Adegas Valmiñor, a Rias Baixas Winery

Adegas Valmiñor is located in the southernmost region of  DO Rias Baixas. The winery was founded in 1997 by Carlos Gómez.

Wine enthusiasts will enjoy the wine bottle labels which emphasize the Celtic symbols of land, air, sun and rain. These four ancient symbols were unearthed from a mountain located near the winery.

The winery is located in the DO sub-region of O Rosal, along the Miño River which borders Portugal. The vineyards are influenced by low altitude, high precipitation and mild temperatures as well as the Atlantic Ocean and the River Miño. The soil is known for its minerality

Adegas Valmiñor Location

A Portela s / n, San Juan de Tabagón.
36760, O Rosal – Pontevedra
GPS coordinates: 41º 55 ‘59.1’ ‘N, 8º 47’ 41.5 ” O

Wine Tasting

At a spring 2017 Rias Baixas wine tasting in Oxon Hill, Maryland held in the southern-cuisine Succotash Restaurant, we tasted the  Valmiñor 2015 Albariño wine. This wine was produced with 6 to 8 hours of cold maceration.  The Albariño wine was a yellow color. It offered notes of citrus, mineral and melon. The  full-bodied wine had a fruity finish with the fruit yielding to mineral notes. The retail price is a reasonable $14 per bottle.

Tourism

Wine enthusiasts will discover that the winery offers one-hour guided tours in Spanish and English. Reservations can be made online on the winery’s website.

Adegas Valmiñor Winemaker Cristina Mantilla kindly responded to several of our interview questions below.

Winemaker Cristina Mantilla

1. What are your most enjoyable aspects of winemaking?

Discovering how many things a glass of wine can say and being able to transmit that to consumers.

2. How and when did your wine journey begin?

In 1990, I started working within a small wine coop in Condado do Tea, with our own vineyards, little resources and big dreams.

3. Why did you decide to start making wine?

This isn’t a decision that you make from one day to the other but once you get in touch with the vineyards around and you know more and more, you start to feel this passion and wish of telling your story through the wines you make.

4. How many hectares of grapes are you growing? Which varieties are you growing?

As an oenological consultant, I work with a few acres of vineyard (around 173) but very diverse: albariño in all Rias Baixas subzones, but also loureiro, godello and caiño blanco in small plots in Condado do Tea, O Rosal and Ribera do Ulla. I also work with red varieties such as brancellao, red loureiro, red caiño and castañal, all of them in O Rosal subzone.

5. What do you wish you knew when you started making wine that you now know?

Know more about the history of Galician vineyards and about the wine world at an international level.

6. To what do you contribute your success as a winemaker?

To my honesty and objectivity

7. Albariño is a very food friendly wine. What types of foods do you like to pair with Albariño wine?

It’s a very versatile wine that can be paired with light and fresh dishes, seafood, raw fish, rice, pasta, fish stews or more elaborated dishes of the sea. It also pairs very well with white meats, fresh and cured cheese, and Galician appetizers such as mussels and other preserved shellfish.

Cheers!
Kathy