It is always nice to know that your wine is sold, and appreciated around the world, and as a wine producer being listed in top restaurants is actually one of the best accolades that you can receive. At this point I could drop a few names, but I will resist the temptation on this occasion….

As I think I have mentioned before our wine is quite widely sold ‘down under’, in Australia, and thankfully Castro Martin has found it’s way onto the list of many a top restaurant. Included amongst this group is the highly acclaimed MoVida tapas bar in Melbourne. Owned and run by Frank Camorra who was born in Barcelona and raised in Cordoba before his family emigrated to Australia when he was a small boy.

Frank’s passion for Spanish food (and wine) never left him, and after working in many top Australian restaurants, he travelled back to Spain to top up his knowledge of classic Spanish cuisine, before opening his MoVida tapas bar in 2002.

He has never looked back, not only receiving numerous awards for his cooking, but also somehow finding the time to co-write a book entitled ‘MoVida – Spanish culinary adventures’. And that is exactly what it is – much more than just another cookery book, it is also an insight into the origins of the food that he so lovingly prepares.

Inspired by the success of the first book, Frank and his co-author Richard Cornish, are on the road again, collecting material for MoVida2.

Frank chats with Angela under the pergolas

Two days into the strike and the casualty list is starting to grow, and I am not refering to business casualties – very regretably I am talking about human life. One picket in Spain, and another in Portugal have been killed as they tried to prevent trucks from running the gauntlet. In another incident a driver has been badly burned as he slept in his cab, when his vehicle was set alight. Of course this is not only a tragic waste, but also begs the question, what if anything, can actually be done to supress the spiralling price of oil? Perhaps the drivers should be picketing OPEC instead…..

It would appear that the effect on consumers varies enormously according to the area of Spain in which you live. From Madrid for example, we hear reports of shops running out of fresh food, and garages running out of fuel, whilst here in Galicia, it would appear that there has been little or no effect – so far. On Monday morning our local garage here in Barrantes had a queue for fuel, but on subsequent days I have seen at least two tankers actually delivering fuel to other forecourts in the area. Heaven only knows where these trucks came from, or how they got there, but the most important thing is that they were able to replenish stocks.

As far as I am aware there have been no reports of local food shortages, and the only real problem that we have experienced is that we are not able to deliver wine!

Every year our local village of Barrantes holds a ‘Fiesta do Vino Tinto’ in celebration of the red wines of the Rias Baixas region. Now, to be honest, the Rias Baixas region does not actually produce too many red wines, and within the D.O. there are actually very few Bodegas that make it. There are however a couple of grape varieties, such as Mencia and Caiño, that can produce a half-decent glass, but in reality the red grape struggles in our climate, to reach full maturity.

There is a National transport strike in Spain starting this weekend, and we are not sure exactly how long it will last, or more importantly, what the knock-on effects will be. Hopefully, most of our customers will have received notification that this was about to happen, albeit that we were not able to give too much warning.

Whilst we did not have lorries exactly queueing at the door to get wine out, we have still had a very busy week, and our best effort was turning around a 400 case export order in less than 24 hours – from the time that the order was received, including packing and paperwork etc, to the time that is was collected by the transporter. Not bad going….

So, all collections have now been made, and we are closing our doors for the weekend. On Monday we will know better how life has been affected, and as always, we will do our best to keep you informed.

I’m afraid to admit that today’s post is more like history rather than news – it should have been written several days ago. We have been almost completely without power for the last two and a half days – no phones, no fax, no computers, no e-mail- in other words, at peace with the world. I therefore apologise to those of you who may have been trying to contact us. I simply should have warned you beforehand, rather than after the event.

So this is how it came about:

I think I may have mentioned last September (during our harvest), that we were having fun and games with our electrical supply – we simply did not have sufficient power to meet the demand of all our equipment. It was almost a case of turning off one appliance in order to be able to supply another! The problem, we were told, was in the Bodega itself – our poor old wiring system was just not up to the job, and it was clear that something needed to be done to avoid a repeat this year.

Although the job was planned some time ago, we have, believe it or not, been waiting for a window in the weather. The electricians needed to run a new cable into the Bodega from an outside junction box, and I am reliably informed that electricity and rain water is not a good combination…..

This week the sun has come out, which was not only good for our electrics, but much more importantly might have helped to save the flowering, which to date has been struggling in the poor conditions. Using our ‘agricultural calculator’ we have worked out that this will almost certainly result in a late harvest (around the end of September).

I think it was back in November of last year that I wrote about Galicia being the driest place in Spain. Well, perhaps I was tempting fate, because the Spring of 2008 has turned out to be quite cool and damp – in other words, back to normal.

In the last couple of months there has not been a single week that has been completely dry (well, actually, there may have been one), and the temperature has only rarely ventured above 20°C (68°F). Indeed the average daytime temperatures for the last 8-10 weeks have been more within the 14°-18°C range.

After a dry winter, it is probably fair to say that we need the rainfall, but as we approach the all-important flowering period, we now require a bit of sustained sunshine and warmth.

I selected the photograph above for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to show off our new tractor at work, and secondly, to highlight the downside of our damp, humid Galician climate – the need to spray. You will also note that the grass in the vineyard is in need of a good trim, but first things first – we need to take care of our vines!

If you are planning to visit us at any point in the future, there is now a much easier way to find us – using Google Maps TM.

By far the the most direct way to locate us is to go to the Google Maps page, click on the tab that says ‘Search Businesses’, and then you will be presented with two boxes: ‘What’ and ‘Where’. Simply type in ‘Bodegas Castro Martin’, and then either ‘Pontevedra’ or Ribadumia’ (both will work).

With the click of a button you will be shown a detailed map of where to find us – but not only that – you can also ‘Get Directions’ from anywhere in the world, by simply typing in your ‘Start Address’.

Why not have a look now by clicking this link?

This new map feature is also included in an update of our main website, which incorporates a new page on the ‘Environment’ (looking at green issues) and an update of recent vintage information. www.castromartin.com

By the way, our super rich customers will still be able to locate us in their private helicopters by using Google Earth…..

Re-cycling?… Sorted!

At the beginning of the year I wrote an entry in our blog about ‘Green Issues’ (the Environment) and how we work hard in our vineyards to be as ecologically friendly as possible. This is, of course, only half the story, as this work continues inside the Bodega too (albeit that the effects of this are much more difficult to quantify). Whilst we have no official accreditation, we are extremely pro-active on many different environmental fronts.

Angela is probably the most obsessive person I know when it comes to re-cycling ,and so it goes without saying that we have re-cycling bins throughout the bodega, and for every type of material – wood, glass, metal, paper, plastic and organics. Bottles that we open in the cellar for tastings (or even drinking at home) are carefully washed and re-filled at bottling (although these are not re-used for customer orders). Even our cardboard cartons are re-cycled if they are not too dirty or damaged.

The bottling line is probably the greatest generator of waste materials. The packing materials from bottles, corks, capsules etc are carefully separated (mostly cardboard and plastics) and then taken to the local re-cycling centre the following day.

In order to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, we now use different ordering patterns for our ‘dry goods’, which in turn reduces the number of deliveries that we require. For example, bottles are now taken in full truck loads, and corks in full pallets (giving us enough materials to bottle three of our 9,000 litre tanks). As you can easily calculate, this reduces the number of deliveries to us by 66%. Cartons, capsules and labels are ordered in a similar way, with savings of between 50 and 66%.

So hopefully you can see that, in our own humble way, we do try make a contribution to preserve our environment.

Footnote: Please also note that our Albariño is suitable for vegetarians as we do not use any meat derived products during handling or vinification.