was that despite all the rich, full, honeyed fruit flavours, there was still an underlying touch of minerality. It supported my turkey ‘gravy’ very well, and I thought was especially good with the smoked salmon.

Christmas Greetings from Castro Martin

December 21st, 2016 | Fiestas

Christmas 2016 LightsFirstly, and most importantly, we simply want to thank all our friends and customers most sincerely for their continued support during 2016. This is without doubt, the very best gift that we receive each year.

In many ways 2016 was a quite an uneventful year, albeit that we continue to increase our business on the high seas, this year adding Royal Caribbean to our growing list of cruise ship customers. I have to say that cruising is not really my thing, but should add that if we are ever invited to organise any on-board tutored tastings, then I will be the first to pack my bag!

The summer of 2016 (as you may already know), was hot and very dry. The resulting harvest was slightly smaller than usual, but with very concentrated grape must, slightly lower acidity and a touch more alcohol than usual. All the normal traits of a hot vintage. However, the wines are very ripe, fruity and attractive, and I have no doubt that they will be well received at their launch during 2017.

Finally, we simply send you our thanks and our very best wishes for a happy, healthy, peaceful holiday season and prosperous New Year.

Andrew, Angela and the team at Castro Martin

Holiday Season

December 6th, 2016 | Bodega

HolidaysWhen it comes to holidays, both national and local,then Spain must enjoy one of the most generous allocations in the world. There are nearly a dozen National holidays each year, interspersed with a handful of local holidays, some regional, and others allocated at town or village level. In the context of organising our business, it’s sometimes difficult to know who’s working and who’s not…

December and January have quite a number of festivos, starting today, 6th December, with día de la Constitución, honouring the constitution of the country. On Thursday 8th December we have the Inmaculada Concepción – one of the most important Marian feast days in the calendar of the Catholic Church.

This year these two holidays fall on the most difficult days possible – Tuesdays and Thursday, meaning that, in theory at least, businesses would only be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Bridge days (joining holidays together, or tagging them onto a weekend) are very common, but on this occasion where would you add an extra bridge day – unless you decide to close for the whole week? However, it’s a busy time of year to even contemplate this.

At Castro Martin we will close on Wednesday, meaning that we have a two day working week, on Monday and Friday only. Sounds good, but to be honest, it’s really just a bit untimely.

A time for giving

November 29th, 2016 | Bodega

Gift packsNo sooner have we got our International shipping orders loaded and on the road, than we start with the slightly more modest (but equally as important), gift orders for the holiday season. As you might expect much of our ‘gift’ business is in the local Galician market, as local businesses send tokens of their appreciation to customers at the end of the year.

To be very honest making three bottle gift packs (see today’s photo) can be a bit fiddly and time consuming. Over the years we have tried many different types of ‘estuches’ (as they are known in Spanish), but not based purely on how good they look or how much they cost. We also have to take into consideration how complicated, and therefore, how much time it will take to assemble each empty case. Quite frankly some of them can be like a work of origami, and subsequently have to be avoided. We always have to take into account the simple equation: Time=Money!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24th, 2016 | Fiestas

Happy Thanksgiving…. to all our American friends around the world!
I believe that one of the traditions of Thanksgiving is to tell friends and family what you have been thankful for during the preceding year. Well, I can only say that I would be thankful that I wasn’t trying to get home on 405 freeway in California yesterday.

Apparently, locals say that this freeway is known as the 405 because they say that the average journey time can often be 4 or 5 hours!

Christmas is upon us!

November 7th, 2016 | Bodega

Christmas rushNow that both the harvest and wine making are pretty much behind us, the next significant event is almost upon us – the Christmas holiday season (am I still allowed to call it Christmas?). Anyway, whichever name you decide to use, the holiday season (including Thanksgiving), is always a busy time for us.

For the last week or two we have been busy preparing orders for shipment – many to Europe, but others for more distant shores. Part of our pre-harvest preparation is to fill the cellar with ‘floor stock’, labelled and ready to go, but much of this has already been sold, and so for the next few weeks our mission will be bottling more tanks of 2015 wine to replenish our depleted warehouse. (We bottle our wine throughout the year, as required, to keep the wine as fresh as possible – it keeps better in tank).

Halloween

October 31st, 2016 | Fiestas

[:en]Tim Hanni MWWhether you call it Halloween, All Hallows Eve or Samhain, I think it would be fair to say that the origin of Halloween has always been slightly unclear, and is probably celebrated by different people for different reasons. Celebrated by Pagans, Christians the Celts and/or the Gaels, one of the few common connections appears to be the date – on the eve of All Saints Day (or All Hallows Day).

Perhaps some of the modern traditions (or some might say the ‘Americanisation’ of Halloween), are an amalgamation of various elements derived from the different ancient traditions – dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating or even carving pumpkins can all be explained in some way (the latter probably evolving from the Gaelic tradition of carving turnips to ward off evil spirits).

In America the name Jack O’Lantern came from the folkloric story of Stingy Jack, and was probably developed by the influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century who, not being able to find turnips to carve, used the more readily available pumpkin into which to carved their scary faces.

This brings me on quite conveniently to an old friend of mine, Tim Hanni MW (now a Professor at the Nappa Valley Wine Academy). I know Tim from my previous life as a buyer when he worked for Beringer, pretty much as their food and wine ambassador. I have to say that it was Tim who single-handedly opened my eyes to the concept of food and wine pairing with a series of tastings that he called quite simply, ‘Cause and Effect’. Truly amazing stuff for which I will always be indebted to Tim as my single greatest influence on this very tricky and highly subjective matter.

Tim is also a writer and has written a no-nonsense book called ‘Why you like the wines you like – changing the way the world thinks about wine’. I have had a copy of this book for some years, and it is a very entertaining read, that could maybe help clarify your own ideas about wine, and why you like it. (Available on Amazon) Tim shares many of my own views about wine and is often referred to as “The Wine Anti-Snob”!

However, Tim has recently laid down his pen and picked up his carving tool to create his very own Jack O’Lantern, which, for some inexplicable reason, he has referred to as his ‘Trumpkin’!!![:es]Tim Hanni MWWhether you call it Halloween, All Hallows Eve or Samhain, I think it would be fair to say that the origin of Halloween has always been slightly unclear, and is probably celebrated by different people for different reasons. Celebrated by Pagans, Christians the Celts and/or the Gaels, one of the only common connections appears to be the date – on the eve of All Saints Day (or All Hallows Day).

Perhaps some of the modern traditions (or some might say the ‘Americanisation’ of Halloween), are an amalgamation of various elements derived from the different ancient traditions – dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating or even carving pumpkins can all be explained in some way (the latter probably evolving from the Gaelic tradition of carving turnips to ward off evil spirits).

In America the name Jack O’Lantern came from the folkloric story of Stingy Jack, and was probably developed by the influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century who, not being able to find turnips to carve, used the more readily available pumpkin into which to carved their scary faces.

This brings me on quite conveniently to an old friend of mine, Tim Hanni MW (now a Professor at the Nappa Valley Wine Academy). I know Tim from my previous life as a buyer when he worked for Beringer, pretty much as their food and wine ambassador. I have to say that it was Tim who single-handedly opened my eyes to the concept of food and wine pairing with a series of tastings that he called quite simply, ‘Cause and Effect’. Truly amazing stuff for which I will always be indebted to Tim as my single greatest influence on this very tricky and highly subjective matter.

Tim is also a writer and has written a no-nonsense book called ‘Why you like the wines you like – changing the way the world thinks about wine’. I have had a copy of this book for some years, and it is a very entertaining read, that could maybe help clarify your own ideas about wine, and why you like it. (Available on Amazon) Tim shares many of my own views about wine and is often referred to as “The Wine Anti-Snob”!

However, Tim has recently laid down his pen and picked up his carving tool to create his very own Jack O’Lantern, which, for some inexplicable reason, he has referred to as his ‘Trumpkin’!!![:]

World’s most ridiculous fireworks!

September 5th, 2016 | Fiestas

Well, our local beach resort of Sanxenxo really excelled themselves last night. On the last night of a week long fiesta they celebrated with the usual 20 minute firework display. In fairness, I’ve always thought that there are better ways for local councils to spend their money (as every small town and village lays on their own individual display over the summer months),but last night, well, what can I say?

At 10pm I went out for a walk, or rather a “reccy” to look for a good location to set up my camera and tripod. I thought that this year I would try to shoot my photos at a low angle across the water, and take full advantage of any reflections. I found the perfect spot, only about 5 minutes from our front door, and so I planned to return about 15/20 minutes before the midnight kick-off.

At 11.40 I looked out of the window…. shock, horror! The whole town was shrouded in a thick, damp sea mist – and when I say thick, I mean about maybe 20 or 30 metres visibility. Surely they had to postpone?….. Wrong! Watch my brief video and witness how thousands of Euros worth of fireworks went up in smoke, or should I say, went up in mist. This must be the most stupid, incompetent things I have ever witnessed, but I’m sure you will agree, at least it did sound impressive!

Fiesta time!

August 5th, 2016 | Fiestas

Tunnel 2016It’s already that time of year again, as we celebrate the LXIV (64th I think) Annual Albariño Festival in our local town of Cambados. If you have read my posts over recent years you will probably know that I am not a great fan of the Festival itself, most especially in the evenings, when it tends to get a little boisterous (and that is being VERY polite). Great if your in your 20’s and want to test your drinking capacity, but certainly not what you would describe as a tasting. It’s just a party, or as some might prefer, celebration.

If you’re a serious professional and want to actually taste (or even just a consumer interested in knowing more and comparing wines), then the place for you is the Tunnel of Wine. Not so much a tunnel, but actually just tables laid out with the wines where you can taste as little or as much as you want, at your own pace. Held in the Salón José Peña in Cambados, it is open for the duration of the Festival, for a couple of hours in the morning and then a couple of hours each evening.

I know I probably say this every year, but for me at least, it is the best opportunity of the year to taste the vast majority of albariños of the vintage under one roof. Yesterday I tackled the first half of the room, about 70 odd wines in two hours, and today I will go back to finish the rest. Of course, the secret (as with all serious tastings), is to make copious notes of each individual wine, and secondly to spit! You might think that spitting is an obvious thing, but I can tell you that yesterday, in a room full of people, I don’t think I actually saw one other person spitting…. Enough said.

Spitting and making notes does however, attract attention, the result being that I was interviewed by one of our local papers, asking my opinion. They quoted me perfectly in this respect, that it is simply the best albariño tasting of the year.

Happy Independence Day!

July 4th, 2016 | Fiestas

Plate mapJust a quick post to say Happy Independence Day to our American friends and customers!

Meanwhile, here in Galicia, the summer holiday season and festivities are also well and truly under way. Our local beach (which is already overcrowded in summer) played host to a five-a-side soccer tournament this weekend. Not only did the temporary arena that they built take up about a quarter of the total beach area, but then it was accompanied by thumping music and a commentator screaming excitedly into his PA system all day…. Very relaxing for the visiting tourists!

So, if everyone is on the beach, then why not escape to the city for a bit of peace and quiet? Well, that wouldn’t quite work either….. An all-day concert in the bullring of Pontevedra sent loud music booming around the streets of our fair city. Too bad if you needed to open your windows just a little in the hot weather. Ah, the joys of summer!

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