We took the opportunity while sailing in Galicia to visit the Paco & Lola vineyards and winery which is only about 6 km from Sanxenxo which has a big marina. We tied Aleria up the night before, had a lovely meal in town with a delicious house Albariño wine, mussels, langoustines and oyster mushrooms fried in a light batter. We had an entertaining young waiter trying out his English to boot. Overall fun.
Little did we know that we were next to the superyacht owned by Amancio Ortega, once the richest man in the world. He is the founder of Inditex group, the world's largest apparel retailer. The fashion group owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe.
In the morning, we walked to the taxi stand by the church and drove out to the Bodega Paco & Lola with its distinctive polka dot branding. Alex had made contact with their marketing manager, Carolina. She arranged for us to tour the winery with Maria, the new tourism director, visit vineyards with Diego, their viticulture manager, then taste some wines before lunch. We arrived at 10:45 and left at 2:30. It was an amazing time spent in the company of truly lovely people who adore what they do.
The Bodega is run as a cooperative. It was started in 2005 by 20-30 independent growers who had small vineyards and weren't being let into the two existing large coops. They pooled their money and their grapes, got some grants from the government and built an incredibly well-designed modern and massive wine producing facility. We weren't permitted to take photos or notes but they took us through every stage of the process.
They now have some 400 farmers growing Albariño grapes in small plots averaging 0.5 hectares. The largest is 1.0 hectare and the smallest is 500 meters. Astonishing. The system they have for processing and tracking the harvest is amazing. Fully automated and fully trackable. The designation of origin requires very strict measurement and certification of source, content, and process. As Albariño is strictly controlled to 12% alcohol, the grapes cannot be more than 12.5 and not less than 11.9 on the sugar scale, or they are rejected. The vintners visit every vineyard testing the grapes until they are ready to pick so few batches are ever rejected. They have also started using drones to try to select grapevines that behave the same way, let's say by leaf colour, for analysis and processing together. They are very innovative.
The winery vats are all stainless steel. The bannisters are piping that runs water through one set and CO2 through another. The venting system is automatic. The growers bring their produce in specially drained and labelled grates that are automatically processed through a weighing machine. The grapes are then crushed by growers' batch and the sediment removed. The first press is used for a regular wine, the second stage is used for the finer wines. The discarded pressings are used to fertilize the forests after fires so nothing is wasted.
The wines are then fermented with commercial yeast and allowed to settle. They are then filtered and stored in stainless steel until they are ready to be bottled. The bottling takes place when the sales managers predict that demand will catch up with supply as it is easier to maintain the temperature and conditions in the vats than the bottles.
The bottling shed has a machine that washes the bottles, fills, and labels. Before corking or securing the screw top, the inspectors are called in to certify the batch. Different markets require different tops, different sized carton and different labelling. They sell now to 40+ markets worldwide and Ireland is a big one for them.
They say on the days of the harvest, the trucks are lined up for a mile or more waiting to drop off their grapes for weighing and processing. The growers know each other and Diego knows them all. Next, it was off to the vineyards.
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| Mushrooms in Sanxenxo |
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| Langoustines for dinner |
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| The reception area at Paco & Lola |
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| Aleria berthed at Nauti Marina |
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