Touring the Vineyards of Celtic Galicia, Spain
By Sean O’Rourke EuroAdventures Vacations, S.L.

Editor's Note: Mr. O’Rourke has been arranging and escorting tours of Celtic Galicia, focusing on wine, culture and history for several years. The following is an account of a recent tour to Galicia led by him.

Our wine tour of Galicia, northwest Spain’s “Hidden Celtic Paradise,” starts from the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela. From there, we journey south and then eastward along river valleys and over high sierras. We pass fishing ports and old Celtic sites, Cistercian monasteries, bodegas and nature parks, all set against mesmerizing green landscapes of a region where they say “rain is art.”  In Galicia’s vineyard-covered valleys, we find five denominaciones de origin (D.O.s), including Rias Baixas, Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras and Monterrei.

Journeying south along the province’s magnificent western shore on the Atlantic, we reach the D.O. Rias Baixas, with its three sub-zones: Sanes, Rosal and Condado de Tea. This is albarino country, where the albarino grape reigns supreme. Our first stop is at Lagar de Pintos in Salnes, a bodega which produces Vizconde de Barrantes, a fragrant and refreshing dry white wine made entirely of albarino grapes. Though the wine we’re sampling is young, the Pintos family has been producing wine since 1887. Its bodega is situated in a beautifully restored stone manor house. After touring the winery we are joined by the owner, Jose Pintos, to taste the wines with him inside his quaint tavern.

Our second stop is Bodegas Martin Codax, whose wines have become very popular in the U.S. We enjoy tasting this albarino, which is subtle and restrained, with a hint of wood accenting the fresh floral and melon aromas. After touring these two bodegas, we make a short, unplanned stop at a small fishing village, called Cambarro. What catches our attention is the large number of people gathering all over the beach. They are clam digging, which only happens at this time of year. We enjoy a few glasses of albarino wine on a nearby terrace and watch them in action.

The next stop on our wine tour is the region of D.O. Ribeiro in the province of Ourense. In Ribadavia village, we stroll through the Jewish medieval quarter, built with wine wealth and sitting in a bowl of steeply terraced hillsides covered with vineyards. We stop for a sample of Ribeiro wines: light, fresh and graceful.

The mountainous D.O. of Ribeira Sacra offers excellent red wines. Grapes are grown on tiny strips of land on terraces cut into steep slopes throughout the Sil Valley. As we travel up the Sil River by catamaran, we see the densely cultivated areas while weaving through the canyon. Vineyards were planted here long ago by monks at monasteries built on spectacular sites above the river. Hence the name Ribeira Sacra (Sacred Riverbank). The most popular wine from the region is mencia – intense, dry, fruity, cherry-red in color and full-bodied.      

Galicia’s youngest D.O. is Monterrei, which lies close to the Portuguese border. Its gently slopping vineyards are covered with vines growing low to the ground. Many grape varieties are grown here, including godello, dona blanca, mencia and tinta fina. Monterrei wines are not yet well known outside the immediate region.

East of Monterrei lies the D.O. Valdeorras, whose hillsides blaze yellow and purple in summer with gorse and heather. Its godello white wines are straw gold and nicely perfumed. Well-balanced light red wines are produced here from the mencia grape.

Crossing from the province of Ourense east into the neighboring province of Leon, we visit the D.O. El Bierzo, where wines produced from the mencia grape variety have created much enthusiasm among wine experts and consumers. We make a special visit to a private palace bodega by the name of Palacio de Arganza, established in 1805. This bodega combines the best of traditional wine making with modern methods to make high-quality wines. We are delighted to be invited by owner Don Daniel Vuelta to dine in the bodega’s elegant dining room next to the cellar. Delicious regional cuisine, accompanied by the wide selection of Palacio de Arganza wines, provide a sumptuous conclusion to our tour.