[:en]I should have mentioned before that the back of harvest is now well and truly broken. For example, all of the fruit from our own vineyards has already been safely gathered in. Our team of around 60 pickers worked long hours to take advantage of the sunshine, as at the start of the week the long-term forecast was a little uncertain.

Despite being Sunday, we have had quite a busy day – grapes are still very healthy and continue to show very good potential when analysed. As you might expect, with our shortened pressing, this adds to the concentration of the juice, and yields are still very good. Of course we always work below the maximum permitted yields simply because in the world of wine quantity nearly always diminishes quality. Lower yields both in the vineyard and from the presses will mean that 2017 should be a vintage to savour.

As the week has progressed we have noticed that the potential alcohol of our fruit has slowly crept a bit higher, and I would estimate (even at this early stage) that our alcoholic content will probably be somewhere around 12.5%. Obviously the final number will be revealed as time goes on.

I’m afraid it’s another uninspiring photo today, but it does highlight a bit of ingenuity – our cellar guys using the refrigerated heat-exchanger pipes to chill their water bottles![:es]I should have mentioned before that the back of harvest is now well and truly broken. For example, all of the fruit from our own vineyards has already been safely gathered in. Our team of around 60 pickers worked long hours to take advantage of the sunshine, as at the start of the week the long-term forecast was a little uncertain.

Despite being Sunday, we have had quite a busy day – grapes are still very healthy and continue to show very good potential when analysed. As you might expect, with our shortened pressing, this adds to the concentration of the juice, and yields are still very good. Of course we always work below the maximum permitted yields simply because in the world of wine quantity nearly always diminishes quality. Lower yields both in the vineyard and from the presses will mean that 2017 should be a vintage to savour.

As the week has progressed we have noticed that the potential alcohol of our fruit has slowly crept a bit higher, and I would estimate (even at this early stage) that our alcoholic content will probably be somewhere around 12.5%. Obviously the final number will be revealed as time goes on.

I’m afraid it’s another uninspiring photo today, but it does highlight a bit of ingenuity – our cellar guys using the refrigerated heat-exchanger pipes to chill their water bottles!

 [:]

Saturday! Potentially the craziest day of the week (for reasons that I have explained many times before). Also, just to compound matters slightly, when we opened our shutters it was pretty dull and overcast, much as the forecast had predicted. By the time we arrived at the bodega, there was a short shower of rain – fortunately not heavy, and over within a few minutes. In the end, that single shower proved to be the first and the last of the day. Indeed, by lunchtime the sun had returned.

As you may already know, all of our fruit is picked by hand and collected in small, well-ventilated baskets, each one when loaded weighing in at around 18-20 kg. We hold a stock of just under 2,000 of these baskets, and so, when they are all distributed, can mean that we are collecting potentially between 35-40,000 kg. Today, every single basket is being used, and at times there is a queue to collect more, once they have been emptied and washed. We employ one guy full time simply washing baskets!

Of course we always know that Saturday will be busy, and so the secret is (actually more just common sense), to make sure that we have the staff to handle it.  The other potential problem area (or bottleneck), is the pressing, but having made the decision to shorten the pressing cycle this year meant that the loading and unloading of our two presses was more or less a continuous cycle – simply alternating between the two.

There is no really special photos or videos today as we simply had too many other priorities during the day – just a rear view of our grape reception (used just once a year!)

I feel quite guilty today, worrying about a few possible rain showers when there are people in the Caribbean losing their lives to the weather – our thoughts are with them….

In the wine cellar we are racking our first grape must, after a day or two of settling (when all the residual elements that we don’t want, fall to the bottom of the tank). One of the first things that I noticed this morning was the smell – the floral scent of the juice. Of course, in our line of work, we use our sense of taste and smell all the time and so tend to notice even small traces of different aromas, and the grape must is just one of them. Over the period of the wine making there are so many different smells wafting around the cellar – some good, others not so good. The juice is one of the more attractive scents, as is the smell of the yeast (like a bakers shop), the smell of sulphur however, is pungent and quite unpleasant, used to protect the grape must from oxidation. Finally, during the fermentation itself, we have the deadly carbon dioxide (which is completely odourless, but that you can still detect). Even with our ventilators working overtime, it is still easy to feel a little light-headed at times.

Meanwhile, out in the vineyards, after the first three days of picking, we are nearly half way through the collection process. With sun today but potential showers on the horizon, we are working as hard as we can to get all the fruit safely inside.

Our time lapse video today shows one of our presses being loaded with grapes. 4,500kg in 18 seconds…. if only.

Thursday morning started sunny enough, with wall-to-wall blue sky, but by early afternoon it had evolved into a somewhat ‘milky’ sky – still warm but with slightly opaque sunshine.

So, today we will talk a little about the grapes themselves. On first impression it looks like we will be in for another very good quality harvest. Now, I am aware that everyone says that, and that our own Consello Regulador has never admitted to one bad harvest during the entire existence of our denomination, but believe me, this vintage has real potential. The grapes are healthy, the bunches are a good size, they are yielding the perfect amount of juice, and most importantly, the juice is thick and concentrated but with a very good balancing acidity. I guess my only surprise is that we have a good vintage with a year ending in the number 7. Speaking VERY generally, when you look back at the history of wine vintages, there are not too many great vintages when the year ends with a 7 – or maybe it’s just my imagination? Of course there are, and always will be, some exceptions.

Today’s video is really an experiment with time-lapse video (I have never tried it before). It shows our guys unloading one of our tractor-trailers. I have calculated that if we could really work at this speed we could complete our entire harvest in just under 3 hours!

At least today, we opened our window shutters to discover clear, blue skies – there were no unexpected surprises. I am still searching through various weather websites to find two that say exactly the same thing. Some say fine weather for the next week or so, and others say the possibility of showers/rain at the weekend. This is just one of the delights of living on the corner of a peninsula, next to the ocean – rapid changes in the weather.

As you can see from today’s photo the new area in our grape reception is being put to good use, giving us more freedom of movement and space to work. It transpires that our second day turned out to be smooth and uneventful, and I feel sure that our enhanced floor space has already made some small contribution in this respect. Of course the big test might come on Saturday, which is traditionally the busiest day of the week. This is compounded by the fact that our smaller grape suppliers, who take advantage of the weekend, also tend to arrive all together and later in the evening, which is when the real bottleneck can occur – we shall see.

By the way, today’s minor personal disaster was that my kettle broke, meaning that my constant flow of tea was momentarily interrupted, or at least made slightly more complicated (by resorting to the old-fashioned pan on the stove method). Hopefully, with the help of Amazon Prime, normal service will be resumed tomorrow!

[:en]When we opened our shutters this morning, we were just a little shocked. After a beautiful, clear, sunny evening yesterday, the clouds had gathered, and the sky was grey and heavy – almost threatening – and so, what to do? The decision was to cross our fingers, hope for the best and pick grapes.

As it turns out, our gamble paid off. Within a couple of hours the sky was clear, and by lunchtime we were bathed in warm sunshine. By 11am we had already received our first delivery of grapes to the bodega (into our newly revised grape reception), and happily, this flow continued steadily throughout the day. Of course once our press is loaded we get to sample the first grape must of 2017, and make any final adjustments to the presses.

Every year the density of the grape juice varies, and so we often change the time and pressure used for pressing according to the physiology of the berries. Obviously if the juice is thin, as in the vintages with higher rainfall, then we obviously don’t want to ‘over-press’ the fruit and extract too many phenolics (astringency originating from pips and stems). Conversely, in years when there is a lot of sun and the berries are smaller, with thicker skins and very concentrated juice, then we have to strike a fine balance between approaching the best of the must, but without extracting any of the bitterness. Complicated, but calculated.

I have to conclude that our first day passed off very smoothly. No sooner did we empty the press, than we had almost the exact amount of fruit ready to recharge it. Of course, I could claim that it was down to perfect organisation, but I have to admit that it was much more by chance than by precision planning.[:es]When we opened our shutters this morning, we were just a little shocked. After a beautiful, clear, sunny evening yesterday, the clouds had gathered, and the sky was grey and heavy – almost threatening – and so, what to do? The decision was to cross our fingers, hope for the best and pick grapes.

As it turns out, our gamble paid off. Within a couple of hours the sky was clear, and by lunchtime we were bathed in warm sunshine. By 11am we had already received our first delivery of grapes to the bodega (into our newly revised grape reception), and happily, this flow continued steadily throughout the day. Of course once our press is loaded we get to sample the first grape must of 2017, and make any final adjustments to the presses.

Every year the density of the grape juice varies, and so we often change the time and pressure used for pressing according to the physiology of the berries. Obviously if the juice is thin, as in the vintages with higher rainfall, then we obviously don’t want to ‘over-press’ the fruit and extract too many phenolics (astringency originating from pips and stems). Conversely, in years when there is a lot of sun and the berries are smaller, with thicker skins and very concentrated juice, then we have to strike a fine balance between approaching the best of the must, but without extracting any of the bitterness. Complicated, but calculated.

I have to conclude that our first day passed off very smoothly. No sooner did we empty the press, than we had almost the exact amount of fruit ready to recharge it. Of course, I could claim that it was down to perfect organisation, but I have to admit that it was much more by chance than by precision planning.
[:]

Well, it looks like our first day of harvest will be put on hold, as we are shrouded in mist and mizzle. Mizzle is a combination of very fine drenching drizzle or extremely fine rain and thick, heavy saturating mist or fog. It hangs in the air, rather than falling like real rain, and it’s especially annoying after a couple of days of warm sunshine. To be fair, the forecast (or at least one or two of them), said that it could happen, but they also predict that by tomorrow it will be gone. I will consult my weather stone tomorrow morning, and all being well, we will start.

Work on extending our grape reception area continues (when we can find the time), and we now have the drains in place ready the final phase – laying the floor. The first step will be a concrete pour, probably later this week, before finally laying the tiles. 

As you may have seen from previous posts, the foundation of this floor is quite substantial, but of course, it has to be. At peak periods this floor will need to support a considerable amount of weight. Individual baskets of grapes (about 20kg each) are stacked on pallets as they arrive – usually 35 baskets per pallet, so that they can be moved around more efficiently. Although we pride ourselves on loading presses with the minimum of delay, there may be periods when we have a number of pallets waiting in the queue. At around 600/700kg per pallet the weight soon adds up, and so. quite clearly, the floor has to be strong.

It occurred to me that on my recent list of ongoing tasks (keeping us super busy in the bodega at the moment), I omitted to add training. Yes, once a week, Angela, Luisa and myself attend a four hour session to learn all about our new software system. At the beginning of the year we launched our revised accounts system, which from this September (at harvest time) will be partnered by an entirely new stock control system.

However, this is no ordinary stock system, as it will record every aspect of our wine production in fine detail – otherwise known as traceability – from grape to bottle. In fact, I guess that the vast majority of people would be quite surprised by the amount of detail required, actually beginning out in the vineyards whilst the fruit is still growing. Every lot number of every treatment (organic or otherwise), used by both the bodega and our grape suppliers is recorded – together with dates and amounts applied. This level of detail (including lot numbers etc.) is carried through the entire wine making process, right down to the bottle and cork used to produce every single wine. Yes, even bottles and corks are allocated lot numbers.

Of course, the simple reasoning behind this being that if any one bottle is discovered to have a technical defect, then the entire batch (usually from a specific tank) can be withdrawn from sale, and the fault traced right back to the very grape with which it was produced, if necessary. The amount of information recorded for your delicious bottle of albariño is mind-boggling!

So not only do we now have to learn how the system works, but somehow we have to find the time to input all the data. Good job that the days are longer at this time of year…

Oh dear! I am very conscious that I have not posted in a while, but don’t worry, I have lots of ready-made excuses!

Firstly, we had a few days away in Belgium (not bodega business but for the graduation of our daughter after completing her Masters in International Law). Meanwhile, back in Galicia we have simply been very, very busy – possibly taking on too many projects all at the same time: Still working on extending the grape reception, adding an irrigation system to one of our vineyards (more on that later), and racking the final tanks from their lees (after nearly nine months resting quietly).

The truth is that we could perhaps, have left some wines on their lees for a little longer, but the reality is (believe it or not) that we have to start preparing the bodega for the 2017 harvest. Between now and the end of August, we still need to bottle a few more tanks, and empty some of the tanks immediately adjacent to the presses, just make it just a tad more convenient when moving the grape must. Please note that we never ever move wine unless we really have to, and so we usually encompass any re-positioning of our wine within the racking process itself – relocating the clean wine well away from the pressing area. 

Today’s photos shows the impressive tartrate crystal formation at the bottom of our tanks when we rack the wines. They instantly reminded me of the dramatic Jurassic limestone strata of the Dentelles de Montmirail in the Vaucluse region of France, with their sharp-edged ridges and spikes.

By the way… Happy 4th July!