Suddenly... Galicia

S

slaton

Slaton Lipscomb
I've wanted to visit Galicia since first tasting the remarkable seafood from this region, and in more recent years after discovering the wines of Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, and so forth. Yet after many travels to Spain I have somehow have never made this journey.

Now I find myself with some free time coming up in October following a week of work in Madrid and Basel, and rather than lazily sauntering over to the usual haunts I am going to do this. Plus a side trip down to Braga, Porto, etc.

And so now I engage the collective wisdom of this bored, asking for any recommendations ranging from what town to use as a base, culture, cool places to eat and drink, wineries/vignerons to visit, etc.

Currently I am leaning toward Santiago de Compostela as a base, simply for airport proximity and likely easy of car rental. But definitely open to, and might be happier in a smaller town or even rural area.

In terms of restaurants there isn't much in the archives here other than a VS mention of D'Berto in O Grove. So am currently searching less reliable sources.

On the wine side I've enjoyed Envinate, Guimaro, Emilio Rojo, Algueira, and most things that Jose Pastor imports. But certainly have a lot to learn still.

Grazas.
 
my brother and i had spent easter weekend in pontvedra a few years back. the old town there has been pedestrian only for some years now, and we stayed in a hotel within that area. good restaurants and tapas places. one night we ate at a michelin 1 star caled solla that i see is still with their star. very good. at least at that time, influences of el bulli could be found. we were really happy with dinner and the price was far from offensive.
 
Pontevedra is indeed really nice and hotel rates are lower than touristy Santiago. In Pontevedra there is a terrific restaurant called Bagos. In Vigo there's an excellent wine bar called Malauva, but the city itself is not so interesting. Cambados is a nice base from which to visit Rías Baixas producers, and there is an excellent 1 star restaurant nearby called Culler de Pao, which only uses local ingredients, etc. All three restaurants mentioned have disorderly wine lists.
 
Thank you Robert, and Oswaldo.
Appreciate the takes on and recs for Pontevedra because a Madrileño work colleague had rather discouraged spending any time there.
He instead suggested visiting A Coruña, specifically the town of Ferrol. Any experiences that far north?
 
not for me. pontevedra was our only stop in galicia.

but, i believe, the rias baixas region is largely to the south of pontevedra, so further north may be farther from the wine region.

the viticulture in rias baixas is rather singular. first of all the type of trelising, and secondly, how commonly is it done intermingled with all sorts of other crops. we didn't see much monoculture 'vineyards only' type of farming. and it is all quite lush and green compared with other wine regions.
 
Thanks guys. I've just received some excellent recs from Ignacio which dovetail with and expand upon yours, so now I just need to make some bookings.

Given the limited flight options into Santiago de Compostela, I may instead fly in and out of Porto. It's less than two hours' drive from Pontevedra, and as a bonus Oswaldo and family are en route.
 
Some wines tasted/drunk in Basel before flying out to Porto.

2013 David Leclapart l'Astre
Huge, ultra-ripe spicy yellow/peachy fruit, some reductive burnt hair character, and little else. Developed but did not improve over a couple of days. Super disappointed in the clumsy, fruit bomb-y showing of this.

2015 Ziereisen Gutedel Steingruble
Had just a taste, this was my first gutedel and it was delicious, balancing richness, freshness and shades of minerality. Crazy value for CHF16.50. I would buy this all day at that price and even pick up a bottle in the US at $25-35.

2015 Jost & Ziereisen Pinot Noir "Le Petit"
Just a taste. Lovely whole cluster aromatics, but fairly thin and closed palate. Promising, but just not open today. Certainly worth another chance at CHF24.00.

2011 Ziereisen Spatburgunder Jaspis Alte Reben
Purchased at Paul Ullrich AG in Basel. Leakage under the capsule, hard to say if it's due to wine travel up a crack in the cork vs heat damage. But this is an older vintage, and the store was very warm.
The wine is not destroyed, but it's somewhat emaciated. There are soft red fruits and spices, but a hollow midpalate and there is a perception of alcohol. Dark, cooked strawberry fruit, mulled spices. Some candied character like maraschino or chambord. Some unintegrated oak. I tasted this wine a couple of years ago and it was strikingly good, this was dulled in comparison.

2015 Jost & Ziereisen Pinot Noir "Le Grand"
Purchased at Paul Ullrich AG in Basel. Also leakage under the capsule with mold - do I detect a trend here? The store was very warm. But the wine is lovely, although unfortunately loaded with dissolved CO2. Many rounds of shaking later, it's a delicious drink. Dark fruits of excellent freshness, light spice and other whole cluster nuances, with ultra-fine tannins of gentle astringency. This closed up a bit after a couple of hours. Interesting, promising wine (and project) that is very young. I'm not convinced of the ambitious pricing here yet though.
 
2016 Eulogio Pomares "Carralcoba" Rías Baixas Parcelarios (I)
This is a single parcel albariño bottled by Eulogio Pomares, the winemaker of Zarate. It is vinified in 1200L chestnut foudres. I really liked this from the first pour, a bright and ethereal creature that floats across the palate with vibrant acids and gentle saline/mineral notes. There's a nice savory hint at the back. It's a whisper of a wine and seemed to get beaten up a bit by the food, which is rather gentle at this restaurant - mostly seafood, fruit and herbs with gentle umami elements. I wonder how it would have done with simple grilled fish.

Loved the restaurant, the various starter tastes were probably my favorite but the entire menu was excellent. The tastes were all tiny of course given the number of courses.

Starters
season herbs infusion and ginger
dry merengue and mussel
sandwich mushrooms
beetroot and capuccina leaf
tomato, salpicon vegetables, juice and almond
fennels from the sea and the land with sea herbs juice

Mains
molluscs with stone broth and albariño
herbs from Adelina's farm, crunchy rice and anchovy cream
mackerel escabeche, carrot and pickled seeds
spinach with two soups, kombu and tomato
royal crab canelon and smoked broth
wheat toast, mayonnaise and flowers
galician tender corn and onion juice
hake, caldeirada citrica and young potato
john dory, meunier sauce and spicy herbs

Desserts
lemon watermelon
hibiscus flower with honey vinagrette
clover
hibiscus, kiwi and grapefruit
kefir, red berries and basil
santiago's pie
 
Sounds like a nice pescetarian feast!

What are sandwich mushrooms?

And what is lemon watermelon? A fanciful name for yellow watermelon?
 
The 'sandwich mushroom' had about the circumference of a silver dollar, perhaps bit larger, and was nearly half as thick as it was broad.

It had a light colored top and bottom "bun" each consisting of some kind of soft, springy and very palatable (seemingly raw) mushroom cap. In the middle was a darker savory, creamy mushroom filling. It was surprisingly rich and flavorful. If I had to guess, there was some boletus in there in addition to agaricus, as the flavor suggested porcini.

The 'lemon watermelon' was a very small semi-frozen green fruity drink served as a palate cleanser before the desserts.
 
One of the most-recommended Galicia wine destinations from my sources was Viñoteca Bagos, an underground wine bar in Pontevedra, and my visit did not disappoint.

Adrián - one of the two owners - took great care of me and when I explained that I wanted to taste and learn about interesting Galician wines of quality, he immediately began opening bottles and telling me the stories behind them.

There is a small menu of dishes that change every couple of days, and I enjoyed what I ordered very much. Sadly they were out of the mackerel sashimi (maybe my favorite thing in the world), but I had tasty plates of Cantabrian anchovies from Santoña; chunks of beautiful raw red tuna with wakame and sesame seeds, and some sort of lettuce cup things with cold-smoked salmon. There is also a nice selection of cheeses and I tried a very good mold-ripened local cows milk cheese.

Blancos

2017 Paraje Mina Vino Brañco
From Rías Baixas but not able to bottle using the DO. 13% alcohol. Very nice albariño. Fresh, clean, mineral and perfect with my Catabrian anchoas. Plenty tasty, but not especially thought-provoking without food in front of it, which is my probably my only issue with albariño generally speaking.

2016 As Sortes (Rafael Palacios) Valdeorras
Made from the parcels: Os Caneiros, A Coalleira, Souto dos Santos, Alexos, Val de Anta, O Castiñeiro. 14% alcohol.
Wow - maybe the best 100% godello I've had, with a nose somewhat similar to a classic Meursault that hasn't been beaten down with battonage or oak. The palate starts out bright and vibrant with excellent freshness, but gently adds richness with air. Very sophisticated, really an achievement and one for the white Burgundy fans.

Tintos

2016 Fazenda Prádio BRZ
100% brancellao from Ribeira Sacra, although the DO does not appear on the label, 12% alcohol. Incredibly pure, pretty, joyful fruit reminiscent of cru Beaujolais except with darker fruit akin to Italian amarena cherries. The flavors remind me of nebbiolo somewhat, except there is no discernible tannin structure here, initially. A joy to drink... and then it surprises by starting to close up in the glass. What gives?

2016 Daterra Viticultores Azos da Vila
"Viticultura de Montaña", 12.5% alcohol. Apparently another Ribeira Sacra that cannot carry the official DO, I don't recall the reason here.
Deep darkly ripe fruit and animal nose, slight reduction (positive here), N. Rhone but with darker complexioned fruit. Palate follows but is behind the nose with a slightly gummy quality to the fruit. There is some structure, but it's not aggressive and the tannins are ripe. I like this but the ripeness is a bit much and the alcohol seems noticeable after a few sips.

2015 Pierre Gonon Vin de Pays de l'Ardèche Les Iles Feray
Leftovers from Adrián's (I think?) birthday yesterday. This was a bit tough to taste after eating a super ripe local cows milk cheese made in a mold ripened style. But: very deep for this cuvee, but also lower acidity and quite ripe per the vintage. The ripeness is frankly unsettling, giving this a jujube character, a bit gummy. Perhaps not for me, in this vintage.

This is a must stop for any disorderlies staying in the area. The wine list is full of regional treasures (including the rarer Envínate and Guimaro cuvees) and excellent selections from elsewhere. Unsurprisingly there is a nice selection of grower Champagnes (Bereche, Lassaigne, Doquet, Prevost, etc). I'd have been happy dining and drinking here every night during my stay.
 
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