Martin Codax winery visit 2007

Kate Admasu, Manager, Majestic Swansea

The Martin Codax winery is located in Rias Baixas, a D.O. in Galicia in the north-west corner of Spain. The scenery here is absolutely stunning with imposing mountains sloping down to wide flat plains on the coast. We visited in early October, when the weather was still very warm during the day although chilly at night (warm for us that is; our Spanish hosts were complaining that winter had come!).

Land in this area is rarely sold but inherited, so the winery is run as a cooperative involving many grape growers, who each own a small parcel of land, being shareholders in the business. Grapes are also bought in from a number of other contracted growers in the area. In the run up to harvest the grapes from different areas are constantly inspected to make sure they will be picked at the optimum level of ripeness.

The dominant grape variety, and the one all the white wines of Martin Codax are made from, is Albariño. This variety is becoming increasingly trendy in Britain and is typically fresh and zingy with flavours of white flowers and citrus fruits. After some very good meals I can testify that it is excellent with the seafood for which the region is also famous!

The winery and its main wine are both named after Martin Codax, a 13th century troubadour who sang - appropriately enough - about wine, women and the joys of life. The fact that his name is easily recognisable and pronounceable by non-Spanish speakers is a happy coincidence, but very useful for brand recognition.

We enjoyed a very interesting tasting session at the winery, tasting not only a vertical flight of the Martin Codax Albariño to see how well it could age but also several of their other wines not currently available in the UK. The winemaking team of Luciano, a ninth generation Albariño winemaker, and his assistant Katya obviously enjoyed experimenting with different techniques.

Organistrum was an oak-aged Albariño with more body and complexity than you would expect, Pe Redondo had been aged on its lees to give richness and creaminess, while Galleicia was very unusual, being made from botrityzed grapes giving it a Sauternes-like nose of honeysuckle and beeswax, but fermented out to dryness.

We also visited the Bierzo region, three hours inland from Rias Baixas. This is one of Spain's newest DO areas and Martin Codax acquired land here a few years ago where they make two red wines from the little-known Mencia grape. Their Martin Sarmiento wine is stocked by Majestic and is full-bodied and fruity yet fresh and very easy to drink. The cuisine here is based on red meats rather than seafood and these wines accompany it very well.

Our hosts at Martin Codax were incredibly friendly and welcoming and went to a huge amount of effort to ensure that we enjoyed everything about our trip. The food was consistently amazing and I was defeated at every meal by the sheer quantity of it! It took time to adapt to the different hours kept here - we would often not start eating lunch until 3pm and still be eating dinner at 2am, with each meal lasting 2 or 3 hours.

I would recommend a visit to this unspoilt area of Spain to anyone, whether interested in learning more about the local wine or just looking for a good holiday with fabulous food, beautiful scenery and lovely people.