Well, it seems like winter is finally here. Our extended, late summer is now well and truly over, as the more usual weather of rain and much cooler temperatures is finally upon us. Time to light the fire and put the slippers on!

Meanwhile, inside the wine cellar, after weeks of almost constant vigilance, the making of our 2018 wine is finally behind us. The fermentation period requires that we measure the density of the wine at least twice a day, every day (the density being an indicator of how quickly the fermentation is taking place), and this is where the temperature control really comes into its own. If the process is moving too quickly then lowering the temperature can help to reduce the speed of fermentation – conversely, if it is moving too slowly, then allowing a small increase of temperature will help to get things back on track. Controlling the length of fermentation will ultimately determine the style of wine produced, and suffice to say that a white wine made with a shorter, slightly higher temperature fermentation will be quite different from a wine made with a long, slow, cool fermentation. It’s really a matter of taste and down to the personal preference of the winemaker.

The final act that really brings the fermentation to a close is the addition of sulphur. This will effectively kill any yeast cells that are still active once all of the sugar has been consumed. For this we use tanks of pure, liquid sulphur dioxide, which is extremely hazardous and very dangerous to handle. Suffice to say that full face masks and protective equipment are very much the order of the day.

So now that the last grape is safely in, and the cold settling period is concluded, we embark on the small matter of wine making. Year-on-year there is never too much variation in what we do – we might make some small adjustments according to the vintage, and perhaps trial a new product or two in one odd tank, but the majority of what we do remains largely unchanged.

There is one characteristic of the 2018 vintage that I haven’t really mentioned as yet…. alcohol. I did say that we had been surprised by the quality of the fruit, and that it was quite viscose (rescued by a dry and warm August and September), but the other side effect of heat is alcohol. My guess is that we will see the FIRST EVER Castro Martin wines of 13% Alcohol!

We had already seen a number of 13% wines appearing last year, whereas our own mean average alcohol for 2017 was somewhere between 12.5% and 13% (the label has to be within 0.5% of the actual). This year we will almost certainly break this barrier, whilst bearing in mind that many people are still picking in 32°C heat (heaven only knows what level of alcohol this fruit will yield). Could we see albariños approaching 14% in 2018?

Oh, and by the way, don’t simply dismiss today’s picture as just another ‘moon shot’ – this is actually the yeast being mixed, just before it is added to one of our tanks!

Perhaps the biggest disaster of the harvest (so far) was reserved for the penultimate night. Last night our ‘bodeguero’ (chief cellar hand) and pressing specialist fell, and slid down a flight of stairs! Fortunately he was not seriously injured, but after hospital tests, returned with his arm in a sling and restricted to a purely supervisory role.

Today will almost certainly be our final day, and another scorcher for working. The last day is always a bit frustrating as we spend hours with almost nothing to do (in the grape reception) and then we are hit with one final rush at the end of the day. After several hard days so far, it hardly seems fair on our fantastic cellar team, but unfortunately, that’s the way the cookie crumbles….

To keep the team occupied during these final hours of waiting, we deliberately leave one small corner of our ‘bodega’ vineyard unpicked, and so in these periods of calm they can take a bit of fresh air and enjoy the view! (see today’s photo of our small but happy team).

Tomorrow we may turn to the wine making, embarking on step two of the 2018 campaign.

Yet another beautifully sunny morning (which should now be the pattern until the end of the coming week). With temperatures now touching 30°C (86°F), it makes for very hot work – but better this than rain!

Unfortunately another minor incident occurred during the night when the very last pressing of the day suddenly stopped. However, with a 24 hour call-out service during harvest time, a technician quickly rectified the problem, and the last press of the day was completed (about 4am).

It transpires that Sunday turned out to be a completely manic day, and by late afternoon a short queue of vehicles had accumulated waiting to discharge their grapes. The heat was clearly taking it’s toll on everyone as the torrent of grapes continued throughout the evening without remission. By the end of the day we had by far exceeded our daily target, bringing the end of our 2018 harvest almost within touching distance. Perhaps one day more?

Meanwhile, downstairs in our lab, every single delivery of grapes was being analysed from the obligatory sample taken upon arrival. The results were better than we could have hoped (certainly after such poor spring weather). Of course the yield of juice per kilo was slightly less than normal, but it was the viscosity and balance of the juice that surprised us a little.

We arrived to work on Saturday morning under a beautiful clear blue sky, and according to the forecast – this should now continue well into next week and the end of the harvest (probably Tuesday).

In terms of kilos picked we are already more or less at the half way point, and apart from my big transport error on the first day, it has been comparatively smooth sailing. Of course there are always minor issues, the latest being the new, dynamic case washing machine being delivered without one of it’s main filters! Very annoying and inconvenient, but at least not terminal to the operation.

Indeed, the story of our latest addition made me laugh. Whilst we were getting excited about this modest new piece of kit, our neighbours down the road (at one of the regions Co-operatives), were just inaugurating their brand new 300,000 Euro grape reception! In a different league altogether… whilst we remain small, humble, but very beautiful.

Meanwhile back in the real world, grapes flowed in very nicely, and with our well-drilled team they were swept through the cellar in a very efficient and timely manner. (A backlog is the last thing that we require on a Saturday which is, as always, by far the busiest day of the week).

The view in today’s photo shows smoke – not heat haze, sea mist or cloud, but smoke. A fire somewhere in a forest nearby filled the afternoon air, but fortunately it would seem that it was quickly extinguished.

After a slightly fraught, late night yesterday, the new morning didn’t start so well. One of our famous Ocean mists had rolled in from the Atlantic leaving the whole area shrouded in a cold, damp cloud. We knew however, that the sun would eventually burn through, and by mid-morning it had done exactly that – picking was not delayed.

Today’s minor trauma was a puncture! The trailer on one of our tractors burst a tyre, but quite fortunately, just as it was arriving at the bodega and not in the middle of it’s journey. Of course we had the equipment on hand to make a relatively speedy repair, and so I guess it was hardly worth mentioning!

In the meantime the grapes continue to arrive, today in a steady flow, rather than yesterday’s late rush. Apart from yield that I mentioned yesterday, there is another attribute that we have noticed in this year’s fruit. There appears to be more variation in bunch sizes (related to individual vineyard sites), than in previous years, which is why we always pick plot-by-plot in a strict order. Obviously this variation is down purely to our Spring weather – cool, damp and hardly ideal for the flowering period. On a more positive note, the warm, dry conditions during August and September have probably yielded better quality than we had anticipated.

By the way, as I mentioned in my previous (special) post, the new case washing machine has had an amazing impact on our grape reception – cases can now be washed the moment that they are emptied into the presses. No more stacks of dirty cases, and no more hosepipes!

This is a special post simply to explain a significant delivery that arrived late last night. A few days ago I wrote about a window that we had made in the wall of our grape reception to accommodate a new piece of kit – well, the ‘kit’ finally arrived late last night (at 11pm, and much, much later than promised!). It is a new machine for washing the plastic cases that we use for picking, before we re-cycle them and send them out to be re-used.

Until now this was a job done by hand, with a hosepipe – it was slow and very labour intensive, especially when you consider that we have up t o 2,000 cases in circulation during harvest (and each one will be re-used several times).

When the machine arrived we were still busy, but we did not hesitate to connect it straight away, and press it into service. At that point there was still quite a backlog of cases to be washed, but within 20 minutes half of the mountain had disappeared, using two guys and leaving our cases almost spotlessly clean.

I am absolutely convinced that this will be a great investment, and will significantly streamline our operation. By next week we will probably be asking “why didn’t we buy this years ago?”

Well, after a spring and summer of variable and sometimes unexpected weather the 2018 harvest is finally upon us. Despite all these fluctuations the start date is pretty much as we anticipated – we had always predicted around the third week of September, and here we are, 19th September…

The great news is that the weather is being kind to us, in the morning there was a slight autumnal chill in the air, but with a clear blue sky. As the day progressed the temperature both inside and outside the bodega started to rise, and by midday the first grapes were already in the cellar. The familiar droning noise of the presses (that will continue unabated for the next 7 days or so), started to fill the air.

Unfortunately, owing to a slight (transport) miscalculation on my part the grapes did not arrive as quickly as we would have hoped, indeed the last grapes to arrive were rather late….. mea culpa! The good news is that they were all quite healthy, the only difference being that we have noticed that they are not yielding quite as much juice as we would normally expect when we press them – more on that as the days progress.

(Today’s video showing the first delivery of 2018 grapes is probably the shortest ever made – I really must learn how to control my new mobile phone!)

Our 2017 Harvest Report is now online – click here to visit the page

Our 2017 harvest will be completed today – no loud cheers just yet however, as we start to plan for the next phase – the small matter of wine making.

Monday, our final day, didn’t start too well. Firstly it was grey and overcast, with just a little light rain. However, as has been the case for the last few weeks, this early morning gloom soon cleared up, and by 10 or 11am clear skies had been restored. In the early part of the day, we had our first small technical hiccup of the harvest – our (electric) forklift broke down quite literally in the middle of our grape reception where we unload the vehicles. Clearly this is a super heavy machine, and not simply something that you can push out of the way. We called for the engineer, in the hope that the machine could be moved before our final few grapes of the year arrived. Thankfully, we managed to get this done.

In the meantime, on a slightly quieter day (receiving only a little fruit, and just before wine making), Angela was catching up on some administration. From the photo you will see that she clearly doesn’t trust our new computer software, and has continued to make hard copies of everything (technically I think this is known as ‘back up’). It could also be because Angela is the ‘queen of the coloured pencils’, and that she keeps four copies of everything. There is another technical term for this – but it’s just a bit too rude to post!

At the end of the final day we had actually only made a couple of pressings, just ‘mopping up’ the last few grapes. I will write a more detailed summary, perhaps tomorrow if I have the time, and those of you unlucky enough to be on my contact list, will eventually receive my slightly longer vintage report. Good night and God Bless!