The tasting lottery

It's always been a bit of a conundrum to me, and I have written about it many times before, but there are times when I really do question the value of submitting wines to wine guides and competitions etc. At best these types of tastings are inconsistent, and at worst they are simply a complete lottery.

The reason that I chose to say this now is because over the last month or two we have travelled the world showing our wines to some very knowledgeable professionals in several different cities and countries. The general consensus has been that the 2009 wines that we are selling now are outstanding, and possibly some of the best we have ever made. (Not just our opinion, but an opinion shared by the huge majority of people that tasted, including some top journalists).

Imagine our surprise therefore to discover that the very same wines were rated with some of the lowest scores of the region in a new Spanish wine guide (which shall remain nameless).

Those of you who know me will know that I am often brutally honest, and sometimes get myself into trouble with my outspoken views, but to say that this story does not make any sense is probably something of an understatement. The problem now is that this review has been printed in black and white and will be circulating in book shops over the coming year.

I must say however, that I am not convinced that these wine guides actually have too much influence when it comes to selling our wines, and the real measure of our success or otherwise, is determined much more by our importers and their customers who actually buy, consume and enjoy our wines.

Just to finish, I thought I was honest, but here's a tasting note written by a proprietor about his own wine that might be just a bit close to the bone. I have deleted the name of the wine, but the rest is verbatim.....

******  is not exactly an elegant wine, but it’s not over-extracted either. At first sight, it looks like a “rough soul” with hairs all over his chest, which goes straight to the point, but without dismissing subtleties and a gentleman’s good manners while it bombards your senses with an array of well polished exaggerations – it’s like an iron hand in a glove of soft velvet. A wine for those moments when we are tired of everything and won’t have “more of the same”

Our new "up to" 75cl bottle

Always trying to remain at the forefront of fashion and innovation Castro Martin have now decided to follow the example set by our Spanish broadband provider - in future all bottles will be "up to" 75cl in capacity.

Working at the 'current acceptable averages' this will mean that in future your bottle will probably contain somewhere between 25cl and 50cl of albariño, whilst the price you pay will remain completely unaltered!

Imagine what might happen if other industries were able to escape by giving such vague assurances to their customers..... For example, you might pay €120,000 for a new Aston Martin car which the manufacturer claims has a top speed of "up to" 240 km per hour, whereas in reality its best speed might only be around 100 km per hour. What they have failed to tell you is that the maximum speed can only be achieved in exceptional circumstances, going down a steep hill with a hurricane blowing directly behind you - in other words, in conditions that you are hardly ever likely to encounter.

I am sure that no Aston Martin driver would ever accept this, so why do we accept it with our broadband? I pay for 6MB, so why do I only get an average of around 1.6MB?

I understand that this worldwide phenomena now appears to be the accepted standard, and so I have to ask myself why other industries don't simply follow suit (apart from the fact that they would never get away with it)!

Highlights and lowlights

Well, here we are, fresh off the flight from New York, currently trying to fight sleep and get our body clocks back in sync with Spanish time.

I thought I would try to keep myself awake by making a quick post of one or two of my impressions from our trip - some good, and others not so good.

I will start with the good.....meat! Please remember that we live in the land of fish and seafood here in Galicia, and when they do serve meat, it is nearly always 'ternera', which is a slightly anaemic type of beef, rather nearer to veal than I would like, and therefore lacking the real red meat flavour that I often crave.

Of course this means that the minute I step off the plane in places such as NYC, I immediately head for the nearest steakhouse or burger joint, and this trip was no exception. OK, so it's not good for my colesterol, but in the end this was only a short trip and so my meatfest just a bit of a rare treat. On the beverage side, I have to confess that my first NY burger was washed down with a well chilled American beer, and my delicious prime USDA steak was accompanied by one of my old favourites - Masi's double-fermented Campofiorin. Sorry, not a Spanish wine in sight (nor even a Californian for that matter).

So that's one of the highlights done with, and now for the flipside..... our flights with Iberia! Firstly, I have to say that I think they train their cabin crew by allowing them to suck on lemons - they have such sour faces all the time, and hardly ever break into a smile. And then, with their fixed, dour expressions, they tend to give the impression that they are doing you a favour whenever they serve you, and that they would much rather be somewhere else. I fly with Iberia quite a lot, on both domestic and international flights, and I'm afraid to say that this appears to be quite a common trait on the vast majority of my journeys with them.

Next comes their in-flight catering.... they boast a business class menu created by a two star Michelin chef, Sergi Arola, but what they don't tell you is that the economy class food is prepared by a youth who was trained over the period of one whole weekend in a mobile burger van. It's pretty grim stuff - the garnish of grey mashed potato really says it all!

By the way, let's not mention their in-flight "entertainment" - suffice to say they are a little behind the times - the only choice of movie is shown on the single take-it or leave-it channel, on a tiny overhead screen that can be as far as ten rows away from you.

I regret to say that I don't think that I am alone in my opinion of Iberia, they are generally not very highly rated on the various travellers websites that exist. Complaints seem to be quite frequent, especially when it comes to cabin service.

In future I think that the best option might be to 'vote with my feet' as they say, and seek out an alternative airline for my Atlantic crossings.

Traffic calming, or just traffic enraging?

Click on image to enlarge

A week or so ago we had some visitors from Australia - on the itinerary was a trip to see our El Pazo vineyard on the other side of Barrantes (our local village).

The distance involved is probably less than 2km, which should, in theory, take a couple of minutes. Well, that's the theory, but the problem is that Barrantes is traffic light hell!

Now, there are many traffic calming systems that could be employed to slow cars passing through the village, but unfortunately the method selected by our mayor is not only completely over-the-top, but is also just plain annoying. Several sets of traffic lights within the space of a few hundred metres.

As we waited at the first red light our vistors remarked that there was absolutely no traffic crossing the junction - we had been stopped just for the sake of stopping. To make matters worse there is no 'green wave' - the lights are not properly synchronised, so the likelihood is that you will be stopped more than once, to allow absolutely no traffic to pass. Of course, we were.

There is no real point to this story, except that it does give me the opportunity to use a rather nice photograph to illustrate my point - not that our mayor will take any notice.

As a footnote to this story, in the days since my original post, I have been taking a little more notice of the way that these lights work, or should I say the sequence. It would seem that the programme is designed specifically to stop you at least once during your journey through the village - on one occasion however, I was stopped three times in only 200 or 300 metres!

Responsible drink warnings

Despite living in Spain I still have access to UK television channels (thanks to an enormous satellite dish nailed to our roof!). Last night I was quite shocked to see the latest, and quite dramatic, anti-alcohol campaign launched by the UK's National Health Service.

On many occassions, and on this very blog, I have mentioned that we support responsible drinking- everything in moderation, as they say. However, the claims made in this publicity are bordering on scandalous, and I believe, deliberately designed to engender fear.

Of course I have a vested interest in the drinks business, and perhaps I am not quite as objective as I might be, but I am also remembering that the claims made in this campaign come from a health department that projected there would be more than 60,000 deaths (in the UK alone), from the recent outbreak of swine flu. In reality swine flu officially resulted in 411 deaths, the vast majority of which were ast the result of complications from other, underlying illnesses. In addition to this, the UK government ordered 90 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine, but to date only 4.63 million have been used, (rumour has it that they are now using the surplus to treat broken bones!). It is no wonder that the World Health Organisation has accused European politicians of exaggeration and over-reaction, and is now reviewing response to the pandemic....... anyway, I digress.

The television advertising campaign claims that if a woman consumes just two glasses of white wine per day her blood pressure may increase, and this may significantly increase the likelihood of a stroke. In addition a female drinker could also develop mouth or throat cancer, liver damage and will perhaps suffer from depression.

Even trying to wear my 'objective hat' for a moment, this looks a little like deliberate scaremongering to me, and all this from just two glasses of wine a day? I am not quite sure which is worse, irresponsible drinking or irresponsible government propaganda......

Yes, there is no doubt that over indulgence in alcohol can, and does, cause health problems, but then again, so can eating too many doughnuts!

You may gather that I am more than a little angered by this seemingly exaggerated campaign.

(I thought little this 'rant' was worthy of my soap box logo that I have not used for a while)

Sanidad or Insanity?

Hello, Mr Angry here! Well, where do I start?

I have worked in the Food & Wine business for the whole of my working life (more years than I care to mention), and being in this industry breeds a healthy respect for issues of hygiene, health and safety. Indeed, behind my desk proudly hangs a certificate confirming my own membership of the Royal Institute of Public Health & Hygiene.

We have an 'open-door policy' to inspectors, not only because we are obliged to, but more importantly because we have nothing to hide, and actually take great pride in the appearance and overall cleanliness of our Bodega. OK, we will never be perfect, but we certainly strive toward that goal.

A few days ago a couple of inspectors arrived from our local Xunta, and whilst I know that we are obliged to respect them, I'm afraid that on this occassion I will make an exception.

It has always been my understanding (mainly from my experiences in the UK) that there should be at least some spirit of mutual co-operation between an inspector and the local propietor. In addition, I believe that they should at least be seen to behave in a fair and reasonable manner (unless of course they uncover a serious danger to health and/or well-being).

So, the two men made their inspection of our business, and upon completion informed us that we would have to replace the entire ceiling of our pressing room, and that the work would have to be completed within a month or they would close our cellar. Indeed they added, seemingly with great glee, that they had already closed two other cellars earlier that week!

Now, you should take into account that our pressing room is only used once a year, for a period of about 10-14 days during harvest, and that it is completely isolated from the rest of the cellar. It has the original ceiling which was constructed 25 years ago, and it goes without saying that it does not really pose any immediate risk of contamination to our wine making process.

In my opinion, any reasonable person might have said "please have the ceiling replaced before your next harvest, and we will come back in August to re-inspect" - but no amount of reasoning appeared to change their stance, and their gun was pointed squarely at our temple. We even tried to plead poverty, citing the global recession, and that we needed to preserve our cash reserves, but they stubbornly insisted... 30 days or face closure!

I can only assume they were having a bad day, or pehaps their boss had told them that they had not achieved their 'business closure' quota for the month.......

Recession - does your Company need to sell?

The little soapbox logo/photo that I sometimes use when I have a moan could not be more appropriate for today's post....

You may or may not recall that a month or two ago I wrote about the price of carton, and how the value of re-cycled paper had collapsed - as our own cartons are made from 75% re-cycled paper I sort of anticipated that the price might drop accordingly. Of course, it did not, and this left me with an overwhelming feeling that we were now simply subsidising the brand new state-of-the-art factory recently built by our carton supplier.

Since I arrived in Spain several years ago I have been very happy with this company, as they are often our only supplier that delivers when they say they will, and I would be very reluctant to change them - "If it ain't broken, then don't fix it", as they say. However, for the reason that I explained earlier I thought it only appropriate that I should at least shop around and compare prices.

The salesmen of two other large carton manufacturers (one local and one part of a large group) could probably not believe their luck when they received our unsolicited call inviting them to quote. And so, a few weeks ago they arrived at the bodega, spent an hour discussing our requirements, took samples of our existing cases and then disappeared never to be seen again!

Is it just me? In a recession wouldn't you think that they might be keen to get the new business? Not so, our phones, faxes and e-mail have all remained silent. Now it could be (although it is highly unlikely) that they don't want our business, but if this was the case, you would think that they might at least have the courtesy to tell us.

As you may have guessed I am not impressed, but believe me, I have an even better example!

A few years ago I treated myself to a very nice German car (the brand is not really relevant). Perhaps two months ago I had the car serviced, and whilst hanging around in the showroom where I bought the original car, I picked up the brochure of their latest model. I was completely seduced by the beautiful glossy pictures, and very tempted...... I looked for the salesman, and even went as far as having my old car valued as a possible trade-in against the new model. Obviously there was no way that I would part with such a large amount of money before at least seeing the new car, but no problem I was assured, they could get one from another showroom to show me, and possibly even test drive. Wonderful I thought - and guess what? - two months later I am still waiting for their call!

Now, this particular German manufacturer endured a staggering 63% sales drop in the third quarter of 2008, which has continued in 2009, dropping a further 9% in March alone. Now I have to confess that I don't particularly like pushy salesmen, but in the current market I am sure that the German parent company would be completely mortified if they only knew of such blatant indifference.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Angela and I do not employ salesmen and cover the work ourselves!

Soap box time!

It's been a little while since I posted anything on our blog, I guess that this is probably because I am going through my annual post-harvest depression, or perhaps it's simply that there's not much going on at the moment. So, as we await the first tasting of our 2008 wines, I thought I would fill the time by having a moan!

Now, anyone and everyone who lives in Spain will have his or her own horror story about working/dealing with Telefonica (Spain's largest telecom provider) , so my own recent experience will probably ring true with many - every pun intended.

Each summer we add a new ADSL connection to one of our existing telephone lines, and disconnect it in the autumn (no need for details). A simple exercise one would think, and indeed it used to be, but now the rules have been changed, surprisingly enough to the benefit of Telefonica. To connect is easy - a simple telephone call 'et voila' you have your new ADSL line within a matter of hours. Disconnection is however, another story, and this is where the rules have changed.

On previous occasions a simple fax confirming your desire to disconnect was enough, and subsequently your connection would be cut within a couple of days, but now..... The first step is a call to Telefonica who in turn send you the official disconnection form, by post! This, they remind you, can take up to 14 days - and guess what - it always does! Infact, after two weeks, when you have almost certainly not received anything, you are obliged to call them back so that they have to send you a second letter.

The first year when our letter 'went missing', we simply put this down to bad luck, but then, when it happened again a second time, we realised that it was simply a scam. Of course, by delaying the disconnection as long as possible the company benefits from the additional line rental. (By the way, I forgot to mention that Telefonica already has possibly the most expensive ISP charges in Europe, and whilst many European providers are reducing their fees in the face of stiff competition, Telefonica have just increased theirs!)

So why not move to another ISP? Well, to be honest Telefonica is simply the best of a bad bunch, and doesn't face too much serious competition.

In truth this small scam is simply the tip of the iceberg. Almost every month there is some small but mysterious charge that will appear on your phone bill - it may only be a few cents or an odd euro, but then imagine that this small 'mistake' appears on every customer's bill, multiply by a couple of million, and presto, how many cents will that add up to? Of course Telefonica make the assumption that only a handful of customers will take the time and trouble to complain - and the result of few people complaining?...... more profit in their end of year accounts!

One recent example of this - Telefonica suddenly started to bill for their 'caller ID' service, which had been offered without charge since it's inception a few years earlier. Fair enough, you may say - well, maybe not, as they will now simply charge you an additional fee should you decide to opt out of the service. I think this is known as a win, win situation, or perhaps put more simply, yet another creative way to fleece your customers.

Telefonica - Spain's favourite telecom supplier...... not!

Is your glass supersized?

In another salvo, this time from the Royal College of Physicians, the subject of responsible drinking in the UK has once again come under scrutiny. On this occasion pubs and bars have been criticised for increasing their measure sizes, simply for the purpose of boosting profit margins.

In the official table of alcohol units used by the UK's DrinkAware campaign, a standard glass of wine is considered to be 125ml (six glasses to the bottle). However, only 16% of licensed premises say that this is now their standard measure, whereas up to 73% say that the new standard has increased to 175ml. In some cases glasses of 250ml are being served, which equates to one third of a bottle in every drink!

It is rare that wine drinking finds itself the spotlight, but if these statistics are to be believed, then there is probably reasonable cause for concern.

For those of you worried by your personal intake, our Albarino (with 12,5% Alcohol), yields only 1,6 units per 125ml glass, and 9,4 units per bottle.

A good year?

Angela and I (in our dreams!)

The other day I had occasion to contact our local denomination office to ask them for some information about recent vintages. In reply, they sent me a sheet listing all the statistics of every vintage since the creation of the Rias Baixas D.O. (back in 1987).

The information that I actually needed was the number of kilos picked and the number of litres produced, but alongside each vintage they also listed the official D.O. quality rating, which made absolutely fascinating reading.....

In the 20 vintages since the creation of the D. O. there have been no fewer than 10 officially 'Good' vintages, 6 'Very Good' vintages and 4 'Excellent' vintages. Significantly, the last three consecutive vintages have all been categorised as 'Excellent'.

As I have said before, such sweepingly generalised ratings serve of little use to us, and even less to the average consumer (not even taking into account that I disagree with some of their assessments). For example, the top-quality 2001 vintage has only been officially rated as good, whilst 2006 appears as excellent. OK, so our 2006 wine was pretty good, but I certainly think that in our bodega the 2001 wine was superior.

In addition, not one single vintage since the creation of the D.O. is listed as poor, or even mediocre quality - I have to question whether this is entirely truthful?

Whilst it is clearly not in the interest of our local denomination office to shoot themselves in the foot by saying that any particular vintage is poor, there is a train of thought that says it might be better to be honest with the consumer, rather than giving them a false impression.

Perhaps the answer is to introduce some new official categories? How about 'Nice' or 'Interesting'?!

Drinking at Christmas

The UK government is having a bit of a crackdown on excessive alcohol consumption - and probably not before time. It's a little depressing to see some UK town centres regularly filled with hoards of young drinkers sprawled about the place in a drunken stupor (unfortunately a sight not exclusively reserved to Christmas time).

However, when it comes to excessive drinking I am not sure that the wine industry is entirely to blame, as I rather suspect that many offenders who stagger the streets on a Saturday night are more likely to be filled with beer and spirits, rather than bottles of Albariño!

At Castro Martin we always try to promote wine consumption in moderation, and I am sure that it will not be too long before we will include a message on our labels to that effect.

One of the other trends that we have also noticed recently are the increased levels of alcohol in wine. It is now quite common to see some new world wines reaching nearly 15% alcohol (the level of fortified wine). This is not intended as a criticism of the new world, as this higher alcohol simply results from the natural process:

Warm climate = more sugar = more alcohol

Until now, this has never been a concern in Rias Baixas - the anticipated alcohol range for Albariño would normally be between 11,5% and 12,5%. Having said that, for the last two years at least, we have seen wines at the upper end of this band, and we are left wondering if this is the effect of global warming on our verdant little corner of Spain.

As a positive selling point I always mention to our customers that Albariño is a 'drinking' (food and/or aperitif) wine, where two people can sit down, share, and easily finish the bottle, without feeling too many adverse side effects..... in other words, enjoyable, easy drinking.

So, enjoy your Christmas holidays, and try not to overdo it on the turkey either!

(For more information about the UK drink awareness campaign click here.)

The value of having an Advocate....

Love him or hate him Robert Parker Jr has been influencing the latest fashion in wine for nearly 30 years now. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I am not a great fan. Not because of what he originally set out to do, but more because of what he has since become.

His original idea way back in 1978, when he produced the first issue of his Wine Advocate, was simply to unlock some of the mystery of wine for the average man in the street. Using a concise rating system out of 100 points, his readers would know if (according to Parker's taste), the wine worth buying or not. No harm in that - indeed a very good idea.

Unfortunately, over time, his publication became absurdly over-influential, not only in determining the success or failure of a particular property, but also, more importantly, influencing the style and taste of wine itself.

In Bordeaux for example, he latched on to the distinctive style of winemaker Michel Rolland as being a benchmark for the modern taste of that region. Dark, ripe, over-extracted wines were to become the order of the day, albeit that they simply did not age in the same way, or perhaps even as well as wines that were made using the more traditional 'old fashioned' methods. His palate was perhaps influenced by the North American style of up-front, forward, fruit driven wines. Fine if you like that sort of thing, but not so fine when, as a result, every wine maker on the planet becomes desperate to clone this modern, 'Parker style'. Their goal of course, to glean a few more precious Parker points.

From my own experience as a buyer back in the 80's, I also heard one or two stories about his work in Burgundy (before he farmed out tasting for that region to Michel Bettane). I was told first hand, by growers themselves, that he had rated their wine when it was actually not possible that he had even tasted it! Heaven only knows why he would chose to do that.

So, my advice in buying wine is the same now as it has always been: Sure, use a wine guide (or even better, cross-reference several) to give you some ideas, but in the end, drink what you enjoy drinking, and not what someone tells you that you should drink!

Responsible drinking?

Spain can be a country of contradictions - sometimes between Local and National Governments. I do not comment on many of these simply because they have no connection to the wine trade, but on this occasion, as it relates to alcohol, I feel compelled to comment.....

Last year, whilst explaining why we chose to opt out of the annual Albariño Festival (see August 2006), I mentioned a worrying phenomena that continues to grow here in Spain - The Botellón. Basically these are organised street-drinking parties that take place every weekend in nearly every city, town and village throughout Spain.

Young people take to the off-licences and supermarkets to stock up on spirits and mixers, on the pretext that they cannot afford to drink in bars and discos. The result being that public areas in cities, towns and villages throng with drunken young people well into the early hours of the morning as they openly swig from their bottles. (And when I say young, they start as young as 11, 12 and 13, simply asking their elders to buy the alcohol for them). The areas that they frequent are left littered with debris and empty bottles, and I will not detail some of the other sights and smells! I guess that the only saving grace might be that they do not appear to resort to any violence (as yet).

The Spanish Government has acted by printing the brochure above, stating that one in every three children between the ages of 14 and 18 gets drunk at least once a month, and then it goes on to warn parents that excessive alcohol can cause irreversable brain damage. Bravo! I may hear you say, there is at least one initiative..... but wait, how does Local government chose to back this National scheme?

Reported, quite incredibly, in the local Galician press, is a meeting between a member of the local Xunta and representatives of the young people. Their agenda? To discuss ways to prevent this under age street-drinking? Well, no, but actually to find alternative locations around the city of Pontevedra where they might re-locate their Botellón to create a little less disturbance!!!

Apparently the local Government believes that it is easier to accomodate the young people and find them a nice location, rather than to confront them and address the underlying problem.....

Is this a tale of 'political correctness' gone mad?

N.B. At the meeting, the young people turned down the alternative locations as unsuitable, so they will continue to party in the historic old town centre of Pontevedra. Heaven help the local residents....

Would you buy a wine with no label?

Only buy wine that is formally dressed!

When I first arrived in Spain a few years ago one of the things that first struck me when eating out was the number of unlabelled bottles served to the tables - not carafe wine, but wine bottled, with a cork, simply missing any form of identification. This was not an 'under the counter' operation, but very open and blatant, and an offer taken up by the large majority of customers. I have no doubt that this wine even tasted a little 'sweeter' to these consumers as they enjoyed a cheaper price as a result of not paying any tax!

Whilst this type of 'deal' is probably offered all around the vineyards of Europe, I cannot imagine it happening too much in the New World. The real shock for me however, was the sheer volume and audacity of the practice (especially when I consider the stringent controls that we face as wine producers, not only to guarantee the quality of our product, but also to dot every 'i' and cross every 't' on the label). In the past, for example, we have actually been pulled up for having a typeface that is 1mm too small, let alone not having any label at all! So it would hardly seem fair, to say the least.....

Possibly out of guilt, but more likely owing to the loss of taxes, our local Government has now started an initiative to stop the practice of unlabelled wine by printing a brochure. How this will help I am not quite sure, as it always the enforcement that seems to be a bit lacking here in Spain. I can only hope that we enjoy more success than the no-smoking law which appears to have made almost no difference whatsoever!

The cost of supermarket shopping

Let me start by saying that I actually like supermarkets - I belong to the minority of males who quite enjoy wheeling a trolley up and down the aisles!

The choice of goods in UK supermarkets is mind-boggling (especially when compared to the somewhat limited selection that we have here in Galicia). I also have to admit that supermarkets have been instrumental in promoting competitive pricing, albeit sometimes at the expense of local traders. Unfortunately our small local shop does not enjoy the same purchasing power, and, regrettably, it is this very power that can sometimes be abused......

We regularly hear of desperate UK dairy farmers being forced out of business as they are obliged to sell their milk to supermarkets at below their cost price - although it would now seem that this problem is slowly being addressed with the promotion of locally produced milk. Likewise with local fruit and vegetables - as the high street giants now scramble to reduce their carbon footprint they are increasingly supporting their local producers. All very positive news.

I am however puzzled by the 'fair trade' range of products carried by many chains, simply as this phrase appears to imply that the rest of their trade might not be as fair as it should be! Maybe I am just reading too much into this?

The bad news is that the "supermarket squeeze" on pricing has now filtered through to the wine trade too. The following text is an extract from an article in the UK's Daily Telegraph, and relates the story of Southern French producers:

Mr Bourchet is just one of many small-scale "vignerons" (wine growers) in the Languedoc and Roussillon region who are prepared to grub up to avoid bankruptcy after three years of losses.
He said times were so bad that several winegrowers had committed suicide since the beginning of the year.
Local wine producers are furious that their sale prices have been slashed by around 50 per cent while wine prices in shops and supermarkets have not dipped. A litre of vin de pays is sold for as little as 0.35 euros (24p) and costs 10 times that amount in supermarkets. "Someone is pocketing the difference and we want to know who," he said.

My message to the supermarkets..... don't forget to support your (not so local) wine producers too!

Vintage Guides

The other day I received a gift from my bank in the form of a 2007 pocket diary. As usual the introductory pages are packed with all sorts of information including International holidays, dialling codes, maps and travel tips. This year however, they have added a wine vintage chart (albeit only for French wine regions).

Of course every wine drinker will understand the importance of a vintage and how it can influence quality, but in some cases I think that too little information can be a very dangerous thing. However well intentioned, the level of detail is always going to be very limited, and therefore prone to some misleading generalisations. For example, it is simply impossible to claim that every wine from Bordeaux, Alsace or whatever region, in a given vintage is outstanding, average or even poor. There will always be exceptions........

I understand of course, that such a chart is only intended as a guide, but it is a shame to think that some perfectly good wines might be overlooked just because a tiny chart only gives the vintage two stars. (In a similar way journalists have been known to unwittingly write off an entire vintage at the stroke of a pen).

In addition to this comes what I call "the honesty factor". I recently remarked upon a similar vintage chart compiled for Spanish wines - nearly every wine from every region was classified as good, very good or exceptional (not one poor wine in sight!) I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from this.........

Another installment from the McCarthy's soapbox series

What value Gold?

I have to admit that I have mixed views about the true value of wine competitions, not because we don't mind winning the occassional gong, but more because the award system itself is often wide open to abuse. I will explain.....

From experience I believe that it is very often the most obvious, young, full-bodied and over-extracted wines that are put forward to win awards. In the case of white wines this can be the wine that is laced with new oak, or one that perhaps retains a suggestion of residual sugar. Entries with any degree of structure, elegance, complexity or even bottle-age can quite easily be lost or overpowered simply because they are not fully understood, or their true underlying potential is not recognised. Of course these more 'commercial' styles have their place in educating the novice wine consumer, but on the other hand there should always be space for some award winning wines of subtlety and refinement too.

My second concern is that wine competitions have now become very big business – 1,000’s of wines submitted, with each bottle commanding a substantial entry fee, that can, in some cases, result in a generous profit for the organisers. At times, it must be said, there has also been an "over generous" quota of medals and certificates awarded (regardless of overall quality), simply to keep producers satisfied, justify the fee, and promote continued support.

Finally, there is the problem of the 'doctored sample'....... Organisers of wine competitions invite producers to send their samples, and it is only human nature that a cellar would wish to submit their very best bottle. This being the case, some unscrupulous wine makers reserve a special tank or barrel of wine that is used exclusively for this purpose, and has nothing to do with the quality of the wine that ends up in your local wine shop. In this way, not only are the judges duped, but also the poor consumer is being cheated out of his bottle of the genuine award winning wine.

In saying all this I must emphasise that this is not sour grapes (pardon the pun), as we have been lucky enough to win our fair share of awards over the years. I guess that what I am trying to suggest is that medals and certificates can be misleading, and do not necessarily guarantee consistent or even outstanding quality.

I can assure you that an odd gold medal will not make our own wine taste any better than it already does! For us at least a great bottle at a reasonable price means so much more.

Footnote: By coincidence this article from the New Zealand Herald was posted on 2nd December 2006, about 10 days after I made this entry.

Another installment from the McCarthy's soap box series

The great closure debate

So what is the best type of wine closure?

To be truthful I am a bit bored of writing about picking grapes, so I thought I would have a day off, and write about something much more contentious..... corks and closures! This has been singularly one of the most divisive subjects in the wine industry for a very long time now.

The natural cork industry has lost about 22% of it's market share and is fighting back with new fangled ideas such as ROSA (Rate of Optimal Steam Application) and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction to eliminate cork taint (please don't ask me to explain either of these, but suffice to say that they certainly sound very impressive!) At the same time there are many different accusations, claims and counterclaims flying around, and to be honest it's actually quite difficult to know who to believe.

There is no doubt that screw-cap has made a very big impression, (especially in white wines) to the extent that it is now actually quite difficult to find a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that does not use Stelvin. (Stelvin is a brand name, the 'Hoover' of the screw-cap industry, often used to describe the closure itself). Here at Castro Martin we have been asked by a few of our more progressive customers when we are going to start with Stevlin, and my reply is always the same; "one step at a time please".

After several months of testing back in 2002, we opted for a synthetic closure, and like any type of product, I think I should explain, there are good examples and bad examples. In the case of synthetics there are two main types, extruded and moulded - as the name implies a moulded closure is made in it's own individual mould, whilst extruded are made as one long continuous 'sausage' and then sliced into individual closures. Moulded tend to be more solid and impervious, whereas extruded can be better placed to mimic the behaviour of a natural cork.

We have opted to use one of the best synthetics on the market, and this is not, as some might assume, a way of saving money - it actually does not! The Nomacorc 'classic' that we use performs exactly like a natural cork - we do not suffer any premature oxidation (as experienced with some other synthetic brands), and we never have to worry about cork taint. Indeed, only yesterday, we were visited by two top Australian winemakers, and they were completely blown away by a bottle of 2002 that I opened for them.

I rest my case m'lord....

Let the fireworks begin..... or should they?

Fireworks are an integral part of every Fiesta

Today is a National 'Festivo' in Spain, and, as usual, the holiday was heralded by the familiar early morning explosion of fireworks (this can be from 8am - which is a bit early for this country!)

Bearing in mind the entry on our blogsite of yesterday, and the tale of the devastating forest fires around Galicia, it suddenly occurred to me...... I did not list fireworks as one of the possible causes of forest fires.

In Spain, where every type of outdoor fire is strictly controlled, but mostly banned completely during the summer months (official permission is required from your local town hall), I find it difficult to believe that the same authorities continue to allow the indiscriminate launching of fireworks simply to mark the beginning and/or end of a public holiday.

In my humble opinion this would seem to be at best, a little irresponsible, and at worst, bordering on the criminal!

Another installment from the McCarthy's soap box series

Tasting, Fiesta or Drunken Orgy?

It is probably quite dangerous, and certainly not politically correct, to be critical of one's own Denomination of Origin, but here goes.....

Every August in Cambados (the spiritual capital of Rias Baixas) we celebrate the Annual Albariño Festival. This year, for the first time in many years, Bodegas Castro Martin was conspicuous by its absence. The main reason for this is actually quite sad.

Originally the Fiesta was quite a "gentile" event, an opportunity to taste, to enjoy, and possibly even compare the wines of the region. It has always been accompanied by a certain amount of pomp and ceremony - the induction of Knights and Dames of Albariño, a prestigious wine competition, the attendance of local politicians, an odd celebrity, and always rounded off with a huge gala lunch and prize giving (regrettably none of the ceremonies are open to the public).

The backdrop to the official events is the Fiesta itself, which runs for a period of 4 days - lunchtimes, evenings and most of the night...... and thereby lays the problem.

One of the more unsavoury phenomenon that has emerged in Spain over recent years is that of the "Botellon" - basically organised groups of young people buying alcohol from shops and off-licences to drink in pre-arranged public locations, such as parks, squares, beaches etc. Of course this type of wild (and often under-age) drinking exists in many countries, but in Spain it is possible to find children of 12-14 years old drinking until 2 or 3 in the morning (and the older ones possibly all night).

So what does all this have to do with the Albariño Festival? Well, for me at least, it is perhaps just the realisation that the event seems to have lost its true meaning and direction, and is in danger of just becoming an excuse to legitimise heavy, all-night drinking.
Tasting? Wine appreciation? Forget it!

It is probably true to say that my view this year has been somewhat tainted by the events that unfolded on the penultimate night..... On Saturday evening a person that we know was at the Fiesta enjoying a quiet wine with friends, when suddenly, from nowhere, she was hit in the face by a flying wine glass, at this point you really do start to call into question the value and future of the Albariño Festival itself.

We prefer to encourage only responsible drinking, and implore you to enjoy our Albariño in moderation!

An installment from the McCarthy's soap box series