Visit and Tasting at Paco & Lola, the Meaño Cooperative

Paco & Lola is the polka-dot albariño and, behind the label, a cooperative: the Sociedad Cooperativa Vitivinícola Arousana, with more than 430 members who farm 220 hectares spread over more than 2,000 plots in the Salnés. Its winery is in Xil, in Meaño, ten minutes by car south of Cambados. The entry-level visit costs €15 with three wines, and at weekends there is another, longer one, which also runs on Sunday.

Classic on weekdays, Gourmet at the weekend

The Classic Visit lasts an hour and ends with a tasting of three of its wines, for €15. It runs Monday to Friday at 11:00, 13:00 and 16:00, and on Saturday at 11:00, in Spanish, Galician or English.

The Gourmet Visit is longer, about 90 minutes, and more carefully done at the table: four wines, at least one a special edition, with Galician cheeses (one for every two people). It costs €22 and runs on Saturday and Sunday from 13:00 to 14:30, subject to availability. If Sunday is your only day in the Salnés, it is the way to see a winery from the inside: Martín Códax and the Fefiñanes winery do not receive visitors that day.

What you see: the vineyard of many

What is interesting about this visit is understanding how the Salnés works: hundreds of families with small plots, vines trained overhead on granite posts to air the grapes in a damp land, and a modern winery that takes in all of it. The cooperative was born in 2005, when a group of growers and winemakers in the valley decided to professionalise what each did on their own, and since 2010 it has taken part in the European project LIFE Viñas Atlánticas.

Bookings, groups and minors

Book at least 48 hours ahead, using the forms on its website, at [email protected] or on 986 747 779 or 670 487 777; on Saturday, booking is essential. Each booking admits 1 to 10 people and capacity is 30; if there are more of you, write beforehand. Under-18s must go with an adult and are not served alcohol: up to age 12 they go in free, and from 13 to 17 they pay for the visit without tasting, €9, the same one the driver can choose.

Between late August and mid-October, during the harvest, the winery changes its visits: write to them beforehand if you go those weeks.