I think that after publishing so many posts during the harvest I have been suffering from a bit of ‘writers block’. On several occasions since the harvest I have been sitting in front of my screen, trying to think of something to say. Of course, there are a number of things that I could have written about, the weather, the new wine and important Consello meetings to name just a few, but putting something into words has been difficult. So let’s have a try!

Since finishing the picking our weather has been changeable, if not typical for the time of year. The first few weeks after harvest were, somewhat ironically, dry and warm, but then around the middle of October the picture changed completely. It has been raining every day with just a couple of storms thrown in for good measure. There has hardly been any sunshine worthy of note. Perhaps we should just be thankful that we have not actually suffered from any flooding, as has occurred in many other places.

Inside the cellar, we have been tasting our 2023’s (on one occasion with a group of Irish visitors), and the consensus seems to be that the wines are really quite good, and certainly better than we originally anticipated. With all the complications caused by the poor weather this year our expectations were really quite modest, and so, if I am being honest, we have actually been pleasantly surprised by the result.

The name of our district, where the bodega is located is Ribadumia, a name that derives from our local river, the Umia.

Yesterday, we had a famous visitor (or should I say visitors), to the Estuary of our river; namely Gordon Ramsay (the Michelin *** chef and his two companions). They were filming a TV series for HBO called Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip, where this group of three travel around various countries (in a campervan) exploring local culture and cuisine. Gordon and Gino are both chefs, whilst Frenchman Fred Sirieix is a well-known restaurateur.

On a cold, grey Galician morning they donned their boots, grabbed their rakes and waded into the river to collect clams with a group of local women from Cambados.

After a couple of hours filming came the serious business of cooking – a simple dish of clams cooked in white wine (albariño, of course), with garlic, onions and lemon juice, served on a bed of spaghetti. Actually more of an Italian dish, than Galician, pasta alle vongole!

Imagine arriving in the office on a Monday morning, and you immediately notice a strange scratching noise. Working in a bodega you might easily believe that this could be a mouse (even though we do have controls to prevent this). Wrong…. and you would never guess what it actually turned out to be…… An owl, or rather a baby owl!

The first question that arises is, how on earth could an owl get into the bodega? The windows and doors are all well secured, as you might imagine, and so perhaps the only entry point that we could think of was an old, unused chimney in our salon – we will never know.

Luckily, one of our team, Fran, is an amateur bird enthusiast and knew exactly what to do (that is his hand inside the protective glove!) Once carefully removed and released outside we did have a little cleaning to do, as amongst other things, the bird had knocked a few pots off our office shelves. The owl didn’t seem to be at all bothered by this damage, indeed, you could say that he didn’t give a hoot!!

Historically, Spanish people tend to take their summer holidays is fortnight blocks, often on fixed dates. In other words visitors to Galicia might arrive for the first two weeks of July, and then a second, new group might arrive for the second two weeks (extending throughout August in exactly the same way). These blocks are known, and referred to, as ‘quincenas’ and I must say that it continues to amaze me how many people still follow these very rigid patterns (although this is likely dictated by business summer closedowns).

A day or two ago was a big changeover weekend, as the calendar ticked over from July into August. Unfortunately for us,  with this changeover came yet another change – to the weather!

The first few days of the month have been dreadful, with leaden grey skies, rain, drizzle and cool temperatures. This is not good news for our vineyards. The grape bunches themselves are now fully formed, and normally, during the heat of August, we would hope that the vibrant green berries would be transformed into luscious, ripe, golden fruit. However, in these cool temperatures, and with the level of damp, cool air that we have, it’s fair to say that the overall quality of our 2021 harvest now hangs in the balance and could go either way.

Well, our short summer closure is almost at an end, but at least the weather has been kind to us. Of course, I don’t mean for the purposes of topping up my tan, but much more from the point of view of our fruit now ripening on the vine. For the last couple of weeks there has been a lot of warm, even very hot sunshine, with temperatures mostly between 25° and 30°C (77° to 87°F), including an odd couple of days touching 34/35°C. A period of sustained warmth and sunshine was just what we needed, and we now live in the hope that this could continue through to the end of September.

The latter part of July and the month August are the peak periods for visitors to Galicia – in some resorts we even experience long traffic queues, often heading in the direction of our local beaches. After leaving London some years ago, I freely admit that traffic is something that I don’t miss at all.

Today’s photo shows a Portuguese circus packing up at the end of their short summer season on the coast. For us the end of summer merely signals that our harvest is now looming on the not-too-distant horizon!

Over a dozen years ago, when I first arrived at Castro Martin an integral part of our bodega tour was to take visitors upstairs, to the rear of the building, and show them both the view of Salnés and our proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. In recent years however, this had become impossible, owing to a forest of tall eucalyptus trees that had sprung up behind us.

The eucalyptus is not indigenous to Galicia, but rather was planted extensively throughout the region as a source of fast growing, cheap timber. The species was originally imported from Australia, and has been actively promoted by the paper industry since the mid-20th century. Compared to other parts of Spain, Galicia still has many densely wooded areas, which, during prolonged periods of dry weather, can cause a problem with some significant forest fires.

By coincidence, only last week, I took a group of American visitors up to a ‘mirador’ (look out point) on a local hillside to show them a complete view of our valley, only to discover that it is now partially obscured by eucalyptus, now seemingly growing out of control.

The good news is however, that the trees at the back of our bodega have now been cut down to make way for a new vineyard (not ours), and our view has now been restored. I have highlighted the Ocean in today’s photo, and whilst it might appear like a distant speck on the horizon, it is in fact less than 5km (3miles) from our back door.

Well, roughly a month after the first grape was picked in anger, we have tanks that have completed their fermentation and can now clearly be called wine, rather than must or grape juice. Of course they are not ready for sale by some distance, as there are many processes that they have to undergo, not least of all a period of lees ageing. Fine lees are the exhausted yeast cells left over from fermentation that help to intensify our wines by adding richness, flavour and aroma complexity. Specific proteins are released naturally during lees contact, and it is these that create a creamy, silky smooth mouthfeel, and texture to the body of the wine. The lees also enhance stability and increase the ageing potential of our wines.

So now it is time for the tanks to simply rest, and the only time that they will be disturbed over the coming months is when we taste them on a regular basis. I will give more details on their progress, and of course my tasting notes, in the coming weeks, but as they have just been sulphured, now is not really a good time to pass judgement.

One of the unique events that took place during this year’s harvest, were a couple of PR/customer visits. Under normal circumstances we are far too busy, and the cellar is in far too much disarray to welcome people through our doors, but this year we made a couple of exceptions. The first was a small group of sommeliers and shop managers from the UK, a visit set up by our D.O. office by way of PR and education. Second was our very long-standing importer from Venezuela. Of course it could be that we made these two exceptions as the visitors were from Angela and my respective home countries, or maybe that is just a coincidence…. Suffice to say that we hope both groups enjoyed their time with us. (By the way, Angela doesn’t normally wear a baseball cap in the bodega, but the cap is actually designed in the colours of her National flag!)Well, roughly a month after the first grape was picked in anger, we have tanks that have completed their fermentation and can now clearly be called wine, rather than must or grape juice. Of course they are not ready for sale by some distance, as there are many processes that they have to undergo, not least of all a period of lees ageing. Fine lees are the exhausted yeast cells left over from fermentation that help to intensify our wines by adding richness, flavour and aroma complexity. Specific proteins are released naturally during lees contact, and it is these that create a creamy, silky smooth mouthfeel, and texture to the body of the wine. The lees also enhance stability and increase the ageing potential of our wines.

So now it is time for the tanks to simply rest, and the only time that they will be disturbed over the coming months is when we taste them on a regular basis. I will give more details on their progress, and of course my tasting notes, in the coming weeks, but as they have just been sulphured, now is not really a good time to pass judgement.

One of the unique events that took place during this year’s harvest, were a couple of PR/customer visits. Under normal circumstances we are far too busy, and the cellar is in far too much disarray to welcome people through our doors, but this year we made a couple of exceptions. The first was a small group of sommeliers and shop managers from the UK, a visit set up by our D.O. office by way of PR and education. Second was our very long-standing importer from Venezuela. Of course it could be that we made these two exceptions as the visitors were from Angela and my respective home countries, or maybe that is just a coincidence…. Suffice to say that we hope both groups enjoyed their time with us. (By the way, Angela doesn’t normally wear a baseball cap in the bodega, but the cap is actually designed in the colours of her National flag!)