Of course, we are already well into the month of August, but I have to mention that our July weather was quite extraordinary. Not only was it hot and sunny but we hardly witnessed a cloud in the sky for the entire duration of the month. Whilst this would be quite normal in the South of Spain, for Galicia it is perhaps, something of a rarity.

With temperatures regularly hovering around 30°C (86°F) or above, and as far as I recall, not a drop of rain touched the ground. It would be easy to assume that these are perfect conditions for grape growing, and whilst it is true, that these conditions are far better than damp, humid weather, a little precipitation now and again never goes amiss. As with many things in wine making, it is really a question of balance.

Fortunately the winter of 19/20 had been quite wet, and so the water deep under the surface had been topped up, meaning that the deep roots of the vines, could at least, source a little moisture.

Looking at the vineyards now, the bunches are still small and tightly packed and there is no sign of veraison (when the grapes change colour from vibrant green, to a slightly more yellow/golden green, or in some cases deep gold.

Owing to this year’s exceptional circumstances we are somewhat delayed in some of our chores. One process that would normally have been completed a month or two ago is racking the tanks of our 2019 vintage (removing the clean wine from it’s ‘bed’ of fine lees where it has been quietly resting). Now that we have returned we are systematically working through the backlog.

There is nothing particularly exciting about the racking process, indeed, the majority of our time is spent simply waiting for wine to be moved from one tank to another. The only real task is to monitor the turbidity of the wine (visually) using a special glass joint that connects the tank to the hose.

Meanwhile, outside the bodega, we are slowly being baked. Pretty much since the beginning of July we have been experiencing wall-to-wall sunshine, with temperatures regularly hovering around the 30°C (86°F) mark. Of course, sunshine is much better than wet weather for our vines, as long as the extreme temperatures don’t continue for too long.

I confess that I have been rather distracted by Covid news over the last few weeks, mainly because not too much else has been happening elsewhere. I now realise however, that I have completely neglected the single most important event in our vine growing calendar…. the flowering!

I am happy to tell you that our flowering passed almost perfectly, largely because May turned out to be a dry and quite sunny month. During the last week it was actually very hot, with temperatures well into the 30’s °C (86+ °F). At the end of it all it appears that there might be just a few less bunches than last year, but it’s still early days and a lot can still happen over the coming months.

As there is not really too much to look at in the vineyard, I decided to make a small collage to show the evolution of flowering. The left hand picture (at the end of May), shows the flowering itself. The middle shot (taken a day or two ago), is shortly after the flowering where the berries are just starting to develop and become recognisable. And the right hand picture shows how the bunches will look in a few weeks, when the berries have developed into small peas (before they eventually swell and change colour).

Parts of Europe (focused mainly around the UK), have been battered by a series of winter storms in recent weeks. The equivalent of months of torrential rain falling within hours (as seems to be a recurring story around the world these days). The most significant of these storms are given names by the countries that first detect them, based solely on the idea that they will be easier to track by everyone if they can be more easily identified. The latest of these three storms was named Jorge, as it was first tracked by the Spanish Met office, albeit that it arrived on UK shores long before it reached Spain.

Last night we braced ourselves for a stormy time here in Galicia, but whilst it was certainly wet and windy, it was not nearly as destructive as it had been in the UK. A bit of a non-event to say the least.

Today is actually quite sunny, and not anything like the conditions that our team expected to face as they finish the final days of pruning. It all goes to prove that our weather predictions here on the Atlantic Coast are, well, sometimes quite unpredictable!

What a difference a week makes! I just thought I would post a couple of very recent photos – on the left, from last week, and on the right from yesterday, simply to illustrate what it can be like to live near the Ocean. This is by no means to show how beautiful it can be, but really to demonstrate how it can change from day-to-day, often without warning, and sometimes within hours.

Of course this is Galicia, and so these changes are quite normal (especially in winter). In summer, however, it is not always easy to work with these sudden variations, when alternating heat and humidity can wreak havoc in the vineyards, providing perfect conditions for disease.

As pruning continues, our guys in the vineyards soldier on, come rain or shine!

For the last couple of weeks our team have been out in the vineyards starting the long, labourious task of pruning our vines. As I say nearly every year, this really is a neck/back breaking, thankless job, especially as we appear to have returned to our more traditional Galician autumn/winter weather – cold and wet!

I mentioned a few days ago that during the first days of December we finally welcomed a little sunshine (after a month or more of continuous rain). Well, this respite was short-lived. The rain has now returned, and once again our guys will be working with the rain in their faces!

I think that it would be fair to say that November was the wettest month that we have had for some time – probably even wetter than any single month of last winter. There was hardly a day that passed when it didn’t rain. It was grey, damp and cold; all the characteristics of a typical Galician winter. However, after two very dry summers, it was really what we needed, in order to at least begin the job of replenishing our somewhat depleted water table. Having said that I rather suspect that we will need even more rain over the coming months to complete the task.

The beginning of December has at least provided at least a little respite. For the last couple of days the sky has been blue and the late autumn landscape has taken on a whole new complexion. (It’s amazing how just a little sun can change the whole atmosphere of a place – especially after such a prolonged dull and damp period).

Inevitably, with the bright skies come the cold temperatures, and today we witnessed our first ground frost of the year. With our pruning already underway I am sure that our guys working in the vineyard will prefer cold and sunny to grey and wet!

The last few days before harvest is always a bit nerve-racking. Anticipating the work to come, whilst also constantly checking that everything is in place and no detail has been overlooked…. even down to the purchase of paper rolls.

The grape reception, which is only used once a year, has been cleaned, and nearly half of our mountain of harvest cases have already been distributed.

We are analysing fruit on a daily basis, and watching it edge closer and closer to the best possible balance (between sugar, acidity and pH). Only then will we begin the 2019 harvest.

Of course, whilst monitoring the fruit, we are also keeping a close eye on the weather. At the moment the weather is set fair (at least for the next few days), but as I have said many times before, here on the Atlantic coast this can change in a heartbeat.

Well, until now August has been a strange month – we have seen a lot of sunshine, but the temperatures? There haven’t been too many days reaching 30°C (86°) or even 25°C, for that matter, and the nights have been….. well, decidedly chilly! Evenings have not really been for t-shirts, but perhaps a little more suited to a sweater or jacket. There have also been a number of cloudy days when the sun has not really broken through until 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon. All-in-all it hasn’t been great weather for the tourists, or perhaps even the grape growers for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, our fruit is still very healthy, it really just means that the maturation of the fruit during August has been a little slower than we would have anticipated. Fortunately, it has remained almost completely dry.

Taking this into account, I would anticipate our harvest starting in the middle of September, and over the next few weeks, we will, as always, be gathering samples and closely studying the results to pick the optimum start date.

Obviously from today’s weather map you cannot actually see the temperature, but at 2pm I can tell you that it is only around 20°C (68°F) on the coast, and just a little warmer inland.

…..To buy a really good Castro Martin albariño of course!

A few days ago we welcomed a rather unexpected visitor to our door, actually quite ready to step inside if we hadn’t stopped him (or was it her?) It was the proverbial chicken, quite literally crossing the road in front of our bodega – perhaps just to get to the other side, or maybe in an attempt to escape the oven? (Sorry, that’s a very cruel thing to say, even if possibly true). Subsistence farming is still very common practice in many rural parts of Galicia. The good news is that we simply returned this poor lost soul to the coop.

Meanwhile, it seems that summer could be here! As I have mentioned before, we managed to escape completely from the recent freak heatwave that gripped the rest of Europe for a while. Indeed, we actually experienced a few cool cloudy days over this period. However, we now have sun and temperatures approaching 30°C (86°F), or at least we do for the rest of this week. Who knows what next week might bring?

In the vineyards our fruit is actually quite healthy, despite the changeable conditions, and is well into it’s growing cycle. The next month or two will therefore, be focused on ‘canopy management’ – thinning the leaves where necessary to give the bunches the correct amount of sunlight.