Espadeiro
Espadeiro (ess-puh-DAY-ro) is a red wine grape grown in Rías Baixas, Galicia.
¡O espadeiro! ¡Acios mouros, cepas tortas, follas verdes, douradas e vermellas, gala nas terras vivas de Castrelo nos Castelos de Oubiña e nas areas de Tragove e Sisán, do mar de Arousa e o Umia cristalino nas ribeiras!
¡O espadeiro amante! ¡O viño doce! ¡Alegría de mallas e espadelas, compañeiro das bolas de pan quente e as castañas asadas na lareira!
-Ramón Cabanillas, “Diante dunha cunca de espadeiro” (Da terra asoballada, 1917)
Espadeiro! Dark bunches, crooked vines, green, gold and red leaves, gala in the lively land of Castrelo in the Castles of Oubiña and in the sands of Tragove and Sisán, from the sea of Arousa and the crystalline Umia on its banks!
Espadeiro the lover! Sweet wine! Joy of thresher and scutcher, companion of hot loaves of bread and chestnuts roasted on the fire!
-Ramón Cabanillas, “Before a cunca of espadeiro” (Da terra asoballada, 1917)
What is Espadeiro?
Espadeiro is a red wine grape grown in Rías Baixas. Before Albariño, there was Espadeiro. Prior to the arrival of phylloxera, it was the predominant red variety in the Val do Salnés, and widely cultivated in the time of the poet Ramón Cabanillas, who praised it in the poem you read above. But Espadeiro is difficult to cultivate: its low-growing vines proved vulnerable to diseases and bad weather, so it required constant care and its yields tended to be low.
It also made light-colored wines with low alcohol, which meant it didn’t keep well and often spoiled by March or April of the year following harvest. To add color and body, Espadeiro wines were blended with Caíño Tinto and the hybrid grape Folla Redonda. But with the rise of the more lucrative Albariño in the 1980s, plantings of Espadeiro were ripped up, bringing the grape to the verge of extinction. Recently, some wineries have begun to invest in its recovery.
What does Espadeiro wine smell like?
Espadeiro wines are highly aromatic, with primary aromas of tart red fruit like cranberries and strawberries. They can also take on herbal aromas like eucalyptus and menthol, as well as some vegetal and spice notes if they’re macerated with stems or spend time in barrels.
What does Espadeiro wine taste like?
Espadeiro produces medium-bodied, rustic wines, whose acidity and tannins can be tamed by aging in oak barrels. Only a few producers currently make wine from espadeiro, so it will be interesting to see how the wines evolve with more practice and experimentation in the winery.
Where does Espadeiro come from?
DNA profiling shows that the Galician Espadeiro is identical to Camaraou Noir, a grape originally from southwest France. Nowadays there’s almost no Camaraou Noir in France, and only a few vines grow in old Béarn and Jurançon vineyards. Meanwhile, there is also a grape known as Espadeiro grown in Portugal to the south which is genetically distinct from the grape grown in Rías Baixas.
Other synonyms include Caíño Redondo in Galicia, Camarau or Kamarau in the French Pays Basque, and Moustardet.
Some technical details
Espadeiro is late-ripening and tends to have low yields, and has medium sensitivity to botrytis, downy mildew, and powdery mildew. It makes wines with a medium-to-high alcohol content between 11.4–14% ABV with medium acidity (between 4.7 and 6 g/L) and high pH (3.5–3.9).
How is Espadeiro wine made?
For most varietal Espadeiro wines, the grapes are destemmed and fermented in stainless steel or open barrels. After fermentation, most of them undergo 12 months of aging in large used oak barrels.