I speak English, French and Spanish, albeit that my French is getting a bit rusty now, as I haven’t used it for some time. When I do occasionally try to use it I often throw the odd Spanish word into the middle of a sentence – completely unwittingly.

This morning on my way to work I glanced up at the motorway gantry (see photo), which, for a split second, my brain translated as “If babies don’t drive, have a happy (safe) journey!” What? Babies driving? Of course, I quickly realised and re-adjusted my translation to the real meaning “If you drink, don’t drive – Happy journey!” Beber is the Spanish verb to drive – nothing to do with bébé, the French word for babies!

Actually, in this photo you may also notice the dreadful weather. Not raining, but heavy grey skies with low cloud, and damp hanging in the air. Last week we had a few very hot days at a little over 30°C (86°F), but on Sunday the cloud moved in at it has remained cool and damp ever since, at just under 20°C (68°F).

Of course, this type of weather is far from ideal, the only positive being that it is not the type of warm humidity that would create an even more prefect breeding ground for vine disease. However, we still have to remain very vigilant.

This has nothing to do with wine…. On my way to work every day I pass this strange new building, which has been under construction for several months now. The thing that I found most odd was that, located at the very heart of the building is a 40ft shipping container (I posted a photo some time ago). Around this was built a metal skeleton, followed by layers of odd building materials, galvanised metal, wood, aluminium, then more wood as its outer shell. As they added the roof the structure actually started to take on a more ‘normal’ outward appearance, although I still can’t forget that there’s a shipping container right at its core.

So as the construction slowly took shape my favourite past-time became trying to guess its final function. My thinking was, originally, along the lines of some sort of storage shed – until they added some large windows at the front and then finally put a sign on the fence. Apparently it is going to be a café/bar!

On face value it’s in a bit of an odd location (near a motorway exit, albeit not intended for motorists). The reality is however, that it’s actually quite near to ‘La Ruta da Pedra e da Auga‘ (the route of stone and water). The Ruta is an 8km hiking path that runs alongside the Armenteira river through the municipalities of Ribadumia and Meis. It is extremely picturesque and comes highly recommended, but please note that it is, in fact, a well-known tourist attraction, and that the calm and tranquility can be a bit spoilt at peak times of year simply by the large number of visitors.

Since the start of the Covid crisis our online sales have increased, but not so much our ‘cellar door’ sales, as numerous lockdowns have simply prevented would be shoppers from visiting us.

Today, however, we had a most unusual customer – a guy in a 40ft trailer! At first we thought it was a delivery (an export order had already been collected earlier in the day), but no, the driver simply wanted to buy wine. With a 40ft trailer at his disposal we wondered how many pallets he would want…. but alas, is was just a single case.

Still, better than nothing I suppose!

Although my beloved Liverpool FC dominated the English Football League in the 1970’s and 1980’s, they have not won the Premier League for exactly 30 years… until last night! I think it’s true to say that they are the most successful English club ever, winning 19 League titles, 6 Champions League titles, 3 UEFA Cups (now known as the Europa League) and countless domestic trophies.

This season 2019/20 we are Premier League Champions, European Champions and World Club Champions – apart from the virus not a bad year for Liverpool fans!

Last night our manager Jurgen Klopp was in tears as they tried to interview him…. he was not alone, and will Never Walk Alone!

Champions!

In the bodega we are waiting with anticipation for the restaurant industry to slowly get back on it’s feet. The restaurant sector is, by far, our biggest source of income. This is clearly going to take some time and, in the circumstances, we have no alternative but to be patient and sit it out. Our activity, as before, is focused almost entirely on the vineyards.

Meanwhile, on the pandemic front, one mayor in a local seaside resort is preparing for what he hopes will be a long overdue influx of visitors over the coming weeks. He has taken the initiative to extend the idea of social distancing to the beach!

Whilst I understand and respect his intention, it somehow seems just a little excessive. His plans is to divide the beach into segments using wooden posts and ropes, as you can see in today’s photo. Admittedly these small divisions will only be used by the people that hire sun loungers and parasols, but even so, I still think that the whole thing is just a little bit ‘over the top’. In my opinion we should simply rely a bit more on common sense rather than roping beachgoers off and herding them into small cattle pens!

During these difficult times it can be really difficult to find something positive and upbeat to write about. The television news has become somewhat boring and repetitive, as there is clearly only one story that people want to talk about… I will not mention it by name for the sake of my own sanity!

Meanwhile, the good news is that in Spain we are now enjoying our increased levels of freedom, and together with a bit a warm sunshine, this is certainly helping to lift our spirits. Work is of course, continuing in our vineyards, and recent  periods of rain and sunshine have served to provoke some quite vigorous growth. The downside of these the warm and humid conditions is that some spraying has been necessary in order to reduce the risk of potential disease.

Finally, on a more positive note, pallets have been packed and dispatched to the U.S.A.! Of course, they will take some time to cross the Atlantic and so we can only assume that our importer feels that the re-opening of their market is imminent. We hope that this level of renewed optimism might be contagious, not only in the U.S., but also in our other export markets around the world. Having said that, for the moment at least,we all need to remain patient.

Of course, like every other business we get a lot of spam e-mail (despite all sorts of protection and filters!). Some of these mails are simply annoying, others malicious, requesting that we click onto some spurious link, and then finally, there are the scams. These arrive in many different guises, some quite sophisticated whilst others are downright stupid and obvious. For example, the classic – winning $10 million for a lottery that you never entered!

One of the latest scams, that I receive quite regularly now, is for wine competitions….. Someone has finally twigged that wine competitions are big business, and that there is a lot of money to be made. The problem is the way that it has been done. Quite unconvincing invitations with scant detail, requesting that we pay only 1 Euro deposit to enter, and then pay a full fee after we receive the result. My belief is, of course, that anyone stupid enough to enter, will almost certainly be guaranteed to win an award!

The format is just a simple text e-mail, and thereby lies the second mistake. These invitations arrive in groups, and within a period of 24 hours we will receive invitations for China, Singapore and Japan, all using an identical mail, with only the names and addresses changed in each one. The sponsoring publications for these competitions are quite obvious false – “Shanghai Paper, Singapore Newspaper and Business News Japan”. They don’t even bother to create convincing names!

In a second group of mails, we will receive invites for the UK and USA. This time for the “London Newspaper and America Wines Paper”. Not at all convincing.

Oh, and by the way, the wine samples for EVERY competition, regardless of the country, are apparently gathered in one place…. in Paris. Seems like someone in Paris could be enjoying a big party with free wine!

Today is, of course, Cyber Monday, an opportunity for retailers to offer even more discounts supposedly on ‘tech’ goods, albeit the reality is that this now includes any other product or service under the sun. My two favourite reductions to date have been seen in a local car park offering discounted parking, and a hairdresser with a 2 for 1 offer (although I’m not quite sure how that would work – two haircuts on the same day, or maybe bring a friend?).

Anyway, it seems that more and more observers (including the press), are now viewing these ‘Black’ days and ‘Cyber’ days as just a cynical exploitation of consumers, and that many of the bargains on offer are simply not bargains at all. In addition to this, the larger retailers are not simply restricting it to a one day, one-off sale, but they are extending their Black days into a week or sometimes even more.

The latest development I have noticed is that a few traders are already trying to re-invent this slightly over exploited concept by changing the name. For example, last week I received discounted offers for Black Friday, Yellow Friday, Blue Friday and Green Friday!

I guess that normal business might not resume until January, after all the holidays are done for the year….

Our Christmas/Holiday orders here at Castro Martin can usually be split into more or less two main categories – palletised orders that are shipped overseas, and the domestic gift market.

Our overseas orders are already long-gone, indeed, the planning and preparation of these orders started some months ago. Of course transit times vary according to where the importer is located, but obviously they have to make sure that their stock is already in place long before the holiday rush begins. (Bear in mind that for our restaurant customers the office Christmas party season starts long before 25th December).

On the other hand our Christmas gift market here in Spain is quite another story. Whilst we are very grateful for every order that we get, we actually receive quite a number of them at the last minute. In these circumstances all we can do is to make sure that we have all the materials (and people) available to set up our mini ‘production line’ for making gift packs. Today’s photo shows a large, recent order, thankfully received in plenty of time and already with our customer.

In recent times I have noticed that a few reputable journalists have started to question our popular, and sometimes long-held beliefs about wine. Some of the doubts being raised are, for example, the use of points to rate wines, and more recently, the development and definition of ‘natural’ wines.

As you may already know I have never been a big fan of wines being rated or categorised by points – there are just too many possible anomalies. Some fear that the worldwide influence of the points system will eventually mean that certain styles will dominate (and possibly all taste that same), and that lighter wines could lose out, simply because they are less likely to get a attract good scores. Wine shop managers sometimes dismiss ratings as overly simplistic — numbers devoid of context, such as a wine merchant’s sense and knowledge of individual customer tastes. Finally, I have to add that over the years, points and medals have occasionally (in a few proven cases) been abused in order to mislead consumers. Conclusion? That the points system just might not be as effective as we have all come to expect.

It is the lack of official regulation or certification for using the phrase “natural wine” that has now created something of an existential crisis. It’s up to winemakers and those who sell, promote and drink their wines to decide whether a bottle fits the ‘natural’ bill. In an effort to distance themselves from this watered-down, misused and sometimes abused term, some producers who truly work with minimal intervention are now turning their backs on this new movement as a whole. For consumers, that only results in further muddying of a term and ideology that’s already steeped in confusion.

In our business we already have organic, biodynamic and sustainable wine making – the first two of these can be certified, and the third simply relies on producers to use common-sense and mindful wine making practices. However, this should not mean that we abandon or ignore the advances in wine making technology that has been made over the last decades – certainly we all want wines with character, but we also want wines that are reasonably stable and will not fall-apart too quickly!