In early June, we joined a small wine tour (12 people plus the couple that ran the tour) in Galicia, a place that I had never visited, and Shana just visited for the first time during her art and architecture tour in April. We began in Santiago de Compostela where the Camino de Santiago ends at the city's Cathedral. Since we arrived early on the day the tour started, we had time to visit the Cathedral and have lunch.
The Cathedral was filled with pilgrims, and we passed on visiting the tomb of Saint James since the line was insane. Lunch was at a place that Shana had previously visited, which is focused on sustainability, even to the point of working with wineries to buy wine in boxes (and not your normal boxed wine). We very much enjoyed our meal, and I got my first taste of mariscos (shellfish) for which the Galicia region is rightfully famous.
Our tour started that evening with welcome drinks and a wonderful dinner, including wine (of course) and more shellfish (in this case amazing scallops). The people were a mix (from Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US), but everyone except us had some connection to Mallorca, where the operators own a wine business. We are not sure how Shana ended up on their mailing list, but we are glad she did.
The next day, we set out for three wine tastings. First, we stopped at Eladio Pineiro Rural Wines, where the very interesting winemaker told us the story of his winery. The coolest part of this visit was trying wines directly out of the stainless steel vats where the wine is aged. Although wine made from albarino (the primary grape in this region) is usually bottled shortly after it is made, Eladio ages his albarino for several years before bottling, so we got to do a verticle tasting of the same wine for 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. It was very interesting to see the differences in the wines from the different years.
After a long visit with Eladio, that included tasting two additional wines from bottles, we headed to Granbazan winery where we had both a tasting and lunch planned. Because we were running behind (a commom theme of the trip), we started with lunch, which of course included wine. Lunch was very good, and then we took a brief tour of the vineyards where we started to learn about how albarino grapes are grown. Because Galicia is very wet, albarino vines grown normally closer to the ground risk being destroyed by mildew. Therefore they are grown away on a sort of trellis known as a pergola, which allows for more air and sun exposure.
The tasting was also very good, and was well paired with food (not that any of us was hungry, but the pairings they offered did a very good job of showcasing their wines, so we had to find a way to try some).
Our third tasting of the day at Attis Bodegas and Vinedos was probably our least favorite of the trip. It seemed more commercial, and while the wines were fine, they weren't anything special. It was also at the end of a very long day, making it harder to focus.
That night, we checked into a Parador in the city of Cambados, which is right on the coast. This was our first stay at a Parador, which are hotels in old and historic buildings throughout Spain. The Paradors, which began in 1928, were greatly expanded during the Franco dictatorship in places that he liked to vacation. We were impressed with our accomodations, and would definitely like to visit some of the other Paradors.
The next day, we only had one wine tasting and lunch, but somehow we still found a way to overindulge. The winery, Bodegas Albamar, picked us up at our hotel and the first stop was a shellfish distributor where we learned a bit about the process of growing some of the types of shellfish we ate, as well as seeing examples of many types of shellfish (they had something like 15 different types in their tanks that day).
Next we drove around a bit and saw some of Albamar's vineyards and learned about the various things they are trying in terms of grape growing. It was a beautiful day, and the scenery was amazing.
In the bottom picture above, you can see a number of small vineyards. In the subregion of Galicia that we were in, Rias Baixes, the vineyards are generally very small, and many people who live there have their own vineyard connected to their home. In this past, these grapes were often used to produce wine for personal consumption. Now, with the increased value of the grapes, most are sold to wineries to make wine commercially.
The wine tasting at Albamar was fantastic, as we tried 10 (!) different wines, including one from the winemaker's private cellar: a 10-year-old albarino that was amazing. We were, of course disappointed that we could not buy this wine, but at least we got to try it. In addition, there was more shellfish, in this case delicious mussels.
After leaving Bodegas Aldamar, we returned to Cambados for another fantastic lunch and yet more wine.
After lunch, and a bit of rest, Shana and I managed to rally ourselves and went for a walk around Cambados to see the two primary sites in the city: the ruined Church of Santa Marina, and the ruined Torre San Sadurnino, a defensive tower that dates from the 8th-9th century.
The next day, there were no wine tastings (although cava was available at breakfast), just a bus back to the Santiago airport and a flight back to Bilbao. We very much enjoyed this tour and had a lot of fun with the people we met. We are already looking forward to their next tour, possibly to the Rioja region, and maybe a trip to Mallorca to visit our new friends.
Hasta pronto.
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