New Bodega - The Last Lap

Well, we seem to be getting there - slowly but surely - and we should be ready for the Albillo harvest in mid-August. (Touching wood as I write!)

The list of tasks and works to be done seems to be a lot longer than it was a few months ago (!) but at the same time they all seem a lot more doable.

This is what still has to be done:

- Electrical installation. We can't do this ourselves, and proper qualified electricians are busy working as I write, and they should be finished in about 2 weeks. This is hugely expensive and has blown my budget out of the water, and means that I won't be able to buy in as many grapes as I thought, or buy more equipment and capacity. After getting several estimates, haggling and negotiating on the prices, and reducing the installations to the absolute minimum, we still have to fork out about €8000 !!!!!

All these other tasks we can do ourselves:

- Finish off the painting. There are still a few doors and walls to do.

- Insulate the doors against the heat. The doors are just thin metal plate (from the 1950's) and hardly insulate at all, so we're going to line them with sheets of expandedpolystyrene.

- Buy a foot-operated wash-hand basin. This is a legal requirement.

- Buy a water-heater for the bathroom. This is also a legal requirement.

- Buy and install anti-moquito netting on the windows. This is also a legal requirement.

- Find, buy and install a rubber strip on all the doors, to cover the gap between the ground and the bottom of the door. This is also a legal requirement.

- Install false ceilings in the bathroom and bottling room. This is also a legal requirement.

- Fix the bars/railings on the windows. This is not actually a legal requirement, but needs to be done (to keep burglars out!)

- Call the scrap merchant, for him to take away the two conveyor belts. We tried to sell them to some neighbouring wineries, but no-one wanted them!

- Classify all the other 'scrap' that we found in the bodega (stuff to be sold, stuff to be thrown away, and stuff to be kept in case it comes in useful one day!)

- Tidy up and beautify the patio, or at least make it accessible for vehicles carrying grapes!

- Last but not least, hire a van and take all my equipment, machinery and assorted stuff from the old bodega to the new!

Apart from all of the above tasks, that are directly related to the physical bodega, I also have other things to do:

- Check out local vineyards and grapes, with a view to buying in at harvest time

- Check out and possibly buy some clay amphoras

- Check out and possibly buy some wooden beams, on which to place my oak crianza barrels

- Legal and bureacratic stuff:

   1. Buy all the required books and ledgers that have to be kept by grape-growers and wineries

   2. Design (or have designed) a new name and logo

   3. Design (or have designed) some new labels, to be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture

   4. Look for and contract an insurance policy (fire and theft, etc)

  

- Take some time out to actually define my Wine Plan for this year!

Phew! It's made me tired just writing all those tasks out. Maybe I ought to prioritize and make a proper schedule, instead of just getting on with whichever task takes my fancy on any given day! Whatever!

Anyways, this is all interesting stuff, and it keeps me off the streets! :) I just can't stand the thought of being bored and having to watch TV with all that football, news, reality shows, series, etc. I'd rather watch the paint dry on all those walls and gates that I've painted recently!!!

(photos pending: they're on another computer that I dont have access to right now!)