[:en]This coming weekend we have a local wine fair in the village of Barrantes (the village where Castro Martin is actually located). Oddly, despite this being in the very heart of Albariño country, the festival actually celebrates the tinto wines of Salnés. The vast majority of red wines from Rias Baixas are made with the grapes of Caiño tinto, Espadeiro, Loureira tinta and even Mencia (although Mencia is perhaps more widely known from our neighbouring denominations of Bierzo, Ribera Sacra and Valdeorras).

There are other red grape varieties, which when vinified, make a low alcohol, but very intensely coloured, tooth-staining wine, perhaps the most famous of which is known as Tinto de Barrantes. The problem is, that the grape varieties used to make many of these local wines are not officially permitted, and so the wines can only be made for personal consumption (well, that’s the official line anyway). My guess is that this is why the festival is called the Tinto do Salnés Festival, and not the Tinto Barrantes Festival….

This year’s publicity poster does however, include a jolly pink pulpo (probably stained by the local tinto), and also shows the traditional white ceramic wine cups containing a liquid that looks suspiciously like our very own Barrantes red wine![:es]This coming weekend we have a local wine fair in the village of Barrantes (the village where Castro Martin is actually located). Oddly, despite this being in the very heart of Albariño country, the festival actually celebrates the tinto wines of Salnés. The vast majority of red wines from Rias Baixas are made with the grapes of Caiño tinto, Espadeiro, Loureira tinta and even Mencia (although Mencia is perhaps more widely known from our neighbouring denominations of Bierzo, Ribera Sacra and Valdeorras).

There are other red grape varieties, which when vinified, make a low alcohol, but very intensely coloured, tooth-staining wine, perhaps the most famous of which is known as Tinto de Barrantes. The problem is, that the grape varieties used to make many of these local wines are not officially permitted, and so the wines can only be made for personal consumption (well, that’s the official line anyway). My guess is that this is why the festival is called the Tinto do Salnés Festival, and not the Tinto Barrantes Festival….

This year’s publicity poster does however, include a jolly pink pulpo (probably stained by the local tinto), and also shows the traditional white ceramic wine cups containing a liquid that looks suspiciously like our very own Barrantes red wine![:]

So the latest clue in our ongoing artistic puzzle is an odd little beast – half mariposa (butterfly), half libélula (dragonfly) – hence the name we have given it, our ‘marilula’. In English I guess we might call it a butter-dragon?

By the way, just in case you didn’t already guess, the story about visiting Cuba and selling albariño in exchange for cigars was a just a bit of fun (for April Fool’s Day!!) The nearest we actually got to Cuba was ‘Little Cuba’ in Miami, which is where the photo was taken…..

A week or so ago it was a mystery fish – today it is a ‘helping’ hand. So what does this all mean? What is the significance of today’s hand, who does it belong to, and how does it relate to our wines? Well, it’s just another piece of our artistic puzzle, and in a month or two all will be revealed…..

Spoiler alert: Is there something “fishy” happening at Castro Martin? Well, perhaps fishy might not be the correct terminology, because it’s really more a question of some changes that we have in the pipeline. Don’t worry, we’re not talking about personnel (I’m not retiring just yet), but just some ‘upgrades’ to different parts of our business. If you want to keep abreast of new developments then you will simply have to watch this space!

Last weekend we had a small but dramatic event in our village, but more significantly, almost in our bodega vineyard…. a brush fire! A week or two ago I wrote about a small area of forest clearance at the back of our bodega, restoring our view of the Atlantic Ocean after some years of being masked by trees. Well, the bad news is that a different area of eucalyptus forest immediately adjacent to this (forming a boundary with our vineyard) was left untouched. Under Spanish law it is the responsibility of every land owner to keep undergrowth in a forested area well trimmed and under control, precisely for the reason of reducing fire risk. Unfortunately, in the case of this forest, it had not been done.

In the early hours of the Monday morning we received a call from our neighbours, living next to the bodega, to say that firefighters wanted access to the back of our property – the forest was alight! The good news is that the blaze was bought under control quite quickly before it managed to really take hold, and in the end was more or less confined to the undergrowth. Had the trees themselves gone up in flames, then it is actually quite possible that it would have spread to our vineyard, and so we have to be quite thankful to our local fire fighters for their prompt and effective actions.

If the fire taken place later in the summer then it is possible that our fruit could have been tainted by the smoke, but I think that this fire took place early enough in the growth cycle to have very little or no effect whatsoever. I once recall tasting a wine which had become tainted by smoke and I can tell you that it is nothing like the toasted oak effect that comes from a barrel, it is simply quite unpleasant. I am happy to report that, in our case, the only temporary damage might be to my t-shirt that reeks of smoke after I ventured into to the forest to take a few photos!

Back in 2010 the office of our Denomination set off on a journey. Their goal? To become the very first denomination in Spain to obtain official accreditation for the certification of food and agricultural products, according to the criteria set out in UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17065.

Owing to the huge diversity of vineyards and bodegas controlled by the D.O. this was never going to be an easy task – every single producer, without exception, had to comply with the required standards in order for the plan to succeed. The first and most daunting task was to produce and implement a manual of Quality Control, a process which took more than four years to complete. This quality control manual gives advice and instructions relating to every aspect of production, including vineyard management, winemaking, labelling, bottling and only concludes when every wine has been officially tasted and analysed by the D.O. It goes without saying that every step of the process also has to be carefully recorded, thereby providing full traceability as required by law.

With just over 50% of all Rias Baixas wines now being sold in export, this official accreditation is designed not only to be a further guarantee of quality, but also serves to enhance consumer confidence in all the wines produced within our denomination.

The award ceremony, when all bodegas were handed their certificates of accreditation, took place in March, when Angela stepped forward in her capacity as manager and winemaker of Castro Martin.

It seems that there is an ever increasing number of restrictions placed on motorists these days, in attempts to keep us sober, within the speed limit, and generally obeying the law. Well, to be honest I don’t really have a problem with any of that, it’s really more of a frustration that I have relating to the methods of enforcement that they use. The latest speed cameras for example, don’t now simply take a picture at one given moment, and measure your speed on the spot, we now have average speed cameras, measuring you average speed over a given distance. In a way this is not a bad thing, as it now avoids the dangerous scenario where the driver in front suddenly sees a fixed camera and slams on his brakes. However, we do eventually get to know where these static cameras are placed, and slow down accordingly, but usually only for a hundred metres on either side perhaps.

However, speed cameras are not the pet subject of my post today, it is rather speed ramps, speed humps or sleeping policemen as they are sometimes known. Having discovered roundabouts only a few years ago and introduced them at every conceivable juncture, Spanish traffic planners latest discovery is the speed hump….. In towns and villages all around Spain (or at least here in Galicia), you can’t drive a hundred metres without encountering one – almost literally. Take our Provincial capital Pontevedra for example. It is a brilliant place to visit – if you’re on foot. If you’re a motorist then maybe not so much, and my advice would be, have your car suspension checked before you arrive. Nearly the whole of the centre of Pontevedra is pedestrianised, which of course is great for your evening stroll (paseo) around the city, or your window shopping perhaps, but entering and leaving the city will probably be a bit of a bumpy ride. Just to prove that I am not exaggerating, the other day I had occasion to drive from the Consello Regulador offices in the centre of the city, to my computer repair shop a bit further around the ‘ring road’ – a distance of just under 3km (1.86 miles). Sad person that I am, I counted the speed bumps (most of which are large and accommodate pedestrian crossings)……. There were 28!! This works out almost exactly at an average of one crossing every hundred metres. From a motorists perspective perhaps I should be asking the question, if my suspension is eventually damaged, will the local council pay for the repair? I think I already know the answer to that one.It seems that there is an ever increasing number of restrictions placed on motorists these days, in attempts to keep us sober, within the speed limit, and generally obeying the law. Well, to be honest I don’t really have a problem with any of that, it’s really more of a frustration that I have relating to the methods of enforcement that they use. The latest speed cameras for example, don’t now simply take a picture at one given moment, and measure your speed on the spot, we now have average speed cameras, measuring you average speed over a given distance. In a way this is not a bad thing, as it now avoids the dangerous scenario where the driver in front suddenly sees a fixed camera and slams on his brakes. However, we do eventually get to know where these static cameras are placed, and slow down accordingly, but usually only for a hundred metres on either side perhaps.

However, speed cameras are not the pet subject of my post today, it is rather speed ramps, speed humps or sleeping policemen as they are sometimes known. Having discovered roundabouts only a few years ago and introduced them at every conceivable juncture, Spanish traffic planners latest discovery is the speed hump….. In towns and villages all around Spain (or at least here in Galicia), you can’t drive a hundred metres without encountering one – almost literally. Take our Provincial capital Pontevedra for example. It is a brilliant place to visit – if you’re on foot. If you’re a motorist then maybe not so much, and my advice would be, have your car suspension checked before you arrive. Nearly the whole of the centre of Pontevedra is pedestrianised, which of course is great for your evening stroll (paseo) around the city, or your window shopping perhaps, but entering and leaving the city will probably be a bit of a bumpy ride. Just to prove that I am not exaggerating, the other day I had occasion to drive from the Consello Regulador offices in the centre of the city, to my computer repair shop a bit further around the ‘ring road’ – a distance of just under 3km (1.86 miles). Sad person that I am, I counted the speed bumps (most of which are large and accommodate pedestrian crossings)……. There were 28!! This works out almost exactly at an average of one crossing every hundred metres. From a motorists perspective perhaps I should be asking the question, if my suspension is eventually damaged, will the local council pay for the repair? I think I already know the answer to that one.

We arrived at the Bodega yesterday morning to hear some quite devastating news – one of our Castro Martin team, Juan, had been badly injured in a traffic accident during the night. It is as yet, unclear exactly what happened except to say that, on the way home from his girlfriend’s house at about 12.30am, his car was involved in an accident. Ending up on it’s roof, we believe that he had to be freed from the vehicle by firemen and he was subsequently rushed to hospital in Pontevedra. He is currently in the ICU, and thankfully we don’t think that his life is in immediate danger, but he does have internal injuries, so it would be a little irresponsible to prejudge – at this time we can only pray for his complete recovery. He has also suffered a few fractured bones – wrist, arm, collar bone, breast bone, and a rib, and it is the chest injuries that are giving the cause for concern. Of course, there is nothing much that we can say, except that our thoughts are with both Juan and the rest of his family.

As if this wasn’t enough, to round off a very bad day, one of our tractors broke down on its way back to the bodega!

We arrived at the Bodega yesterday morning to hear some quite devastating news – one of our Castro Martin team, Juan, had been badly injured in a traffic accident during the night. It is as yet, unclear exactly what happened except to say that, on the way home from his girlfriend’s house at about 12.30am, his car was involved in an accident. Ending up on it’s roof, we believe that he had to be freed from the vehicle by firemen and he was subsequently rushed to hospital in Pontevedra. He is currently in the ICU, and thankfully we don’t think that his life is in immediate danger, but he does have internal injuries, so it would be a little irresponsible to prejudge – at this time we can only pray for his complete recovery. He has also suffered a few fractured bones – wrist, arm, collar bone, breast bone, and a rib, and it is the chest injuries that are giving the cause for concern. Of course, there is nothing much that we can say, except that our thoughts are with both Juan and the rest of his family.

As if this wasn’t enough, to round off a very bad day, one of our tractors broke down on its way back to the bodega!

Over recent months I have been a little critical of some of our local food festivals. Not so much the festivals themselves, but rather the advertising, and more specifically the photography. Of course food is notoriously difficult to photograph, indeed, it requires very specialised techniques. We all know how our rather dull, flaccid looking fast food burger can be transformed into something juicy and wholly appetising on the advertising boards. The people who prepare these shots are the foody equivalent of professional make-up artists – lifting, tweaking, plumping, colouring and generally preening the dish before it appears in front on the lens.

Today I was quite relieved to finally see advertising for a local food festival that had clearly employed such professional  food stylists to shoot their pictures. The local town of Caldas de Reis is celebrating their fourth annual festival of Tapas. Their publicity shot shows a nicely prepared tapas dish, albeit that I have no idea what the dish actually is. At least it looks quite appetising which is more than I can say for the plate of zorza that looked more like cat food (in my post of last October).

Over recent months I have been a little critical of some of our local food festivals. Not so much the festivals themselves, but rather the advertising, and more specifically the photography. Of course food is notoriously difficult to photograph, indeed, it requires very specialised techniques. We all know how our rather dull, flaccid looking fast food burger can be transformed into something juicy and wholly appetising on the advertising boards. The people who prepare these shots are the foody equivalent of professional make-up artists – lifting, tweaking, plumping, colouring and generally preening the dish before it appears in front on the lens.

Today I was quite relieved to finally see advertising for a local food festival that had clearly employed such professional  food stylists to shoot their pictures. The local town of Caldas de Reis is celebrating their fourth annual festival of Tapas. Their publicity shot shows a nicely prepared tapas dish, albeit that I have no idea what the dish actually is. At least it looks quite appetising which is more than I can say for the plate of zorza that looked more like cat food (in my post of last October).

I just love these local Fiestas! They say that sometimes the simple things in life are the best – so why not celebrate them? Tomorrow in the town of Mos they are holding the 6th annual festival of fried egg, chorizo and corn bread. Simple….

The text in the publicity claims that the food will be sold at “popular prices”, which I guess could mean anything. For example, they could sell each dish at 50 Euros – someone then complains by saying “I thought that you were advertising food at popular prices?” To which the organisers can simply respond, “Well, we like them!”

By the way, the photo used in the publicity is, as always, a bit basic, but you’ve still got to admire a country that can make a party out of sausage and egg!

I just love these local Fiestas! They say that sometimes the simple things in life are the best – so why not celebrate them? Tomorrow in the town of Mos they are holding the 6th annual festival of fried egg, chorizo and corn bread. Simple….

The text in the publicity claims that the food will be sold at “popular prices”, which I guess could mean anything. For example, they could sell each dish at 50 Euros – someone then complains by saying “I thought that you were advertising food at popular prices?” To which the organisers can simply respond, “Well, we like them!”

By the way, the photo used in the publicity is, as always, a bit basic, but you’ve still got to admire a country that can make a party out of sausage and egg!