From the perfectly maintained vineyards of Château Purcari in Moldova, you can see the Ukrainian border some 800 metres away. - TEXT CHARLOTTE VAN ZUMMEREN | IMAGE EDITORS
Miguel García by Benito Santos
A wine region with more, much more rain than in the Netherlands? You can't be serious. Yet you do! And this region is in the north-east of Spain: Rías Baixas. One advantage of this region is that if you travel there as well as from there, you can see lots of nice things. WINELIFE went to visit Bodega Benito Santos in Rías Baixas and met a man of taste.
Rain & rot
There is a lot of rain in Rías Baixas, and partly due to its location by the sea, it is often chilly. You have to dress for it, and don't forget the umbrella. In the Netherlands we are used to a lot of wetness, but compared to Rías Baixas we keep it pretty dry here. As much as 1,500 millimetres fall in Galicia per year, compared to 700 to 900 millimetres in the Netherlands, with occasional peaks of 1,200. And it shows. You find an abundance of moss: on houses, on trees, but also on vines. And if it rains a lot, rot is always lurking. This gives the winemaker more work as a strict selection has to be made, which in turn affects the price of the grapes. So for really super-cheap wine, Rías Baixas is not the place to be.
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Curious to find out more about Miguel García from Benito Santos? You can read about it in the latest WINELIFE Magazine 78. You can order this one here!
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