Galician Wines You Should Be Drinking: Tanis - Pablo Soldavini
Galicia was swept by successive waves of emigration in the 19th and 20th centuries as famine, war, and poverty drove thousands of families to sail to the Americas in search of a better life. Many never returned. Those who do come back are known as retornados, or returners. Most of them choose to live on the more populous coast or in the major cities—unless they have dreams of making wine and their ancestors happened to be from prime Ribeira Sacra.
Pablo Soldavini’s grandfather exchanged the abject poverty of rural 20th-century Galicia for Argentina, where second-generation Pablo grew up on the coast south of Buenos Aires. He began a career as a graphic designer, but later decided it wasn’t for him. After a few years of traveling, he came back to Spain in the early 2000s and eventually settled in a small village just outside of Castro Caldelas, in the heart of Ribeira Sacra.
Pablo got into winemaking through his cousins, who were grape growers, and quickly put together an impressive resumé: he founded Fedellos do Couto with Curro Barreño and Jesús Olivares and consulted for wineries such as Adegas Saíñas. Finally, he struck out on his own as Pablo Soldavini Viticultor.
Castro Caldelas is a hilltop town, with a castle that looks out on the vast slopes of the Sil River canyon. On steep terraces perched high above the river, Pablo has recovered nearly 20 tiny vineyards and slowly converted them to organic farming. He’s an eco-warrior with a pragmatic side, as he recognizes that it takes time to undo years of herbicide use and you can’t just switch a vine to organic viticulture overnight. His patient approach pays off with beautiful vineyards in the end.
The overarching philosophy is to dispense with the bullshit, take care of the 20+ vineyards he farms, and make good wines that people will enjoy. As he says:
“I could bore you with eloquent speeches and technical jargon, but I prefer to tell you what I actually do: work the vines with a clear conscience and honesty, and make the wine that most truthfully represents them with the sole aim that it be enjoyable and authentic.”
Tanis is one of these enjoyable, authentic wines. It’s a village wine, from three 70-year-old vineyards in the village of A Teixeira.As was the case for most older Galician vineyards, they are co-planted with a majority of Mencía, with vines of Garnacha Tintorera, Mouratón, and Merenzao, plus the white grapes Palomino, Godello, Colgadeira, and others making up about 10%. He ferments the grapes 100% whole cluster in open vats and macerates them with the skins for 45 days after fermentation, finishing the wine in used French oak barrels for 12 months.
Ruby-colored with a slight cloudiness, the nose takes me back to tasting out of the barrel in his tiny cellar in 2022. The first thing to emerge is a slight hint of volatility, but very much under control and not at all unpleasant. Instead, it propels the rest of the aromas out of the glass: ripe red strawberry, fresh cranberry, tart cherry, wild red raspberry, a kind of chalky aroma that I always associate with the Necco Wafers my grandfather always used to keep by his chair, and maybe a subtle hint of cinnamon and herbs.
On the palate it’s got mouthwatering acidity, with nice, subtly stemmy tannins toward the front of the mouth. It’s very Ribeira Sacra, but shies away from the reductivity and rusticity you sometimes can get from Mencía-based blends. It’s elegant, without being slick. In a word, it’s delicious.
Pablo Soldavini Viticultor “Tanis” 2022 ($45 from Despaña Vinos, €25 from Juncal Alimentación)