Following an excellent sherry tasting trip to Jerez in 2018 with Roger from A Question of Taste, we decided to do a wine tasting trip to Galicia with him. We have just completed the twice postponed trip (due to Covid) and it exceeded our expectations.
We chose Galicia because it was an area of Spain we didn't know and also knew very little about the wines of the region. Roger made all the arrangements for hotels, wine tours, meals and additional attractions. He drove us throughout the region, stopping to see some amazing sights and we stayed in three different towns.
Roger met me and three companions late one evening at Santiago de Compostela railway station, the less said about the Spainish railways the better! He took us to our hotel and the next day we started our four day tour. We visited wineries in Rias Baixis, Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras and El Bierzo. We visited two or three wineries each day punctuated by lunch in a local restaurant and a periodic visit to a historic site to break up the wine tours. The hotels were very comfortable, including one Parador, and each night we had a delicious evening meal of local cuisine in a different restaurant. At the end of our trip, Roger dropped us at the airport.
The highlights were the Ribeira Sacra region where we had a boat trip on the river and saw up close the vines growing on very steep hillsides, and the fact that at most of the wineries we were shown round by and talked to the owner and wine maker, so we were able to discuss the wines and the challenges they face in making the wines. Roger was very knowledgeable about the area and the wines and had an excellent relationship with the producers.
The whole trip was very well organised and was one of the best wine tours we have been on. We are now planning a trip to Rioja with Roger.
