July
2004
Well,
so much for my idea to update the diary every month-suddenly it is July
and I am sitting looking out at the Mediterranean here in the village
of Llafranc on the Costa Brava. I call this is a work trip as I have
just gained another Spanish client, La Caleta, a beatiful bar/ restaurant
here which serves excellent fusion food and tapas made from the fresh
produce of the area. La Pamelita goes particularly
well with the carpaccio of beef drizzled with a foie mousse. Am I making
you jealous? La Pamelita does work very well as a summer
wine as it is served chilled and has great body and spicy flavours to
accompany a wide range of dishes. On a hot sunny day, a full bodied
traditional red can be too heavy but the naturally produced gas in La
Pamelita gives a freshness and lift to the wine and adds to
its drinkability. La Rosita is also a delicious summer
wine; with its delicate pink colour and its creamy nose, it is a good
combination with pre dinner nibbles or as a palate refresher with strawberries
after the meal.
I
spent the first three weeks of May in the UK; firstly I took part in
the judging of the International Wine Challenge for the final 3 days
of the epic tasting where over 9000 wines from all over the world were
tasted. I enjoyed my time immensely as it is always good to see what
other winemakers are doing and to learn more about different wine styles.
One of the tasting highlights was an ice wine from Canada made from
Cabernet Franc as it was something I had never tasted before.
I
spent a few days back home in Bridge of Allan with my mother and catching
up with all the family. Little Rosie turns 2 this month and Katy (aka
Ginger) has just finished school and will start university in October.
I then returned to London to the annual Wine and Spirits Trade Fair
held in the Docklands from 18 -20/05/04. For the first time in a few
years I was not behind a stand offering wines so I had plenty of opportunity
to catch up with friends, old and new, and to taste what wines the world
has to offer. The UK market is very priviliged to have such a huge range
of wines available at every price point.
My
great friend Martin was over for the fair. We worked together for a
few years in Southcorp Wines when Martin was in the marketing division.
He has now set up his own wine importing company in New Zealand (check
out www. planetwine.co.nz) with a range of Italian, South African and
Chilean wines (including the Millaman wines that I made). He came over
to Spain with me after the fair as he is about to introduce some Spanish
wines in his portfolio including La Pamelita and
La Rosita I hope.
These
last few days of May were hectic as, in addition to Martin's visit,
I moved into my very own flat in the heart of Barcelona. He had no sooner
left when my mother arrived to check out the "piso". She had
to be my assisant at the winery on 02/06/04 when I took delivery of
the base wines I had had blended to my style from Yecla. She held the
ladder and turned the water on and off whilst I scrubbed the tanks down.
The wines from the 2003 , one red and one rose will soon be " tiraged"
to make them sparkling (see how I make La Pamelita
for details of the tiraging process).
That
same day I had a phone call from Wineraks in Aberdeen requesting more
stock so I had to disgorge some La Rosita and wash,
label and box this wine along with some La Pamelita.
I took the opportunity to check if any of my other Scottish stockists
needed wine so Henderson's in Edinburgh and Luvians in Cupar and St
Andrews will also receive this consignment which left the winery one
evening at the end of June. Thanks Karen and Liam for helping me load
the truck.
It
is now July and if any reader is visiting Barcelona, dont forget to
check out Ginger (Placa San Just) and El Salon (behind the main post
office) where we have just opened the summer terrace in a tiny square
beside the original Roman wall. The restaurant next door to Ginger,
Cafe de L'Academia, is another new La Pamelita customer
and I highly recommend their excellent food, wines and service.
The
progress of the adopted pinot noir vine is shown in the attached photos;
harvest time is probably still about 6 weeks away.Happy
holidays to one and all.
OCTOBER
2004
Continuing
from my last entry, the 2003 wines were in tank and I was ready to tirage
bottle them but various obstacles seem to appear which prevented bottling
until 28/07/04. One of the obstacles was very pleasant to overcome.
I received a phone call from my best friend from Strathcllyde University
days, Veronica, asking if I could make to her and Filipo's wedding in
Edinburgh in 2 weeks time and, if I could make it, would I be her witness.
Plans to start my yeast culture were put on hold and off I went to Edinburgh.
It was a great day and we celebrated their long awaited marriage in
their restaurant, Librizzis. No Pamelita for the toasts unfortunately
but very good Prosecco.
On
my return from this 3 day trip, I immediately started propagating the
dried yeast I had selected to do the bottle fermentation. As I had about
8500 litres of wine to tirage , I had to reach a final volume of 100
litres of yeast culture with a minimum population of 100 million yeast
cells per ml with the ability to tolerate 12.5% alcohol when added to
the wine and sugar tirage blend. I started the culture on 22/07 with
20 litres at 6% alcohol and by 28/07 I had reach the target,
The
owner of the estate also had wine to be tiraged so we hired a team of
4 guys to come to the winery with all the necessary equipment - they
certainly know their stuff. The wines were prepared, the bottling line
set up, and within 8 hours I had a new wall stacked with 12000 standard
bottles ready to start the traditonal method of producing sparkling
wine. My new marketing ploy is half bottles as I for one always find
a distinct lack of choice available for the solitary diner. We filled
1800 half bottles as well so I managed to give the guys extra work as
these had to be crown sealed by hand , as well as myself in the next
18 - 24 months when the wine should be ready for release but I feel
it is a worthwhile project. As I write the wines have successfully finished
second fermentation and are now in the unhurried process of maturation
on yeast lees; the yeast culture proved equal to job and all is well.
August
saw me leave the relentless mediterranean sun for winter in Chile. I
am project winemaker for Millaman Wines and another sparkling red was
awaiting my arrival. The current release of Millaman Sparkling
Rojo is from 1999 and stocks are almost finished. My aim was
to prepare the next release from the 2001 vintage and to disgorge 2000
bottles of it but due to the unpredictability of artesanal work I acheived
around 1100 bottles only . The wine is looking fantastic ; it is a blend
of malbes, shiraz and monastrell and I am looking forward to retasting
it on my next trip at the end of november when it will be summer time
there.
For
the first time in the 8 years I have been working in Chile I actually
managed to take a trip away from the wine growing belt where I am based.
I flew to Calama and then bussed it to the Atacama desert which sits
at 2300m altitude adjacent to the Andes. Sunset in the valley of the
moon was an experience to remember, espeacially as I thought I might
not managed the final sand dune climb.The visit to the Geysers very
early one morning at 4200m was also excellent although entering the
so called thermal pool when it was -2ºC on land was not one of
my better ideas. The pool was about 20ºC with a little stream entering
at 40ºC so it was not the super relaxing experience i had imagined
but it was invigorating and a pisco sour and a very hot shower on return
finally got the chill out of my bones.
I
also had time to catch up with my good friend Gonzalo Bertelsen who
is based in Santa Cruz . We worked 6 vintages together whilst he was
the Terramater winemaker and now he is Chief Winemaker for Caliterra
Wines (www.caliterra.cl ) . Working with him, is another friend who
used to work with me at Millaman, Gabriel Cancino - they will produce
some excellent wines.
The
day after I returned from Chile I took part in a little local wine fair
in the village of El Bedorc; the tasting went well but most people wanted
the placas ( the disc above the cork) as there was a collectors' swap
meet taking place.
I
thought I was going to be working vintage for a german company in La
Mancha but at the last minute the contract fell through so i had time
to pop over to Scotland to see my mother, Luvians wine shop in St Andrews
and Cupar and my friends who were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary
and the latter provided an excellent excuse for an impromptu La Pamelita
tasting.
I
returned from Scotland laden down with local goodies as I had paid a
visit to Clive Ramsays in Bridge of Allan. So I held a little Scottish
night in my hew home. La Rosita worked a treat accompanied by some foie
and spanish cured sausage and La Pamelita was superb
with McSweens Haggis, scottish neeps and spanish tatties. We had a piece
of Seriously Strong Scottish cheddar with Glencarse Oatcakes and when
La Pamelita was finished we tried my Millaman Shiraz
Malbec from 2002. A great night was had by all. My latest recommendation
to accompany La Pamelita is .....
a chocolate croissant or pain de chocolat. I tried this little combination
late last saturday afternoon whilst relaxing on my little terrace in
the sun. It is a fantastic taste sensation but dont overdo it - one
chocolate croissant is sufficient.
Tomorrow
I start vintage over In Calatayud working with Fernando Ballesteros
of Castillo de Maluenda ( www.castillodemaluenda.com ) and I will again
be based in the tiny village of Mara where the hilly vineyards produce
some excellent late ripening garnacha. Hopefully another new project
for Lobban Wines will start to shape there. It is a
late year in general here in Spain with biggish crops so if Fernando¨s
crop estimation are correct we are in for a very busy few weeks.
My
final piece of news is that I am finally thje proud owner of a winery
, a bit of an old winery as I would say nothing has been made here for
around 50 years but the building is solid, I have the correct amount
of square metres to comply with the quality sparkling wine denomination
rules and renovation work should be started by the end of the year.
Watch this page.
Pamela
Geddes
07/10/04
Ps.
With all my jetting about I am afraid to I somewhat neglected the pinot
noir vine progress. I turned up at the winery one day to find the owner
had just finished its harvest and the grapes had been crushed and pressed.
