It's that time of year again

Yes, it's winter here in Spain too! Though here in central Spain, specifically in the Madrid - Sierra de Gredos region - it's not really that extreme. No polar vortices here! But not even the nastier winter weather that costal Spain has been suffering from recently, ie flooding, torrential rain, etc. It's not even that cold here - it just dips a bit below zero (Celsius) at night, and then during the day it's around 5-10 degrees Celsius.

Chilly beans!

In the bodega, the temperature is about 10-12 degrees Celsius, which is OK if you're moving around and actively doing physical tasks. But if you're sitting down sticking labels onto bottles all day, then its not so pleasant! Which is basically what I'm doing these days.

Bottling up the Dore 2018

It's also the pruning season. So I try to alternate between sticking labels (and bottling up, corking, boxing and building pallets) and pruning and fixing fences and manuring in the vineyards.

The bodega is a huge mess at the moment and everything looks chaotic and out of place. I used to not be bothered about this but now it's started to annoy me. I'm going to have to take a day out from bottling/pruning/labelling etc to tidy up! That will involve moving pallets around and carrying stuff from one place to another! And will take at least a whole day to do.

Another thing I have to do is press off a tub of Roman Slave Juice! It's been macerating for quite long enough now (since October). Pliny the Elder, in his book De Naturae, only gives three recipes for making this beverage, and none of them involved maceration for this length of time.

Roman Slave Juice macerating. To be pressed off.

Enough for today. I now have to prepare the wines I'll be taking to a natural wine fair tomorrow in Barcelona, the Salo de Vins Naturals.