Lagar de Broullón, Meaño (Pontevedra) Bodeguero Artesano José Pintos Pintos, Lagar de Broullon Albariño

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Lagar de Broullón,  Meaño (Pontevedra)
Bodeguero Artesano José Pintos Pintos
Lagar de Broullon Albariño 2010 12.5% 12/750ML $23.99

Lagar de Broullón 2010 is made by José Pintos. Beautifully balanced, Pintos's wine is full-flavored and quite complex with lychee and green apple flavors braced by a long, clean, mineral-laced finish, but has just 12.5% alcohol, which helps make it very easy to drink.   It is ideal with many different dishes, but especially with grilled fish, shellfish (for which Galicia is famous), octopus, rice dishes and cheeses. 
 

José Pintos, artesan grower-winemaker of Lagar de Broullón, sings during a lunch break at the Festa del Encontro do Viño de Autor at Meaño (Pontevedra).

Located in the heart of the Val de Salnés, in an area known as the home of Albariño grape, Lagar de Broullón bodega is surrounded by its 2.5 acre south-southwest facing vineyard that produces its signature wine.  Akin to wineries in Burgundy, the bodega is a 19th Century house, where several generations of the Pintos family have made wine with intelligence and car and have developed a family tradition for authentic artisan wines on a small scale.
 
Only about 600 cases of fine Albariño are made each year and only 100 of those will reach the U.S. market.  Lagar de Broullón’s dedication to quality focuses on the vineyard and the grapes, which José Pintos believes is the most important element in wine.  Although the winery has modern a vinification system, Pintos tries to make his wines with as little intervention as possible.  He believes that his signature wine is steeped in tradition and through meticulous vineyard work, he tries to achieve the highest quality in his wine.

We believe that Pintos has achieved his goal.  His Lagar de Broullón is one of the finest wines in our portfolio.

O’ Forrollo Albariño Rías Baixas

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Bodega Meis Otero, O’ Forrollo, Dena-Meaño (Pontevedra), Galicia
Bodeguero Artesano Fernando Meis Otero
 
O’ Forrollo Albariño 2010 Rías Baixas 13% 12/750ML $23.99 

O'Forrollo, one of the six Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas de Rías Baixas Albariños 
 brought in by The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections.

Color & appearance: Deep green-gold, correct for Albariño.

Nose: Pears, lime, apricots, spices, minerals.

Palate: Lots of delicious fruit, including hints of pear, apricot, lime and spices, with a bracing acidity that balances the fruit.  The wine finishes long, compelling sense of minerality.

Bodeguero artesano Fernando Meis Otero is one of the younger members of the Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas, a group of 14 independent artisan wineries from the same area of Val do Salnés, the top subregion for Albariños from Rías Baixas.  Fernando Meis farms his own vineyards of 100% Albariño grapes and ferments his must using native yeasts.  

Fernando Meis Otero, O'Forrollo.
All Photos by Gerry Dawes©2012.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Fernando Meis Álvarez, the current Fernando’s father, a vineyard owner in Dena (Meaño) decided to begin changing the mixed varieties of indigenous grapes growing in his vineyards for Albariño vines, a tough task, but with a single objective: to create the vineyard to provide grapes for his own estate-bottled Albariño.

Fernando Meis Álvarez thus took his first steps into the world of making Albariño and in 1990 he registered his bodega and his wine O Forrollo with the D.O. Rías Baixas.  His first harvest as an officially registered Rías Baixas bodega produced just over 250 cases of O Forrollo Albariño.

His son, Fernando Meis Otero, took over the direction of the winery in 2001.  During the past decade, Meis has adapted new technology, in viticulture as well as in the production in the winery, but never forgetting his roots and with one objective: to produce a Rías Baixas Albariño of excellent quality.

O Forrollo’s 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of vineyards are in the heart of the Val del Salnés (Dena –Meaño), an area which produces some of the best wines of the D.O. Rias Baixas.  85% of O Forrollo’s vines are in a single vineyard divided into four sub-parcels, the remaining 15% is in smaller plots.   

Albariño grapes, Meaño, Val do Salnés Rías Baixas (Galicia). 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2012.

The vines are trained on the typical Galician “parral” trellising system, supported on wires attached to granite posts that keep the vines and grapes horizontally suspended several feet above the ground, which allows circulation of air and helps prevent mildew and other related vine and grape diseases in this sometimes rainy climate.  The soil in the vineyards is sandy, shallow and low in acidity.

Albariño grapes growing on trellises, Val do Salnés, Rías Baixas (Galicia). 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012.

The region enjoys an Atlantic climate, which gets abundant rainfall, but enjoys many hours of sun as well.  Because of the proximity of the vineyards to the Atlantic Ocean, the mean temperature is temperature, though in summer temperatures often reach 86-90 degrees.

The vines are 100% Albariño, a sweet, small berry, native Galician grape.  All of O’ Forrolo’s grapes come from their own vineyards, so the harvests are limited and can vary, depending on the year, from 7000 liters (9000 bottles, 750 cases) to 10000 liters (14,000 bottles; 1166 cases). 

Meis says, “The harvesting of our grapes depends upon several factors that we consider indispensible for producing a wine of excellent quality:  The climate, taking into account all the environmental factors that can affect the maturation of the grapes; the degree of ripeness, taking very much into account the acid balance, which will dictate when we pick the grapes and is a vital element in the quality of the future wine.”

Adegas Avó Roxo, Meaño (Pontevedra) Bodeguero Artesano Antonio Gondar Moldes, Avó Roxo Albariño

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Adegas Avó Roxo, Meaño (Pontevedra)
Bodeguero Artesano Antonio Gondar Moldes
Avó Roxo Albariño 2010 13.0% 12/750ML $24.99

Avó Roxo joined the Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas in 2010 and is one of the group’s newest members. 

Avó Roxo is a traditional family winery and all their wine production comes from their own 1.5 hectares of vineyards are located in the heart of O Salnes, a privileged environment for the growing and harvesting of the Albariño grape.

The winery began producing wines in the 1930’s under the management of Serafín Gondar.  In 1975 Serafin passed the vineyards and winery to his son Antonio Gondar, who continued the wine’s development.  Avó Roxo won several awards in the 70’s, including 1st place at the XXII Albariño Wine Festival in Cambados in 1974. 

Antonio Gondar Moldes, Avo Roxo, Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas. 
All Photos by Gerry Dawes©2012.

The winery was named after the founder Serafín, whose nickname was Avó Roxo, Grandfather Purple (don’t ask) in Gallego.    

In 2007 his grandson Antonio Gondar Moldes took over ownership and management.  He renovated and re-energized the bodega and winemaking.   In 2007, the year he took over, Avó Roxo produced only 7,000 bottles, under 600 cases.

Gondar, whose day job is doing electrical installations, says, "My dream is to live only from the winery and expand production to 12,000 bottles, doing all the vineyard work my grandfather used to do because our grapes give exceptional aromas and taste to our wines.”

Practically all the wines of Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas are only sold locally to individuals and a few restaurants.  Few of these marvelously original, high quality wines have ever been sold in Madrid or anywhere else in Spain, but now wines like Avó Roxo are on the lists of such American restaurants as the great New York (State) restaurants as James Beard Outstanding Chef Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns and at Crabtree’s Kittle House, which has one of the best wine cellars in the United States. 

Cabaliero Do Val, Meaño (Pontevedra) Bodeguero Artesano Francisco Dovalo

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Gerry Dawes with Francisco (“Paco”) Dovalo López, owner of Cabaleiro do Val, is the founder and president of the Asociación of Bodegas Artesanas, Rías Baixas, Galicia. The Spanish Artisan Wine Group - Gerry Dawes Selections imports six different artisan albariños from the Bodegas Artesanas.

Adega Cabaliero Do Val, Meaño (Pontevedra)
Bodeguero Artesano Francisco Dovalo
Cabaleiro do Val Albariño 2010 13.5% 12/750ML $24.99
 

Cabaliero do Val, Paco Dovalo's great Albariño, Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas.

Cabaleiro do Val was officially incorporated as a bodega in 1989, although Paco Dovalo López has been producing his vino de autor signature wine all his life in an old granite stone farmhouse that he inherited from his ancestors and dates from 1834.  A section of the house is the old bodega, where the Dovalo family has been making wine for more than 100 years.  In the garden of the house is a huge old grapevine, estimated to be at least 150 years old, that measures more than three feet in circumference and has branches 30 feet long (vines are trained on the trellised parral system here).

Chefs Michael Chiarello and Ryan Mcilwaith (Bottega, Napa Valley) with the 200-year old vine 
at Cabaliero do Val in the garden of Paco Dovalo's home.
All Photos by Gerry Dawes©2012.

In the early 70's, there were numerous little known grape varieties such as Espadeiro, Tinta Hembra, Catalán, Hoja Redonda and even some unknown grapes growing in his vineyards and though he kept a some of these varieties to study their characteristics, he decided to use only Albariño in his wines.  At the time, there were also strains of Albariño estimated to be more than 150 years old.  Dovalo took cuttings these old vines for re-planting sections of his vineyards–he calls them the mothers of all his Albariño vines. 

Paco Dovalo says the grapes obtained from the original Albariño vines made wine that is the model for what he tries to achieve in what he calls “my indigenous artisan wine,” Cabaliero do Val.  Dovalo, wine our ancestors. Dovalo has kept some of these old vines, which he says are unique among Albariño vineyards in Rías Baixas. 

Dovalo says that his wine very much reflects his personal taste, which is rooted in tradition and in his memory of wines from a by-gone era.  Though, he and his fellow artisan grower-producers respect that tradition and still work their own vineyards, some of which have been in the family for generations, they have evolved by incorporating modern vineyard management and winemaking equipment.  But, though they have “modernized” to a certain degree, many of the winery maintain rustic touches and they continue to produce exceptionally high quality artisan wines that their ancestors would have been proud of.

Paco Dovalo, grower-producer of Cabaliero Do Val.

Paco Dovalo says, "In my group of small artisan grower-producers, we make a very personalized style of wine, whose individual roots reside in the tradition and memory. 

Although we have incorporated some of the lessons learned from modern winemaking, we still continue the artisanal work that we learned from our fathers.”

“For those who continue our style of artisan winemaking,” Dovalo says, “we hope that our new generations will maintain this tradition and endure, but for them to do that we also know that we have to build a following and an appreciation of these pure and noble limited production wines.”

It was because of Paco Dovalo’s wine that I discovered this incredible group of artisan producers.  One day a decade ago, I was on my way from Rías Baixas to Ribeira Sacra.  I was driving through an area known more for cheeses than wine when I reached the small town of Melide.  It was nearly four o’clock and I still had not had lunch, so when I saw a hotel-restaurant, I stopped. 

At first taciturn, as Gallegos sometimes are, the son of the chef-owner (a damned good cook trained in France) opened up as lunch service was wearing down and made some recommendations to this American stranger.  First, he offered a couple of excellent Galician cows’ milk cheeses–slices of Arzua-Ulloa and of the breast-shaped classic Tetilla–and he suggested that I might like to try a glass of Cabaleiro do Val Albariño to accompany the cheeses.       

The wine was stunning.  He told me that it was from the jefe who had organized a group of artisan producers, who were rebelling against making Albariños like most of the larger wineries were producing.  I wrote down the name of the winery and vowed to check out these producers, but it was nearly three years later when I finally tracked them down and it would be another five years before I founded The Spanish Artisan Wine Company and began to import Cabaliero do Val and five more of these splendid artisan wines. 

Dovalo may see his dreams for the artisan wines of his group come true.  Although the wines have hardly seen the light of day in Spain outside of Galicia, the wines of the Asociación of Bodegas Artesanas are now on the lists of such great American restaurants and wine bars as Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Blue Hill (New York City), Crabtree’s Kittle House, Picholine, Petrossian, Terroir Tribeca, Tertulia, Barcelona Wine Bars (Connecticut) and Solera.
 

"Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra Showing World-class Terroir in Northwestern Spain with the Astonishing Mencía Grape"

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(Click on the link to go to the article.)

Article on the Mencía Grape in Northwestern Spain

by  Gerry Dawes

The Wine News, October/November 2007

Mencía grapes, Bierzo.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

The Magnificent Seven: The Ribeira Sacra Producers of The Spanish Artisan Wine Group

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Jorge Carnero and a visitor tasting Viña Cazoga in the winery in Ribeira Sacra.  Carnero (Cazoga in Gallego) means ram, so the symbol of the vinyard and winery is a ram's head, which adorns the end of this old horizontal vat.  Jorge has a bed stashed in a big barrel that was formerly used to make Viña Cazoga.  Sometimes sleeps in the barrel during the harvest. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Recently someone asked “Which Ribeira Sacra wine is The Spanish Artisan Wine Group bringing into the U.S.? 

We will be not be bringing in just one winery from La Ribeira Sacra, but SEVEN* (and possibly eight) bodegas! We love La Ribeira Sacra and its small artisan producers.  We believe it is somewhat like Burgundy's mix of small estate producers and somewhat akin to the Loire Valley as well, but the grapesare not Chardonnay or Pinot Noir as in the case of Burgundy,  but the native red Mencía grape is very reminiscent of the Loire's Cabernet Franc.  And Godello? Well, many of the best Godellos can take on the majority of Chardonnays out there these days.

(*Note: Do to the fact that the entire Diego de Lemos production was already bottled with Spanish labels, we were unable to bring the wines from these last vintages and do a mis-communication our reply from Rectoral de Amandi arrived too late to get the labels registered in time to put the wines in this container.)
 

These wines come from properties and growers that I have following for as many as eight years. We will have Sabatelius from Primitivo Lareu, both a red and white, both of which are truly special wines from the westernmost Chantada subregion. Primitivo is one of the most dedicated viticulturists we know and his dedication to his vineyards shows in his superb terroir-driven wines, a superb blanco that is 60% Godello, 40% Treixadura, a young Mencía tinto and a Mencía Carballo (Gallego for oak) that sees time in barrel.

Primitivo Lareau, owner-viticulturist of Sabetelius, Chantada, La Ribeira Sacra.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Also from Chantada we are bringing Diego de Lemos. I especially like their lovely white wine, which is a blend of godello and treixadura (the main grape of neighboring Ribeiro). Diego de Lemos and the mineral-driven Toalde Mencía are both made by the talented young enologist, Roberto Regal. Deigo de Lemos is a stunningly beautiful, bucolic vineyard area overlooking the Minho River. 

 

Roberto Regal, owner-viticulturist-winemaker, Bodegas Toalde, and winemaker, Diego de Lemos.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Diego de Lemos owner, Esther Teijeiro, after seeing the alarming descent of the bilogical quality of the vineyards in her region because of the use of pesticides, became an ecological pioneer who produced the first ecological wine in Galicia from her vineyards in Chantada, Ribeira Sacra.

Diego de Lemos owner, Esther Teijeiro, an ecological pioneer.

Diego de Lemos Tinto on the terrace of the winery overlooking 
the Minho River in the Chantada sub-region of Ribeira Sacra.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

We are also excited about the young red Mencía, Don Bernadino, from the dramatic Sil River area of Amandi, which has some of the most spectacularly situated vineyards in the world. Don Bernandino Mencía is the wine of Emilio Rodríguez Díaz, the owner of O Grelo, an excellent regional cuisine restaurant in Monforte de Lemos, the main town and capital of La Ribeira Sacra.   Don Bernadino is delicious, beautifully balanced, has just 12.5% alcohol and is very reasonably price for its quality. You may find yourself, like a fellow traveler and I did in June, quaffing a second bottle, when our intention after a long day was to have a glass or two and hit our road warrior hotel beds early.

Emilio Rodríguez Díaz, owner of O Grelo Restaurante in Monforte de Lemos and Don Bernadino winery.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

Rectoral di Amandi, another delicious, calls-you-back-for-another-glass, red shows that wonderful pomegranate fruit that good Mencía seems to exhibit, again married to a sexy, exotic slate-graphite mineral finish. And speaking of sexy and exotic, the electric pink label looks like it could have been dreamed up in a discotheque. Rectoral di Amandi is owned by Myriam Vásquez.

Myriam Vásquez, owner of Rectoral de Amandi, a larger producer of quality wines in La Ribeira Sacra.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

One of the stars of this group is a unique wine from a rustic bodega in the back country. It is owned by a young winemaker, Jorge Carnero, who took over his late father’s vineyards and decided to make his own very personal wine, Viña Cazoga. We will bring in both Jorge’s Viña Cazoga Joven 2010 and Viña Cazoga 2008, a wine that spends some time in re-conditioned oak. We don’t expect either of these wines to be for everyone because they are so unique and unlike other red wines you may have tasted before. For this reason, on my fourth visit to the winery when I took Emmanuel I decided not to say anything and just let Emmanuel make up his own mind about the wine without any pre-suggestion from me. Cazoga wines were the ones he liked the best of all from our 2,500 km., 20-winery trip. Cazoga wines show themselves best with food. By the time you get to the last glass in the bottle, you realize you have been drinking something unique and special.  And you don't like that ugly old-fashioned label with the Carnero's (ram's) head you say.  Get over it and concentrate on the wine in the bottle.  We wouldn't change a thing about this place.  Besides, there is not enough wine to fill even the modest demand we think those who really like this wine will create.

Jorge Carnero, Viña Cazoga, Amandi. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com

The unique, rich, pomegranate-like fruit driven Décima Mencia (with 10% garnacha tintorera) from Amandi is underpinned by a graphite-like slate minerality that comes from the preciptiously steep pizarra terraces on which Décima’s vineyards grow. These vineyards, owned and worked by José Manuel Rodríguez, who in addition to farming his own vines, is also the President of the Consello Regulador de La Ribeira Sacra. I have been visiting vineyards and bodegas with José Manuel for nearly a decade and count him among my best friends. He has not only introduced me to the bodegueros and wineries we are bringing in, he has lead me to nearly three dozen other bodegas and tasting of hundreds of wines, which helped me immeasurably in the research for my articles on the region, but also in finding this particular set of unique wines.

José Manuel Rodríguez, President of the Consello Regulador de La Ribeira Sacra,and owner-viticulturist of Décima, and Emmanuel Dupuy D'Angeac of Nancy's Wines, New York City, at Rodríguez's vineyards overlooking the Sil River.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com