A minor gong

In all the excitement of the harvest I forgot to mention that one of our wines picked up first prize in a local Galician competition for Albariño. As you may know if you read my blog regularly, we do not actively enter too many wine concourses, but now and again an odd bottle slips in, and this is usually the result! In this particular case one of the plus points of winning the competition is this rather attractive trophy, which I think is actually quite tasteful - much better than any cheap-looking silver cup that we sometimes receive......

Meanwhile, back in the bodega, the post-harvest deep cleaning programme is well under way, and we have pressure washers working everywhere to remove the sticky, dried grape juice. As you enter certain parts of the bodega you have to be careful when you open the door that you don't get a blast of water in your face, as nearly happened to me this morning (or perhaps it was on purpose?).

All the musts have now been racked, and we are about to start seeding the tanks, but before we do, I made one last, comprehensive taste of the juice. 2010 has produced a light, fragrant must, with a slightly lower acidity than last year (probably a slightly better balance). In the mouth there are floral overtones with hints of lime blossom, fresh apple, stone pears and as always, a very piercing fruit - very typical of the Albariño grape variety.

Of course we are a very long way off the finished article, but I am pretty confident that our customers will not be disappointed with the resulting wine. Now over to Angela to work her magic.....