Bodegas Castro Martin

04/06/2026

After the catastrophe of hail about a month ago, the second half of May provided us with more favourable conditions. After a dry, warm sunny fortnight during the second half of the month, our flowering passed off without further incident. Now that we have fruit set, we are perhaps seeing some of the side effects of the inclement weather. It appears that some of the newly formed bunches might not be as dense as normal, with fewer berries, known as 'coulure' in France. This would not necessarily reduce the quality of the wine, but may indeed reduce the quantity, simply because there are less grapes in each bunch.

One of the most time consuming jobs of the year is pruning, and once that is behind us, we can start to catch up on other jobs both inside and outside the cellar, that have been put on hold. Springtime, is, hopefully, a time when our customers stock up on wine for the summer, and fortunately there has been a steady flow of orders coming in. There has been a fair amount of bottling and labelling going on (we often bottle our wines without any labels at all, as so many different markets have their own, individual labelling requirements and have to be prepared to order).

After more than six months of lees ageing it is also the time of year that we start to rack the first tanks of last years harvest. Of course, new labels also have to be printed in preparation for the release of our first 2025's.

13/05/2026

As if our recent problems with the weather, more specifically hail, weren't bad enough, we have now suffered a failure in the bodega infrastructure. A broken underground pipe. There was no apparent reason for this to happen but was probably simply down to it's age. The problem was that rather than bursting upwards in a fountain, the water was actually seeping out below ground. Unfortunately, because the pipe was just outside our grape reception (at the top of the building), the water eventually appeared in the ceiling of the bodega, dripping into the tank room. (No damage was caused to any wine, as of course, all tanks are tightly sealed). The difficulty, as with many leaks, was that it took some time to find the source, especially as it was well concealed. The only clue we had was that it appeared to be worse when we used a certain tap (that we use for adding water to our treatment tanks). We simply had to start digging! Eventually, we discovered the source and now, having made the appropriate repairs, we wait with baited breath to see if this issue is behind us.

Returning briefly to the hail damage, it would seem that 3 or 4 of our smaller vineyards were hit, with varying amounts of damage. As I mentioned before we will now have to simply wait to see what the flowering and fruit set will yield for 2026. It will certainly be less than usual in some locations, but by how much we don't yet know.

29/04/2026

DISASTER!

Yesterday evening our vineyards in and around the village of Barrantes were hit by a storm... unfortunately this included a pretty heavy hailstorm. The main road of the village was partially flooded, and at least 3 or 4 hectares of our vines were damaged by hail. Of course, it is too early to know exactly how much our crop might lost, and we do leave a secondary cane during pruning (as a type of insurance against frost or hail). The problem is that these shoots will, unfortunately, produce a smaller crop. At least some of our vineyards were not touched by the storm, so it is not a complete loss (fingers crossed).

Up until the moment of the storms, the month of April had been largely warm and dry, and following the winter rains our vines had been growing quite vigorously. It seems that May might be more changeable with a mixture of conditions forecast for the coming weeks. We will know more once flowering has passed.

12/04/2026

05/03/2026

At this time of year it's mostly about the pruning... and of course, the weather. Unfortunately the pruning has to be done no matter what the weather decides to throw at us. As I have said a million times before.... well, actually, maybe only half a million, our guys that do this job, come rain or shine, are heroes, and it is certainly not a job that I would volunteer to do!

This winter has been especially bad, the last two months of 2025 were wet, and from January until the third week of February there were only 2 or 3 days without any rain at all. The last week of February and first couple of days of March were a little brighter, and on the first sunny weekend in months the locals came out in their droves, just to feel a little warmth on their faces (and I mean just a little warmth - temperatures remained largely below 20°C (68°F), and mostly in the mid to high teens).

Now, on 5th March, it seems like this brief respite is over and the rain has returned. However, there are a few more breaks in the forecast, and temperatures are slowly starting to creep upwards (but not really high enough to provoke too much life in the vines as yet). The days are getting noticeably longer and so it would appear that Spring may finally be on the way.

05/02/2026

The last couple of months of 2025 were quite damp, to say the least, but January 2026 was Wet (with a capital W)! OK, we do not have the flooding that they have suffered in the UK, nor do we have the severe cold that swept across Texas and the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., but we have still had our fair share of precipitation..... and, there are no real signs of it letting up anytime soon.

The first month of any year is traditionally a quiet period, after the Christmas rush. Thankfully we still have a few orders rolling in and our guys are very thankful as it gives them a break from pruning, meaning that they can work inside the bodega for a while, out of the rain! Pruning is absolutely the most miserable job you can imagine when the rain is pouring incessantly.

In the town of Sanxenxo, regarded as one of Galicia's most exclusive seaside resorts, there was a bit of excitement when a small section of pavement started to slip towards the sea when the ground became totally saturated. In the general scheme of things this was pretty much a non-event, simply the movement of a few paving slabs, but with fairly extensive local press and TV coverage you would be forgiven for thinking that there had been a earthquake, or something similar!

01/01/2026

Belated Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our usual Christmas family get together was put on hold this year, for one simple reason.... flu. As you will know from the news, there is a pretty contagious flu virus sweeping around parts of Europe, including Spain, and despite pre-emptive injections, it can still leave you feeling pretty bad. Angela, for example, had been vaccinated but still spent a day or two in bed suffering from the effects. Despite our best efforts (masks etc.), this was quickly passed on to our daughter!

It wasn't until 30th December that everyone had recovered sufficiently to sit down and enjoy a meal. So, after a little replacement shopping we managed to enjoy our planned Christmas menu, washed down by a couple of half decent wines (see photo).

Of course, our bodega has had an extended closure over this period as the country celebrates three holidays - Christmas, New Year and Reyes. Business will resume on 7th January. In the meantime, we wish you all Happy Holidays!

01/12/2025

The Rias Baixas Denomination - Castro Martin

¡Conoce el trabajo de nuestras bodegas y disfruta de nuestro territorio en esta nueva entrega de Historias con Denominación de Origen! 🍇🎬¡Y recuerda seguir...

27/11/2025

Firstly, and quite simply, a Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends and customers! I hope I do not offend by using a backdrop of NYC, but I have to confess that the majority of our sales in the U.S. are focused around NYC and NJ.

It has been a while since my last post, quite simply because, once the dust has settled from our harvest, there is actually not a lot happening. After this frantic period (and the clean up afterwards), things always seem quite calm and relaxed by comparison. The 2025 wines are resting quietly on their lees, and after a few tastings I am happy to say that we are more than satisfied with the outcome. Outside the bodega, the pruning is now underway, and will probably continue for the next two or three months.

The weather has been probably a bit too mild so far this autumn, with just a handful of cold days in the last week or so. Rainfall has been on and off but mostly light apart from two recent Atlantic storms that produced some days of really torrential rain. Luckily there was no apparent flooding.

So, revisiting my opening line for one moment I would just like to remind you that Albariño goes extremely well with turkey!