This week the town of Cambados would normally be bracing itself for the start of the Annual Albariño Festival…. but not this year. At great economic cost to the town, the vast majority of events have been cancelled, for obvious reasons. The centrepiece, and biggest money-spinner, would normally be the Festival itself, whereby the town square would be lined with stands from the various bodegas offering the chance to sample their wares (albeit ‘sample’ is perhaps something of a euphemism that others might describe as more of a ‘binge’).

The tasting competition is still happening, although the big celebration lunch and presentation of prizes, normally held at the end of the festival, has also fallen victim.

One of the few surviving events is the tunnel of wine, for me at least, the most worthwhile part of the whole festival. An opportunity to taste a large number of albariños all under one roof, in a relatively peaceful environment.

Now, how a large tasting will work under social distancing rules is another matter, but I will let you know next week. The only thing that I can say for sure is that I will have to remove my mask for tasting (although it is now compulsory for us to wear masks in all public places, subject to strict on-the-spot fines for non-compliance)!

The other day, completely out of the blue, I was invited to a tasting. That, in itself, would not seem odd, except that this was a tasting of the Aglianico grape, on this occasion made in the Puglia region of south-east Italy! An old and very well-known variety in Italy, Aglianico is characterised by its deep crimson colour, together with an unexpectedly high level of tannin and acidity (making wines with excellent ageing potential, and explaining why it is sometimes referred to as the ‘Barolo of the South’). This tasting however, was not of mature wine, but young, raw wines exclusively of the 2019 vintage – a bit ‘mouth-puckering’ to say the least!

Please don’t ask me why there would be a tasting of young Italian wines in a fairly remote part of Galicia, but suffice to say that it was held at the oenological research centre here in Ribadumia. Not, I should add, anything to do with the possibility of planting Aglianico here in our region, but rather as part of a private research project – I was simply a guest taster. Of course, as a former wine buyer, I had actually bought wines of this grape/region for my former Company, and, I suspect, that I may have been the only taster in the room with previous knowledge of this grape!

I keep repeating in my posts that we are not great supporters of wine competitions, and it seems that no sooner have I said this that we win another medal! In fairness I should say to say that we do sometimes submit wines to tastings and publications that we really believe in, or in some instances the tastings that a particular importer might believe is important to their market (or sector of their market). For example, many of of importers work in the hotel/restaurant sector, and so it would make perfect sense to enter our wines into tastings or competitions organised, or perhaps judged by sommeliers from their locality.

In the last week or so we have picked up a further two gold medals (one for each of the two wines that we entered), awarded to us by the Guia Paadín 2020. Whilst many people will not know this particular guide, it is a local entity that focuses entirely on local wines, and is therefore highly respected in our region, and around Spain.

I guess that, in the end, we must be doing something right!

Only a few days ago I said that points and medals were not our ‘raison d’être’ here at Castro Martin. Of course, as luck would have it, just a few days later, we win accolades for two or our wines!

Back in the summer I submitted a couple of bottles to the Wines from Spain Awards, organised by ICEX in London. These awards were quite different in that they were judging all the wines of Spain and not only albariños. Of course, the wines were categorised and tasted in organised flights, but the objective was to simply identify the best wines of Spain, regardless of whether their origin was Catalonia, La Mancha or Galicia.

In the end, there were no Gold, Silver of Bronze medals, just the top 100 Wine from Spain (judged by a few notable MW’s) Result?……

The two wines that we submitted were BOTH voted into the top 100, and we were the only Bodega in Galicia to achieve this distinction!

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!

A week or two ago I mentioned that our 2019 wines have finished fermenting, and so this week we have attempted our first serious tasting. It’s still very early days, but using our experience of past vintages we should be able to glean at least some idea of the overall quality of the vintage.

The first thing that I should say is that every tank is still a little saturated with CO2 (which is perfectly normal and no bad thing at this point). The wines are therefore just a bit gassy and also completely opaque. There are fine particles of yeast, bentonite etc., still ‘suspended’ in the liquid, and they will need more time to settle before the wine becomes completely limpid.

Our first sensory impressions are often those of residues of sulphur and/or yeast, but as with the opaque colour, these will dissipate over time. Our challenge at this moment is to try to ‘see through’ these minor diversions and explore the underlying wine.

The first characteristic of 2019 is the fresh, ripe, floral nose – perhaps not as full and ripe as 2018, but actually more in keeping with a typical albariño vintage. At this time there is also a noticeable saline ‘lick’ on the palate (a characteristic that I love), and more importantly the wines are well structured and balanced by a zesty, citric, green apple acidity. This green apple component is typical when the wines are very young, but this will evolve over time, more especially after our extended period of lees ageing. I always say that a good albariño can but a little ‘angular’ when it is youthful, but will always soften and that these harsh edges will round off with age.

In summary, the 2019 is actually much better than I thought it would be, in the sense that I thought it could be slightly a-typical and more like our 2018. This is not the case, and I have a feeling that we could be sitting on something very good – the only pity being that lower yields means that we have less wine that we would have liked.

Every year, as part of the Annual albariño festival, there is a ‘Tunnel of Wine’ tasting. There are usually between 150 and 200 wine to taste, the majority being albariño and mostly from the current vintage – this year the 2018’s. In addition there are a number of blended wines (many that include albariño in the mix), a table of red Rias Baixas wines, a table of sparkling wines, and three tables of older vintages (often presented as the ‘prestige’, limited edition wines).

If you refer to my recent notes about the 2018 vintage, you may have read that I consider 2018 to be a-typical, and this theory was largely supported by the tasting. For example, there were very few albariños in the room with less than 13% alcohol, some with 13.5% and even one or two with 14%. In circumstances such as this then it is really down to the winemaker, and how they are able to ‘handle’ the alcohol and ensure that it is well-integrated into the finished wine. For example, there can be nothing worse than an albariño with alcoholic ‘afterburn’ (a slight burning sensation in the throat), in a wine that is normally considered to be light, clean and refreshing.

Of course, many of the top bodegas have still made very good wines (albeit there were also one or two slight disappointments). On the other hand, there were also a few wines that provided a pleasant surprise too – always an opportunity to discover something new or perhaps a label that you didn’t really know before.

Having said that, the best wine in the entire tasting was a 2015 wine on the prestige table. Although I must also say, trying to be completely objective for a moment, that our very own 2018 Castro Martin fared rather well too – certainly in my own top 10!

Now that the 2018 vintage has been fully launched into the market, I thought that it might be a good time to write a few follow up notes about the finished wines that we are now selling. Of course, it’s true that we’re not too far away from picking the 2019, but obviously, owing to our extended lees contact, the 2018 wines are only just out there.

I especially wanted to write about our 2018 albariño because it is, in many ways, an a-typical wine – not a bad wine, just a bit different from the ‘norm’. In this case the difference stems entirely from the weather in the period leading up to picking. After a comparatively poor early summer, the months of August and September turned a potentially average vintage into something quite different (and unexpected). The hot weather accelerated ripening of the fruit, so much so that the finally maturation was super-quick and the window for optimum harvesting was actually quite short. Indeed, it was every man (and his dog), out picking as quickly as humanly possible. Despite these super-human efforts, the harvested fruit was still extremely ripe, with a slightly higher potential alcohol and marginally lower acidity than normal.

In my own textbook, the ideal range of alcohol for an albariño would be between 11.5% and 12.5%. In 2018 we have around 13%. The first impression when tasting our 2018 wine is ripe, concentrated fruit, with perhaps a bit more weight and body than we have come to expect. From this ripeness comes a sensation of sweetness, but this is simply an illusion. Analysis reveals that our finished 2018 wines have between 2 and 5g/l of residual sugar (normally considered to be dry). The albariño grape naturally has a very intense fruit, which in more typical vintages would be very ‘focused’ and is not usually described as being as rich. In this vintage the apparent richness comes, of course, from the elevated alcohol, giving the wine a touch more viscosity and greater ‘mouthfeel’. Despite these slightly a-typical characteristics the wine still has a good, fresh acidity on the finish, albeit slightly shrouded by the ripeness of the fruit.

In summary, our 2018 wines are very good, easy drinking and quite approachable from the very beginning of their life-cycle. In some vintages, when the wines are a less ripe (and more typical), they can have a slightly ‘angular’ edge to them, which can sometimes take a little time in bottle to ’round off’ and soften. In 2018 this is not the case.

For once, when I say that we are “in the 90’s”, I don’t mean our weather, but rather our wines!

As you must know by now, I have never been a great fan of wine awards and the Parker point system. Indeed, it would appear that I am not alone in this new way of thinking. Only this week the well-known and respected food and wine critic of the New York Times, Eric Asimov wrote (and I quote verbatim): “Dreary scores and tasting notes are of little long-term use to consumers. What they need most are inspiration and liberation”. On my part, when people ask me what wines they should drink, my advice has always been the same. Drink what you enjoy; and I say that simply because I know that everyone’s palate is different. And of course, that’s just one of the joys of wine – don’t be afraid to pull a few corks and judge for yourself! (Don’t let someone else judge for you).

Meantime, back at the tastings, we actually submitted three wines to this year’s Guia Peñin 2020. It’s not so much that we are desperate for points or publicity, but it’s merely a yardstick for us, to see where we stand. We didn’t do too badly either. All three wines, Castro Martin Family Estate, A2O and Casal Caeiro emerged with 90 points – consistent if nothing else! The interesting point is, that when comparing the price points of the other wines at 90 points or above, our wines were by far the best value for money. And that’s what it’s all about…. great quality at a fair price.

A couple of weeks ago we attended a very interesting seminar – ‘Making wines with low SO2 (sulphur dioxide) content’.

One of the most defining characteristics of a ‘natural’ wine is that it will certainly be low in sulphur – sometimes with no added SO2 whatsoever. Added sulphur has two roles to play in a finished wine: Firstly, it acts as a microbicide, killing bacteria or any remaining yeasts that could eventually lead to spoilage. Secondly, it prevents oxidation of the wine, by preventing or reducing interaction of wine with oxygen.

During fermentation yeast will naturally produce a very small amount of SO2 (and so it will always be present), the question is – is this enough to protect a wine in the medium to long-term? For example, it’s worth noting that premature oxidation is actually a very common fault in ‘natural’ wines.

Our seminar talked of this, and offered alternative solutions, products to be used in the grape must to replace SO2, yeast strains that produce very little natural SO2, and pre-bottling additives – all apparently quite natural. We tasted two Spanish white wines from the 2018 vintage made using the low-sulphur products….

When I was a wine buyer, one of the most important issues for me was not only the quality, but mainly the longevity of the wine – looking into its future and trying to imagine how it might evolve. (Bearing in mind that many of my purchasing decisions were made in the producers cellar, tasting raw wine from tanks and barrels). If a wine tasted ready for drinking from the first sip, then the likely hood was that it would not last the course. It is rare that a good or great wine will show it’s true colours during its infancy – and that is where the buyers judgement comes into play.

I say this because of the two 2018 wines in the tasting. They were fine for drinking NOW, very commercial styles, but simply ready to give a bit of ‘instant gratification’. Perhaps perfect for the two wines in question, but not really for our albariño, which can often be consumed two or three years down the road. I’m sorry to say, that we will almost certainly continue with our current policy of adding a little pre-bottling SO2, simply because it works for us, and our export customers (who require an extended shelf-life).