Lunes 09:00 - 17:00 Martes 09:00 - 17:00 Miércoles 09:00 - 17:00 Jueves 09:00 - 17:00 Viernes 09:00 - 16:00

Bodegas Castro Martin

Name: Bodegas Castro Martin
Address: Ribadumia, 36636, ES
Telephone: +34986710202
Price range: ££

Casa
España
Ribadumia
Bodegas Castro Martin

A family-owned and managed Bodega located in the Rias Baixas denomination of Galicia, North West Spain.

Makers of fine quality Albariño for distribution to different countries throughout the world

04/09/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day Five

Yet another sunny day, and today quite a hot one. The forecast puts the temperature in the high 20's°C, touching 30°C (86°F). The only saving grace is the our system of vine training, the overhead pergolas, does afford some shelter from direct sunlight making it just a small touch more bearable.

Work continues both inside and outside the cellar, with grapes being collected and more tanks being racked. Once our harvest is underway the process becomes a non-stop conveyor for a period of about 5 to 6 weeks. (Luckily we only have white grapes, because if we also made red wine then once we had finished the white, then we would immediately start again with the red!). I am far too old for that, one harvest a year is more than enough, thank you!

In the end, it was just another (long, hard) but uneventful day!

02/09/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day Four

The sun is shining once again, and the picking is moving along at a steady pace. However, work has already started inside the cellar as our fresh grape must takes the first step in its transition into wine. After a couple of days of cold settling (when all the soil particles, debris and other fragments drop to the bottom of the tank), we draw off the clean must from above, leaving all the debris behind at the bottom. This process is known as racking.

When the clean must is being drawn off we use a special connection in our hoses that includes a short glass 'window' so we can judge when we are reaching the debris (or fangos as we call it). There is a special mechanism which extends inside the tank that we can lower bit by bit and then stop as soon as the colour of the liquid in the window changes. All very technical (well, not actually, it's quite a simple, but clever mechanism).

Meanwhile our presses are slowly processing more and more fruit as our team moves between our various vineyard sites. The flow has actually slowed a little in the last day or so, as the weekend is always the most hectic time for harvest (when our growers often have more family members available to pick).

01/09/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day Three

We opened our shutters on day three to clear, cloudless blue skies, and fingers crossed, our weather is set fair for the coming week.

As in the last couple of years, the only slight problem that we face at harvest time is recruiting good, worthwhile pickers. As with many other fruit crops around the world, good quality, reliable labour is getting harder to find,(especially as the grape harvest in more or less the whole denomination is concentrated into a period of just a few short weeks). Of course, we can simply recruit a lot of people, but experience has proved to us that many are not really good enough, easily distracted and working at a very relaxed pace. Naturally, we don't expect our pickers to be automatons, but we do need to trust them to be able to work without constant supervision. Sometimes it is better, and actually more efficient, to work with fewer very good people, than a vast army of people just going through the motions.

Having said all that we are still working at a brisk pace, and grapes are moving through smoothly as soon as they arrive. Once the grapes have been pressed and the grape must (juice) is moved into our tanks, this still leaves us with the 'bagazo' (the grape skins and stalks). This bagazo is collected in small containers and then transferred to a much larger container, in the middle of our car park. Today's photo shows this process.

01/09/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day Two
After yesterday's drizzle, Sunday's harvest was complete under blue, almost cloudless skies. Our team in the bodega functioned like a well-oiled machine, and grapes were, delivered, pressed and transferred into tanks in no time at all. Exactly as it should be! ñoatlantico

31/08/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day Two

The good news at the start of day two was that the grey skies had largely cleared, and the sun actually started to shine on our harvest. At the end of day one we had the opportunity to taste the first couple of tanks, and we were not too disappointed. The grape must showed some pretty good potential, with it usual intense fruit, and despite the hot summer, still retaining a fresh acidity. From very early analysis is possible that alcohol might be somewhere between 12.5% and 13%, but obviously we still have some days to go, working in different vineyard sites with different aspects and soils.

Day two started under a comparatively clear skies and broken sunshine, a vast improvement on Saturday! I know that I am repeating myself now, but I do have to say that once the first press was loaded, the team in the bodega worked like a well-oiled (and well trained) machine. Unloading vehicles, loading presses, washing the used cases, working like a conveyor belt, as it should. There was a brisk flow of fruit arriving all afternoon, but no sooner had it been weighed, tested and generally checked for quality, than it was already being loaded into one of the presses.... there were virtually no delays. As soon as one press was unloaded, it was immediately refilled and restarted.

I think that it would be very fair to say that our Sunday passed off without incident.

30/08/2026

Harvest 2026 - Day One

Well, unfortunately, the first day of our 2026 harvest didn't go exactly as planned, and for quite a common reason in our region.... the weather. In the last few days the forecasts had been changing almost from one hour to the next, and as often happens, the four weather apps that I was consulting, were more or less contradicting each other. Some forecast rain, others not. Regrettably for us, it was the forecast of rain that proved to be the more accurate.

Although it was overcast from the offset, the very light rain did not arrive until almost midday. This very fine rain continued for the next three hours, and despite it not being that heavy, it was enough to start soaking the fruit, rendering it unsuitable for pressing - too much residual water on the grape skins.

At lunch time we told all our pickers that work would be suspended for the day, and so after lunch all that remained was to gather the fruit that had already been harvested. Despite making this decision the afternoon proved to be quite busy, and the presses worked hard all evening. Of course, it was not the day that we had planned, but in the end it was not a bad start.

26/08/2026

This year's growing season has been interesting to say the least. Hailstorms, drought, fire and now rain (I think that we are still missing a plague of frogs to complete the set!).

With all the heat and sunshine this year we had already anticipated that this year's harvest would be early, and so, perhaps only for the second time in the last 25 years, we will start to pick in August. Ironically, after two months of completely dry weather, last weekend we experienced our first rainfall. The rain has continued on and off for the last few days, but the forecast for heavy rain and storms has not materialised (fingers crossed). We are planning to start on Friday 28th, all being well. Of course, after this rain, if left too long, the bunches could start to develop rot. Friday is our target day, as, depending on which forecast you follow, there is still a possibility of rain. However, as I always say, especially at harvest time, that the best forecast will be to simply open the shutters (on Friday) and look outside!

Today's picture shows the aftermath of our fire just outside the fence of the bodega some 10 days ago. Although the fire did not take hold on any of our vines, a few of those around the perimeter were scorched, leaving the fruit completely unusable. I have tasted a few grapes from vines a couple of meters inside the fence, and perhaps thanks to the rain, they should probably be OK, albeit we will keep this fruit separated, and pressed apart, just in case.

16/08/2026

FIRE!!!!

Apart from only one or two isolated showers over the last two or three months there has been no significant rainfall at all this summer. Of course, this means that our local fields and forests are all tinder dry, and in a very dangerous state. Despite warnings from local government (including overhead gantries on our motorways) warning of the risks, this arid, dry ground finally succumbed to the flames....

We have vineyards to the rear and side of our bodega, and behind that there is a wooded copse of mainly eucalyptus (not indigenous, but a species that accounts for between 30-40% of all Galician forests). Yesterday evening, for reasons that we may never know, these trees caught fire!

An alert neighbour jumped our fence, raised the alarm, and within a short time we had two fire appliances, the Guarda Civil, the Xunta de Galicia and even the local mayor in attendance. I assume that, owing to the proximity of housing, and not to mention, a bodega, these were soon joined by two fire fighting aircraft and a helicopter. We certainly cannot complain about the reaction of our local services.

Within an hour or so, it was under control, and despite a brief second flare up, it was eventually extinguished completely. Although the fire reached right up to the perimeter wall of the vineyard, we do not believe that any fruit was actually lost, but we will make a full assessment early next week. Of course, the other thing that we may have to take into account is smoke damage. It is not completely unheard of for smoke to add a slight taint to a wine (but not in a nice way). We will certainly have to keep this in mind this when harvesting.

03/08/2026

Licensed to taste!
By coincidence, for this year's Annual tasting at the Albariño Festival, they gave me the invitation number 007..... Does that mean that I am now licensed to taste??

01/08/2026

Happy Albariño Day!
At the Annual Tunnel of Wine tasting we find Juan Gil (Ex-President of DO Rías Baixas, Isidoro Serantes (Current President of the DO), Angela Martin (President of the Asociación de Empresarios Bodegueros y Viticultores) and Martín Alemparte (Director of the Agencia Galega de Calidade Agroalimentaria - Xunta de Galicia).

Dirección

Ribadumia
36636

Horario de Apertura

Lunes	09:00 - 17:00
Martes	09:00 - 17:00
Miércoles	09:00 - 17:00
Jueves	09:00 - 17:00
Viernes	09:00 - 16:00

Teléfono

+34986710202

Página web

http://www.bodegascastromartin.com/

Notificaciones

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