Caeiro vineyard 3 years on

Caeiro vineyard - May 2004

Caerio vineyard today - June 2007

Vineyards in Galicia are like gold dust, and very difficult to come by. This is not because of a shortage of land, or even suitable sites, but it is simply that you need to have permission to plant, and this is the problem.

With the EU actively discouraging the planting of new vineyards in order to control the overall volume of production in Europe, the only way that new planting is allowed is by buying permission - effectively buying the right to plant from another area where a vineyard has been grubbed up. This may not necessarily be from within Galicia, but could be just as easily from La Mancha or Navarra. Strange as this may seem, these are the rules....

The photographs above show the progress of our vineyard here at the Bodega (approx one hectare). The first shot taken in 2004, about a year after the vines were planted, and then the same view from 2007. The vines are now more or less in production, and at harvest time we will carefully sift through the grapes to perhaps include a few of the best.

At the moment the pergolas in Caeiro are not fully completed, and during this winter we will add the tubes that are suspended between the posts in order to train the vines overhead.