A Visit to Galicia Part 1

Go Go Galicia

Landing in the Atlantic mists surrounding the modern airport of Santiago Compostella, myself and my fellow Galician adventurers (Ben from Carte Blanche Wines, Tamsin from Wadebridge Wines and Tamlyn from Jancis Robinson.com) rocked off for three days packed full of dramatic, twisting roads, beautiful scenery, delicious indigenous wines and lashings of porky and fishy goodness!

Galicia is Spain’s beautiful and North Eastern region that enjoys a decidedly Atlantic perspective.  With the highest level of rain in the country, Galicia is a beautiful, green region, marked by hilly, to almost mountainous terrain.

Famous for its seafood and of course pork, the dishes of the region have a charming rusticity, focussing on simple foods where the quality of the ingredients shown through.

Dominio do Bibei, Ribeira Sacra

http://www.dominiodobibei.com/web/index.html

A stunning mixture of modern and ancient, this is a truly New Wave winery that is making some utterly unique and exquisite wines.

This is one incredibly bold and inspiring project.  With the aim of reclaiming and rebuilding the mostly abandoned, ancient terraces around the winery, to get Dominio de Bibei to the position where it can realise its potential, has taken monumental effort and also a small fortune!

The first part of our visit was to orientate ourselves with the various vineyards.  This involved some pretty extreme off-road action, and the usages of some serious gearing on one of the UK’s undoubtedly finest exports, the mighty Landover.

Although we did see one which hadn’t actually managed to judge the angle of a descent well enough…..fortunately, we only drove part that at the end of the visit!

After a fascinating, tour, with the weather outside being decidedly Galician (not known as Green Spain for nothing!) and chilly too, we dived inside the winery for lunch for a delicious warm cod, lentil and chick pea soup, great breads and of course some mighty fine pork product, in this case, classic air dried jamon and some of the best chorizo I have tasted.

So, replenished, recharged and rewarmed we headed off towards the separate white and red cuveries to taste first from barrel the current vintages followed  by heading down towards the Cathedral like tasting room.

These guys only focus on the unique character of the local and indigenous varieties that include Mencia, Garnacha, Brancellao and Mouraton for the reds and Godello, Albariño, Treixadura and Doña Blanca for the whites.

Some a re vinified in oak, some in concrete, some even in the very on-trend “eggs” (Sorry I forgot to get a picture!)

We tasted extensively from all their cuvees in the winery but as these are not finished wines I have only included the finished wines we tasted:

2009 Lalama Red 12.5%

Made from a blend of 80% Mencia, the rest a balance of Grenache and Mouroton.

“Rich, opulent with a lovely ripeness, fresh, slightly tight and beautifully focussed.  Ripe, fresh dark raspberry fruit, finishes long and fine”  Drink now – 2018 

2010 Lalama Red 12.5%

“Thrilling, with more definition and freshness than the 2009.  Beautiful, elegant and pure – this is for fans of Fine Burgundy!”  Drink now – 2020 

2003 Lalama Red 12.5%

The first vintage, made from a blend of Garnacha and Mouroton.  Considering this was their first vintage I was mightily impressed.

“Elegant, fine, long and pure with light notes of coffee, mocha, truffle and leather showing light signs of ageing.  Finishing long and fine”  Drink now – 2015 

2010 Lapolo White 13%

17% Albarino, 60% Godello, 17% Dona Blanco, Treixadura

An excellent complex white with a delicious grainy purity with notes of melon and pear.  A lovely length and texture.  Drink now – 2015 

2^nd Stop

Casar de Burbia, Bierzo, nr Ponferrada.

http://www.casardeburbia.com/en/casar-de-burbia

Buying grapes in the higher regions of Bierzo, is another fairly recent project, starting in the late 1990’s.

The main varietals of Bierzo are Mencia for red and Godello for white and we tasted 2 Godellos and 7 Mencia’s of various levels of quality.

The hospitality was incredibly kind and the wines were rich and weighty but I am not sure they’ll feature on our shelves yet.

Overnight Stay at The Aroi Hotel in Ponferrada

http://www.aroihoteles.com/hoteles-ponferrada-bierzo/hotel-ponferrada/hotel-aroi-bierzo-plaza

A really good hotel and great value to boot – no doubt helped by it being a Monday night in the 2^nd week of January.  Downstairs they had a decent bar, so following a quick beer, we left for a wine bar around the corner…..more godello…….and back to the Hotel’s classic, earthenware, old school tapas bar, with - you guessed it - about 5 different types of pork, 2 cured and 3 cooked, the best tasting of the two cooked were some wonderfully rich sausage stew, one made from chorizo and one from black pudding, and whilst visually challenged, they were might delicious!