back in the village and waiting for harvest.

I got back to the village on August 22nd. Ended up with three seats to myself on both legs of the trip which is pretty unheard of these days. Weatherwise, the first few days were as hot as Texas. As usually happens, the season changed abruptly last Saturday. Daytime highs are in the 80s so it's very pleasant.

Freya came down to visit just before her birthday so we had a little celebration. Salvador Burgos came over later in the evening. He brought a bottle of his Mas Sinen rosé and some home-grown tomatoes. It was a fun pairing! Salvador is a lively lad and ended up staying past midnight.

Siebe and his childhood buddy Sam came last weekend. Sam is also from Australia and is touring Europe for a couple of months. These guys are a lot of fun. They were headed to the Tomatina near Valencia. It's billed as the world's largest food fight with 20,000 paying attendees. Siebe described the event as "mental". Apparently, it's very popular with Australians. For complete info, go to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tomatina

Although it's raining right now, the historic drought continues. Most of the farmers I talk to are reporting yields of 25-30% of a normal crop. This year has been a disaster. Everything is ripening at once. We will pick my vineyards on Tuesday. The fruit looks pretty good overall but we're noticing some dehydration in about 15% of the clusters. It's time to bring them in! I've been able to irrigate so my yield will only be down a little (hopefully!).

                                                                Sunset in El Masroig.

Freya celebrating her birthday with Barons Creek Cava on the beach.

Freya and Salvador.

Siebe and Sam.

                                                      Sam and a blurry Siebe at the Tomatina.

Note the flying tomatoes!

Loading Grenache for the Campeon at Celler Masroig.

Shipping the tanks to cold storage in Reus. The tanks will go into a container for shipping to Barons Creek.