Sarah Marsh MW explores the varied terroirs of the Salnés Valley in Rías Baixas in the company of two of the region’s finest producers: Eulogio Pomares and Manuel Moldes.
I wanted a good walk, and, with only eight days to spare for my journey, I decided on the Camino Portuguese. It would be a speedy trek from Porto to Santiago and en route I would visit two of my favorite producers in Rías Baixas.
Last year I considered the three principal subregions within the Galician DO: Val do Salnés, Condado do Tea, and O Rosal. This time I would concentrate on the expression of specific terroir and single vineyards within just one of those subregions: the Salnés Valley.
I was up early in the dark for a fast 20km (12 miles) walk to Pontevedra where Eulogio Pomares was waiting to meet me. As we drove through the parishes of Meis and Meaño to Castelo, Pomares argued the case that the Salnés Valley should be divided into its own subregions to more specifically reflect the terroir.
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First we passed through Meis which is 15 km (9 miles) inland with vineyards at a slight elevation of 100–200m (330–660ft) above sea level. “There is no influence from the Atlantic Ocean here making Meis the warmest of the three parishes,” Pomares says, adding that “it’s even warmer now with climate change.”
Next we drove through Meaño, which is 2.3 km (1.4 miles) from the coast and the vineyards here, which are around 50m (165ft) above sea level, are affected by the ocean. “This is the transitional area between the inland and coastal vineyards and usually the vineyard plots are planted in-between the houses,” Pomares says. We didn’t stop, instead flying on to Castelo, a flat parish on the coastal estuary into which the River Ulla flows. “In Castelo we have the influence of the rías which moderates the warm summers. We get good ripeness and constant yields here. The wines are more aromatically complex and have an immediate balance,” Pomares explains as we arrive at Pedraneira vineyard bang on the shore. “All the vignerons love this place.” I especially like Pomares’ wine from Pedraneira and had been looking forward to seeing the vineyard.
Pomares rents this parcel. 2018 was his first vintage, although for 25 years he has managed these vines for the Lorenzo family who are local but live largely in Cadíz. They leave Pomares to his own devices, but are clearly proud of this vineyard and happened to be visiting when we showed up. They were keen to chat. Pedraneira is 4ha (10 acres) which is a large vineyard for the region. The neighboring vineyard has been divided between five cousins who were unable to agree on a collective approach. Each took a parcel, some of which are now overgrown. Sadly this is a typical scenario here where old vineyards on good terroir are underexploited or even abandoned.
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In Castelo the soil is a complex mix of red clay (Pomares pointed out the factory making clay roof tiles across the estuary), granite, and sand with alluvial matter from the river. Some say the salinity in the wines here is due to the salty sea fog, but Pomares believes it comes from the high salt content in the soil which was under water when this was a much wider estuary. He supports his theory by telling me that the granite walls of the houses here have a salty crust when they get damp and dry out, but he hasn’t had the soil tested.
The 2018 vintage of Eulogio Pomares Pedraneira shows delicious evolution; caramelised orange peel and blossom honey. It is spicy, but fresh and has a glowing textual richness. It was fermented in 2,500l (660 gallons) foudres, racked in the spring, and returned to foudres and bottled after the following harvest.
Pomares likes to use a slow, gentle whole-bunch press. “It’s more traditional here to crush a little and leave on skins for a couple of days while the fermentation starts. When you press you get more juice and this is followed by a short fermentation, but I don’t want the phenolics from the skin, which can be too green. I am looking for terroir and not Albariño and I feel with skin contact wines you lose the terroir.”
This flies under Eulogio Pomares’ own label, which is kept apart from Bodegas Zarate. When his wife Rebecca inherited a vineyard in Castelo—Parralcoba—from her grandmother Pomares resolved to keep the vineyards separate and established a second winery to produce the first Eulogio Pomares vintage in 2015.
Pomares explains that one side of his family came from the Basque country, settling in Galicia to found a company drying and salting cod, while another branch of the family—with vineyards in the Salnés Valley—can be traced back to the 16th century.. It was Ernest, the winemaking brother of his grandmother, who established the Cambados wine festival in 1953. Pomares’ father and grandfather were doctors, but he took a different path and has been making the wine since 1999, from vineyards which, if I understood correctly as the family tree was quite complicated, were passed down from his great grandfather.
Zarate, Xabre, and the death stone of Salnés
We left the coast and backtracked 3km (2 miles) inland towards Meaño to the Zarate vineyards and winery. Pomares tells me the granite in Meaño is much harder that of Castelo, impenetrable by vine roots which will grow laterally where they encounter it. “If there is no rain in August, the vines have no water reserves and they block, resulting in low sugar with high acidity. The wines can be very sharp.” This was not a problem in 2024, the wettest season since records began in 1987. I passed through plenty of vineyards with mildew. 2022 was hot and drier. (Incidentally Pomares tells me that climate change has the beneficial effect here of shifting harvest a couple of weeks forward, before the period when it typically rains.)
In its solid state this granite is known as “death stone,” and can be roughly hewn into granite posts to support the pergolas. These traditional pergolas are “very good with global warming,” says Pomares as we walk under the shady canopy exploring El Palomar vineyard.
“When this granite with mica and feldspar decomposes it becomes Xabre, a ‘live’ granite and the roots of the vines here go deep in search of minerals.” Some of the vines in Palomar, and neighboring Balado vineyard, date back 150 years. Eulogio pointed out an old vine with an astonishing 10m (30ft) canopy. The soil is very acidic, with a pH of 4.5. Many producers use calcium carbonate to increase the pH to 6 to create a more hospitable environment for the vines, but Pomares says “it’s important it stays at the natural level.” He scatters oyster, cockle, and scallop shells in El Palomar and Balado to address the aluminium of the felspar and he lets natural grasses grow.
We sat down in the shady courtyard for the tasting. Pomares compares the wines of Meaño, (El Palomar and Balado) with Castelo. “Meaño wines have shier aromatics and need time in bottle to develop them. The granitic feel is the dominant feature of the young wines from Meaño.”
Until 2002 Zarate made just one wine, all the parcels were blended, but for 20 years Pomares has focused on expressing the terroir from single vineyards. Single-vineyard Zarate El Palomar is benchmark Rías Baixas. The aroma of El Palomar from the warm 2022 vintage is restrained. There is density and power. It has a firm core and it’s stony, structured, and layered. Pomares went to find a bottle of 2009 which truly reveals the character and quality of this vineyard and its capacity to evolve. At 15 years the aroma is complex and nutty with a hint of kerosene and Parmesan. It has a lively bite, tangy seaweed, ozone notes, and a sustained, zesty, salty finish. “Albariño can develop Riesling characters in warmer vintages as it ages,” Pomares muses.
Pomares allows most of his wines to go through a full malolactic, which is not typical in Rías Baixas. “Malolactic gives more complexity to wine and is better for aging. I don’t know why others in the region don’t do it. After 30 years of making Albariño I am focused on the aging potential.” Five years ago he started putting aside 120 bottles of each cru to sell some wine to restaurants with bottle age.
That said, he admires the wines of his friends who block the malolactic, among them Manuel Moldes who arrived with his wife, Silvia Pérez, to collect me. The clock was ticking. We had many vineyards to visit and wines to taste.
Maneul Moldes and southwest Salnés
If Pomares’ driving was fast, Manuel (or Chico as he prefers to be called) Moldes was frenetic. I buckled up and prayed for a safe outcome as we sped between the principal vineyards. Moldes has 5ha (12 acres) of vines made up from 22 parcels.
Moldes, who started his professional life in banking, took over the small production of wine from his father in 2009. “Slowly, slowly until my father understood what we had to do. He made wines for family and friends, but it was unsustainable.” Current production from the tiny cellar is now 80,000 bottles, but Pérez still teaches maths and science to keep the winemaking dream afloat.
Moldes’ parcels are located on the rounded outcrop on the southwest extremity of the Salnés Valley where the Ria de Pontevedra forms a deep and wide estuary. We got out of the car at a high and windy point in the middle from which it was possible to see this outcrop, which is surrounded 270 degrees by water. To tell you about Moldes’ wine, I have referred to the vineyards we visited and the terroir they represent within the tasting notes.
Bodegas Fulcro A Pedreira 2023
This comes from a granite soil. As the project expanded, Moldes found more pockets of vines on similar granite soil and there are now 21-22 individual parcels. The wine has concentrated citrus notes, while being grippy and showing tension and zesty fresh acidity. It’s salty for sure. Salted caramel especially as the oak was quite prevalent. 65% is aged for four months in new and old barrels.
“This is a vision of granite soil,” says Moldes. “It’s saltier and richer in the mouth, fuller and more obvious compared with wines from schist, which are straighter and longer.” We also tried the 2019, which I preferred. It’s a cooler vintage which has more focus.
Bodegas Fulcro A Cesteira, Rías Biaxas 2022
Stony and vigorous with a strident, quite muscular character which punches into the finish.
Cesteira is a 0.7ha (1.7 acres) east-facing vineyard on the north side of the area. It’s owned by a family friend who makes baskets for a living. The 35-year-old vines receive the morning sun and are protected from the wind. 2019 was the first vintage of this single-vineyard wine to be aged in foudres. The soil is compact schist.
Moldes explains that the compact schist makes stronger wines than decomposed schist, largely found on the south side of the area, where the wines are more elegant. This sandy textured soil is warmer and retains daytime heat which is radiated at night. There was a correlation between O Equilibrio and Nas Dunas as both have decomposed schistous soil.
Bodegas Fulcro O Equilibrio, Rías Baixas 2022
Ten years ago this was a single vineyard; now it comes from three parcels located on the south side of the area. It has 11 months in 700l (185 gallons) barrels with no new oak. It is more layered, savory, and longer than A Piedreira. A direct, elegant, well balanced, and well defined wine.
Bodegas Fulcro Nas Dunas, Rías Baixas 2022
This is fine, fluid, and discreet. It ripples in silky ribbon, pure and silvery into a persistent saline finish. There are two barrels of 500 and 700l (130 and 185 gallons). We also tasted the 2018 which is super saline and intense; focused and pure. It seems with bottle age it becomes laser-linear and precise.
It comes from a single vineyard near the coast, on the south side, an area which attracts tourists and is under threat from development. Chico’s friends Rodrigo Mendez and Raúl Pérez also make wine from this 25-30-year-old vineyard on decomposed schist which is like sand. If you rub it between your fingers and thumb it breaks down to a smooth powder which sparkles. Gold dust wine.
The wines I tasted that afternoon showed such individuality. They suggest the potential for subregional division. But persuading the DO of Rías Baixas to even consider this would take a collective approach, and with many producers drawing on dozens of tiny pockets of vines across the whole region for blending, there is little incentive. Except perhaps the market. “Martín Códax is making village and single-vineyard wines now because they know the market wants it,” says Pomares, who takes encouragement from this.
Making changes to the appellation is a long-term project, which calls for the identification, authentication, and delineation of terroir, but Pomares is certainly the person to instigate this, following the pioneering tradition of his family to push forward the quality of Galician wine.
But it was time for me to leave. I had an early start the following morning to walk 40km (24 miles) to Padrón where I was already looking forward to a plate of salty peppers.
