We have just travelled back from a very successful tasting in Ireland, carrying a few gifts in our bags as we passed through the airport. Amongst our hand luggage we had some pieces of glassware, and this action served to rekindled a thought that I had a long time ago concerning airport security.

No doubt we have all heard many a tale of wine producers (and others) losing their corkscrews to over-zealous security guards. Nail files, pen knives, nail scissors and the like, no matter how small, have also fallen victim to the ever tightening restrictions. On our flight today one poor Expat returning to the USA even had his precious Heinz salad cream and HP Sauce confiscated as it was somehow deemed a threat. I know from experience as I once lost two jars of peanut butter in exactly the same way!

I’m sure that you have already guessed where I’m going with this….. I find it incomprehensible that passengers can still shop for glass bottles in duty free and then happily carry them on to the aircraft. Surely a broken bottle would constitute more of a serious threat to the cabin crew than some poor winemaker’s corkscrew?

These days we are so used to watching big budget disaster movies, and news footage from distant shores on our TV screens , that it has become all to easy to detach ourselves from the reality of life. That is, until the disaster unfolds on your very own doorstep.

After earth quake disaster in New Zealand and the utter devastation of Japan’s huge quake and tsunami, we now have death and destruction in Murcia, Southern Spain (only 120km from Alicante). Although the quake measured only 5,2 on the Richter scale it occured only 1km below the earth’s surface, and was therefore more damaging. At the time of writing it is reported that  10 people have lost their lives, mostly crushed by falling buildings. It is more than 50 years since Spain experienced a quake of this magnitude, and it was neither predicted, nor expected.

Well, perhaps that is not completely true….

Very, very strangely an earthquake was predicted on 11th May 2011, but in Italy. Many Italians fled Rome amid fears of a pending earthquake! In 1915 the late Italian self-styled seismologist Raffaele Bendandi predicted that the “the big one” would strike Rome on this exact date. Panic developed as rumors spread across social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, and some Italians actually evacuated the city.

Unfortunately for all concerned, right date, but simply the wrong country.

Around this time last year I seem to recall posting a picture of some highly coloured blooms as a representation of the flowering in our vineyards, and this year is no exception. Nothing to do with our vines, but at least a bit more colourful to look at!

On a more serious note, we have an extremely early flowering just starting here in Galicia. The temperature as I write is about 27°C (just over 80°F) and the forecast for the rest of the week is set fair, so all looks quite rosey in our garden (if you’ll pardon the pun). The number of bunches per vine appears to indicate a big harvest, albeit that this is no guarantee of real quality, and so I rather suspect that there will be a good deal of ‘green harvesting’ during the summer months.

Naturally this early flowering (probably at least two weeks earlier than normal), will mean that the 2011 harvest will be premature too. If the fine weather continues I would estimate picking at the very beginning of September, similar to our 2006 vintage. Only time will tell.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we have been keeping sheep in our Pazo vineyard, which is proving to be a much more efficient, not to mention ecologically friendly, method of keeping the grass under control. Absolutely no use of herbicides (as always), and also greatly reduced fuel use by our tractors – normally employed in summer to cut the grass.

About a week ago Angela’s sister visited the sheep to give them a few treats (fresh oats and a little bread), and was horrified to discover that a couple of cats had invaded the sheep’s small shelter….. until she looked more closely.

It turns out that they were not cats at all, but instead were a couple of completely black lambs. Clearly their mother had spent too much time in the sun!

Before you start thinking that the roof of our bodega is bristling with antennae and satellite dishes, that is not exactly what I mean. Yes, I do have a small Oregon Scientific weather station sitting on my desk, but I am actually talking about something much more low-tech, but nonetheless effective….. rose bushes.

I am convinced that the vast majority of people believe that roses are present in many a vineyard simply to add a splash of colour, but perhaps I should explain that this is not the only reason. Of course it’s true they do add a touch of colour, but their function is actually much more important – they act as an early warning system to the vigneron.

Rose bushes are susceptible to many of the same diseases as grape vines, and in most cases are actually more sensitive. The indicators for oidium, mildew etc are more likely to appear on the roses before our vines become infected, and we can therefore leap into action with the appropriate preventative measures pretty much before the problem takes hold.

The picture above was taken a day or so ago in our El Pazo vineyard – not only do you notice the advanced years of our vines, but you can also clearly see the vigorous growth for the time of year. Could be another early harvest.

I don’t suppose that I could really let this week pass without making some comment about the Royal Wedding – and don’t try to pretend that you don’t know which wedding I’m talking about…. The coverage here in Spain has been almost as extensive as that in the UK, and I was actually quite amused to see the infamous TV movie of Kate and William on our screens yesterday evening. Of course it was made doubly funny as, not only did the actors bear little resemblance to our Royal couple, but on top of that they were dubbed into Spanish. Will I get locked in the Tower of London if I say that it was hilarious?

Anyway, to date I have not heard any mention of the type of wines they will be drinking with the Royal Wedding Buffet, but I dare say that there might be the odd bottle of Liebfraumilch floating about (which is apparently the Queen’s favourite tipple). Perhaps I should write to the Palace and tell Her Majesty that our Albariño is not wildly different from her beloved Riesling (or perhaps Muller-Thürgau). I use the word ‘beloved’ because the literal translation of Liebfraumilch is ‘beloved ladies milk’.

Of course the last time we had a Royal Wedding in Spain, we know for a fact that they did enjoy a bottle or two of Albariño with their meal, although for some odd reason we were not allowed to mention who the producers were (no Royal Warrants this time then).

Post Wedding Footnote:
One thing that I have noticed which always puzzles me, is the Spanish obsession to translate people’s names. For example, the happy couple are now officially known as Guillermo y Catalina, our Queen is Isabel, our Prince is Carlos, and his sister is Ana. Correct me if I’m wrong but I can never remember the King of Spain being referred to as King John Charles, and his wife Queen Sophie……

There has been a lot of press recently about the price of wine and the ability of consumers to distinguish between good wine and cheap ‘plonk’. As a wine professional I do hope that my own palate allows me to separate the wheat from the chaff, and my personal guideline to doing this is quite simple – you look for the 3 S’s, in other words structure, structure and structure.

By this I mean the way in which a wine is put together, whether all its component parts are in balance – fruit, tannin, acidity, alcohol etc. For example, wines that are very well constructed might be described as having a fine structure, or in the case of a young wine that is not very forthcoming, a tight stucture. It’s really the degree of harmony between these different elements that determines whether a wine is just average, or perhaps something really special .

The only thing I can say, is that the best wines (in my opinion) are not always the most obvious, they do not necessarily hit you between the eyes and yield themselves to you the moment you pull the cork. They often need time to ‘open up’ either in the bottle or in the glass, but boy, when they eventually do deliver you will know immediately, and the very best will have the ability to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end!

Indeed, there are many adjectives that you can use to describe a very fine wine, and journalists are much more adept at painting a picture than I am (they are, after all, attempting to translate the sensation of taste into words). I have never really been gifted when it comes to waxing lyrical about wines, but instead consider myself more of a technical taster, focusing on the component parts and how they might evolve and marry together, either now or sometime in the future. This is after all, the fundamental role of the buyer – to possess that special crystal ball…….

As always I digress. The original subject of today’s post is the price of wine, and in particular a selection that I saw advertised on my TV at £2.99 a bottle. How do they do it (and do I really want to know)?

If you actually start to analyse the cost of getting a bottle to your supermarket shelf you might begin to understand what I mean.

By simply deducting the UK duty and VAT from your £2.99 bottle you are immediately reduced to a mere pittance of 69p! Then take into account, that this 69p has to include warehousing and shipping costs, the cost of the bottle, label, cork, capsule and carton – Oh! and by the way, the cost of the wine itself AND any profit for the wine producer and UK retailer.

Just a minute, my calculator has blown a fuse, it’s trying to tell me that this simply doesn’t add up! It’s right, it doesn’t add up. I think it’s what they call a ‘loss leader’ – a product that sells below it’s actual production cost.

I end by asking myself the inevitable question – can a wine at this price point really be any good?

Over the last couple of months we have been ‘tarting up’ the entrance hall to our wine cellar, and you my recall my post about a huge photo montage that I set up on one of the walls.

Perhaps inspired by my wife Angela, and the fact that she is always late for everything (a woman’s prerogative I think they call it), I have now created a huge clock on one of the other walls!

But this is no ordinary clock lifted out of a box – it is my very own creation. To be honest I don’t recall where the idea came from, but the concept is really quite simple. The numbers are replaced by wine bottles. This apparently ‘simple’ concept was however, much more difficult to translate into reality…. To begin with cutting the bottles in half proved to be almost impossible, and then sticking them to the wall was also quite a problem. It’s possibly not until you actually cut a bottle in half and see its profile, that you realise how fragile it really is, and suffice to say that applying glue to a thin, sharp rim of glass is no easy task either, requiring the patience of a saint (I have to admit, not one of my greatest virtues).

So, after a couple of hours with a glue gun, not to mention my very sticky fingers, you can now see the result.

I wonder if this will mean that Angela will be on time in the future? Probably not!

Last Thursday must be viewed as a very sad day in the UK wine trade when the announcement was made that the Oddbins chain of wine shops was going into administration with debts of more than £20 million.

It is not that many years ago that Oddbins was regarded as the most avant garde of all wine retailers, and to be present on their shelves was one of the greatest accolades for any serious producer.

In those days not only did they have the most cutting-edge selection of wines, but they also boasted a highly original catalogue illustrated by the artist Ralph Steadman. By far their greatest asset at that time however, was one of the most highly respected buyers in the UK wine trade. No, not me, but a chap called Steve Daniel, who from personal experience I can tell you, had a very fine palate. It was Steve’s exciting selection of new and original wines that put Oddbins at the forefront of the UK retail trade, and on the customer ‘wishlist’ of every wine producer.

To quote my journalist friend Tim Atkin, Oddbins were “quirky, audacious, arrogant and bloody good at what they did”….. long may they be remembered for their contibution in helping to make London (and the UK) the ‘shop window of the wine world’.