GALICIA WINE TOUR: FINE WINES IN GREEN SPAIN

Santiago de Compostela → Rías Baixas → Ribeiro→ Ribeira Sacra→ Valdeorras

☾ 6 Nights

TRIP OVERVIEW

GALICIA WINE TOUR: FINE WINES IN GREEN SPAIN

WHERE YOU’LL STAY

Parador de Santiago de Compostela

Quinta de San Amaro

Áurea Palacio de Sober

WHERE YOU’LL GO

GALICIA

The sun is noticeably weaker once you cross the mountains that separate Spain’s greenest corner from the bleached expanse that is the rest of the country. The buildings are always forming shadows that leave you cold even on warm days and the adapted locals can always be seen with a jacket nearby if out for more than a brief jaunt. You can feel winter coming here and get the sense that it is always coming, even at high noon. The covered walkways, stone arches over stone sidewalks, will soon beckon to native and pilgrim alike, but when the sun shines the terraces are teeming with life and no one wants to be inside.

Galicia is made of stone, physically and spiritually. You can see it in people’s eyes, their skin. They’ve been hewn from it, battered against the cold stone faces of the coastal cliffs, hauled boulders on their backs to clear their fields, carved it into blocks and tiles and even wheels. Like granite they’re slow to warm but once they do they stay that way, radiating intense energy that can fill a room. This is an old people, defined most of all by their ability to endure, to persist. The cities and towns and villages and pazos and walls are a testament to thousands of years of stubbornness.

The color that dominates the grey of stone is green. Everything is growing everywhere. Grass with exploding patches of clover. Trees with twisted arms covered in ivy and creepers. Thick underbrush with layers upon layers of saplings and bushes and vines and little plants with no name except in the old tongue. Every Gallego seems to need a stone house and a little piece of green land, a direct connection to the earth and its fertility. The little patches of greenery and the thick forests of the hills and mountains are the most noticeable differences from the rest of Spain, but they also speak to the character of the people. The Gallego has a fundamental mistrust of modernity and sophistication that stems from and manifests through their connection to the land. The fields and streams of the ancestral village are the source of truth and morality here. The great cities of Galicia have risen up with industry and culture, but the heart of each citizen lives in the forest with the pagan deities whose names are lost to time but whose significance has never waned.

GALICIAN CUISINE

Galician cuisine is famous for its seafood. Less well known are the inland dishes using beef, pork, octopus and garden produce. The pride of Galicia is pulpo, octopus caught laboriously in the rocky inlets of the coast but served all over the region, commonly in thin slices on a wooden plate and dusted with Spanish paprika. The coastal towns and cities seem to overflow with seafood that anywhere else would be reserved for the finest restaurants: white and blue fish perfect for grilling or baking; clams and mussels and a galaxy of shellfish with no real English translations; crabs and shrimp and lobsters and delicacies like percebes, alien-looking goose barnacles beloved by locals and visitors. The countryside cooking of Galicia reveres the pig and the cow, featuring sausages and hams and cheeses that change from village to village. The soups and stews of Galician home cooking are hearty and often use local greens and potatoes. It's a totally different cuisine from anywhere else in Spain, perhaps finding more kinship with the tables of northern Portugal, but Galicia is certainly among the best places in Spain to eat great food.

Galician cuisine combines the bounty of its extensive Atlantic coastline with the hearty flavors of the countryside and the mountains. To go with a distinct cuisine, you need distinct wines, and Galicia has an abundance of unique wine. The coastal areas of the Rías Baixas are home to the Albariño grape, the iconic Galician white and frequent companion of local seafood. The best Galician Albariños are among the greatest white wines available anywhere, with depth, complexity, and the potential to age for years in bottle. The inland regions of Galicia, less known than the coast, are home to several wine regions making truly stunning wines today. Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras, and Bierzo form a trio of regions where the red Mencía and white Godello grapes dominate and produce widely varying styles of wine that transmit soil and geography into the glass. The rise of these regions has put Galicia on the global wine map for more than Albariño. Even lesser known Ribeiro, with its rich variety of indigenous grapes, has become a source of excitement. The subtlety of Galician wines is refreshing, but the quality speaks for itself. Galician wines are here to stay among Spanish wine royalty.

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Santiago de Compostela is the cultural, political and spiritual heart of Galicia. Santiago became the endpoint of one of Europe’s main pilgrimage routes (The Camino, or Way of St. James) in the 9th century. The shrine of Santiago is the Cathedral, begun in the 11th century. Today the city’s Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site and home to an amazing array of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

RÍAS BAIXAS

Rías Baixas is the most famous wine region in Galicia, though it is often known simply by its characteristic grape: Albariño. Rías are inlets of the Atlantic similar to fjords. They give the vineyards a very strong Atlantic influence, and the humidity means the vines must be trained on high trellises to prevent mildew. Soils in the heart of Rías Baixas are granitic. Nearly all wine here is white and dominated by Albariño. These wines are fresh with lively acidity that makes them the perfect pairing with the local seafood-dominated cuisine.

RIBEIRO

Ribeiro lies upriver from the Rías Baixas, a very fertile area with green hills and rivers crisscrossing the landscape where wine has been made for hundreds of years. Ribeiro produces excellent white wines mainly from Treixadura, typically blended with Loureira, Albariño, Godello, or other indigenous varieties. About 10 percent of Ribeiro is red, made from the indigenous Souson and Brancellao grapes, among others, and the reds can be extraordinarily fresh and lively. Ribeiro wine has long been popular with Galicians, but today the unique wines of Ribeiro are exciting palates further afield.

RIBEIRA SACRA

Ribeira Sacra is the most visually impressive wine region in Spain, with near-vertical vineyards sloping down the sides of several river valleys. Making wine here is extraordinarily difficult, but the resultant wines are nearly as incredible as the landscape. The poor slate and granite soils and relatively Atlantic climate of Ribeira Sacra produce extremely elegant, subtle reds from the Mencía grape, as well as reds from other indigenous grapes and occasional white wines. Ribeira Sacra has long been unknown outside of Galicia, but the wines from this remote area are among Galicia's most sought-after.

VALDEORRAS

Valdeorras, up river from Ribeira Sacra in the deepest interior reaches of Galicia, is a region synonymous with the white grape Godello and slate soils. It’s here that Godello has found its most acclaimed expression, deep and mineral and capable of holding its own against the world’s finest whites. Slate soils, best known in Spain for their prevalence in the Priorat, are the source of many of the finest Valdeorras wines. Like Ribeira Sacra, the vineyards of Valdeorras slope down in river valleys, though not at the same impossible angles as in Ribeira Sacra. The uncommon red wines of Valdeorras usually use Mencía, and as in other areas of Galicia rare indigenous grapes are being used more and more frequently.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

• 6 nights hotel, double occupancy, breakfast daily, expert private guides, private tours, premium tastings at wineries, restaurant concierge service and all reservations, private luxury transport

NOT INCLUDED

• flights to/from Spain or Portugal, gratuities to guides and drivers, extras in hotels, travel insurance (recommended)

EPICUREAN WAYS ADVANTAGE

We pride ourselves on our discerning taste in hotels, a concierge approach to restaurants for you, and our long experience in the world of wine enabling us to select wineries worth visiting and arrange premium tastings at each winery.

You will be accompanied by a driver-guide during your wine touring. Your visits and tastings will be private and with the winemaker, a family member or an expert who knows the winery and the wines well. We work with the wineries to make sure that you taste the best and most representative wines during each visit. It is sometimes possible to arrange extended tastings that include old vintages or rare wines. We have an extensive group of wineries whose owners we know and with whom we work regularly, so we can guarantee high-level visits even if a winery has to be substituted. If you have an interest in visiting a particular producer please let us know.

We include restaurant concierge service as part of your trip. Note that our restaurant suggestions are just that–suggestions. Places we love, places to go back to time after time. We recommend these places after years of experience eating in Spain and Portugal together with frequent research and input from our local partners. We aspire to guide your choices with information on the styles of cuisine and restaurants; the choice on where to eat is yours based on your preferences and desires.

We have extensive experience with hotels ranging from 5-star luxury properties to private boutique hotels. Let us know your preferences and we will tailor the hotel choices for you.

All tours, experiences and hotels are subject to availability and will be confirmed upon booking the trip.

TRIP PRICES

Note that we can customize this trip for you. Add days in your arrival or departure city or in other locations or make changes to the experiences, winery visits, restaurants, or hotels included in the trip. Whatever it is, we’re here to work with you. Once you’re happy with the trip plan and have some idea of your dates we will send you the price.