The time I spent a week in Barcelona in February with my husband, we were thrilled with the spring weather but the locals were wearing winter clothes. If felt warm to us and cold to them.>>

same as us in Italy Nikki. I'm wearing a T-shirt, they're wearing their fur coats.

"I loved the neapolitan accent!"

Those lessons have progressed!

I seem to remember some years ago, you used to speak Spanish in Italy?

"That link is fin"

Is that youngspeak? My 10 year loses me with teenspeak. Everything is sick. I think that means good. "Fin" hasn't come up yet!

MacThe.....Adrian. Maybe publish the full facts please.

Re the storm this year in the Ribeira Sacra: There was one Bodega that was been affected by a small hail storm. Whist the land is classified to be in the Ribeira Sacra it was actually quite high and near the ski resort of Manzaneda. Thus a very small area of the RS was affected by this quick storm where as the vast majority of the Ribeira Sacra wine area was not.
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...07O26C6991.htm
I wish to reinforce the vital point you missed out of your post: The rest of the RS was not affect by this one short storm and it has proved to be an exceptional dry and warm year, so much so that the vendima (harvest) is taken place now, several weeks in advance then other years. In fact it is looking like an excellent year wine production.
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...509M9C2995.htm
I totally agree with you that you should not hold off travelling due to the weather. The Ribeira Sacra which amounts to something like 102 bodegas and 1.242 hectares you writing about one short storm excellently illustrates my point weather is totally unpredictable and members should not read the information written by the many "experts" on this forum who say expect such and such weather in such and such a region. The truth is it can never be predicted so accurately.
Thank you for your help and backing me up, even if you did leave out some facts.

That link is fin, dickie.>>

FUN, dickie, FUN!

I don't think that it was me speaking Spanish in Italy, I'm only just starting to learn it now, in preparation for our visit to Cuba in January. yes, before you say it, I know that Cuban Spanish is different to/from that which is spoken in Madrid, but I reckon than some Spanish is better than none.

there is however a strong likelihood that I'll be speaking Italian in Cuba - or some strange amalgam of the too.

Molto bueno, anyone?

My post, if you read it properly, mentions ONE part of the Ribeira Sacra. This being Bibei, the results of that particular hail storm were quite catastrophic. My info comes from winemaking friends in that area, I'm happy with what I posted so spare me the 500 links. NOTHING was held back. I lead tours there so I'm hardly going to diss the place, am I? You've mention my name. Congratulations, Ian. Give my sweetest regards to your good wife. And if it is Irene posting this, don't be so bloody snotty. Buenas tardes (good afternoon).

Macthe; sorry if you were offend by the posting of your name, but seeing how you have worked via us it was given that you would not mind the friendly approach in answering your post. Obviously we have this very wrong.

Our final word on this mater is to express our disappointment that you have chosen to write about us in an offensive manor.

Oh' well, I'll just have to live with your disappointment I guess. Basically, I found your initial post snotty in the extreme, with thinly veiled accusations of purposely holding information back, as if borne of a desire on my part to trash the Ribeira Sacra. Quite bizarre. But then again I'm not really surprised, so final word on the matter from me too. Con dios!

Sometimes I wish there were a separate forum for spats. Maybe one long Spat Thread.

my sentiments too, stoke. such a shame to see two friends falling out over posts on a thread about weather!

Sorry about the 'spat' folks. The use of the word 'friends' in this particular context is a tad ambitious for reasons I won't go into here.