Local Event Premier Host

Where The Atlantic Breathes Life Into Vine And Glass - Green Spain

Cost: 30

There are places in the wine world where sunlight defines everything—ripeness, power, scale. And then there is Green Spain, where the story is written in mist.

Along the ragged northern coastline, from the French border across the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and into the deep folds of Galicia, the Atlantic shapes conditions day after day. Rain drifts in off the Bay of Biscay, clouds cling to hillsides and vineyards sit in a landscape more often associated with grazing sheep than growing grapes. It is this persistent cool, this humidity, this soft, silvery light that gives Green Spain its name and its signature in the glass.

What thrives here are not wines of weight, but of tension. Whites lean into acidity, salinity and aromatic lift. Reds show freshness and mineral edge rather than sheer density. Albariño, the region’s best-known grape, captures that balance perfectly, sometimes citrus-driven and electric, sometimes broader with orchard fruit and stone, but always with that unmistakable Atlantic snap. In Rías Baixas, where vines trace river valleys that resemble drowned fjords, it has become the region’s calling card.

Move inland and the terrain shifts, steeper, more rugged, more dramatic. Here, grapes like Godello step forward, offering a different expression: deeper, more textural, often layered with orchard fruit, herbs and a quiet, stony weight tied to ancient soils once prized by Roman gold miners. In Ribeira Sacra and Bierzo, vineyards cling impossibly to slate and schist slopes and it is here that Mencía shows its clearest profile, red-fruited, floral and nervy, shaped as much by altitude and exposure as by grape.

Even further east, toward the Basque coast, the wines take on a different kind of energy. Txakoli, lightly effervescent and bracingly tart, brings a clean, sea-spray freshness, often poured from height to wake up its gentle fizz, and made for oysters, anchovies and long afternoons near the water.

This tasting explores that full arc, from the saline whites of the coast to the vertiginous reds of the interior, from youthful vibrancy to old-vine depth. These are wines shaped less by sun than by slope, storm and survival, with a strong sense of place and a hard-edged freshness that keeps pulling you back to the glass.

A sampling of a previous year’s wine list. New wines coming ASAP.

Flight One

Castro Candaz - 2020 Ribeira Tinto "Finca el Curvado" — $44.99

Emilio Moro - 2021 El Zarzal — $31.99

Virgen del Galir - 2023 Val do Galir Godello — $20.99

Flight Two

Raul Perez - 2021 Bierzo Tinto "Ultreia St. Jacques Mencia" — $22.99

Dominio de Anza (Diego Magaña) - 2021 Bierzo Tinto "Seleccion de Parcelas" — $35.99

Pentecostes - 2022 Varietales White Blend — $30.99

Flight Three

Carismaticos - 2018 Merenzao — $54.99

Bodegas y Viñedos Raul Perez - 2020 Bierzo Tinto "Ultreia El Rapolao" — $88.99

Granbazán - 2022 Albariño Etiqueta Verde — $21.99

Wines to be tasted: 

TBA

All prices listed reflect regular retail. Significant discounts will be offered on all wines tasted. Due to the highly allocated nature of some selections, wines may change without notice.

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