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After arriving in Madrid, we took a short flight to Santiago de Compostela. There, were we greeted by the sales manager from Martin Codax winery (our partner winery in Spain, the hosts for the trip) and we took a bus to the actual city of Santiago. Santiago is the capital of Galicia, a group of provinces on the Northwest coast of Spain. The city is known for the St. James Cathedral - he is buried there and thousands of people make a pilgrimage there each year. Most hike in, usually from about 100km away (the traditional distance), so the city is filled with tourists dressed in hiking gear.

The hotel is a series of rooms built around courtyards. Every room has a view of a courtyard or the city.

The Parador de Santiago de Compostela - our hotel, located directly across the plaza from the Cathedral. This is the oldest hotel in Europe, possibly the world. Dignitaries, including George W Bush, stay here when visiting the region.

View from the hotel

Cathedral at night

Enjoying the city

The Martin Codax winery Gallo partnered with the Codax winery a few years ago when the family decided to begin importing Spanish wines. They searched long and hard for a good partner and found in the Codax group. This winery is a cooperative, like many wineries in Europe. Currently, there are 280 shareholders and another 300 long-term contract growers. In Galicia, each family has it's own small vineyard to tend to, so Luciano Amoedo, the winemaker for Codax, brought these families together and formed this cooperative winery. Without his efforts, the wine from this region would not be exported, as no one family produces enough wine on their own.

The Martin Codax team

View from the winery - overlooking the town of Cambados and the Atlantic Ocean

Since this was a work trip, I had to do a little "work" while there...I must admit, tasting wines doesn't feel much like work to me!

Katia and Luciano, the winemakers for Martin Codax

Seaside lunch - after touring the Codax winery and doing our competitive tasting, we drove down to Sanxenxo for lunch by the sea. Since the region of Galicia is surrounded by water on two sides (the Atlantic to the west and the Bay of Biscay to the North), the cuisine is almost all seafood and shellfish. Everything was pretty salty from the salt water, but all of the food was delicious!

Barnacles - yes, barnacles! These are a delicacy in the region, costing over 100 Euro for a plate (a plate does come with more barnacles than you see here - i didn't think to take a picture until were halfway done eating them!). They are very interesting but delicious!

Lobster and Rice - NOT paella! (I made the mistake of calling it paella and was quickly corrected). We were surprised to learn that, while the barnacles are a delicacy, lobster is not. It is plentiful in the region, so we ate it often.

After lunch, we headed to one of the shareholders vineyards to learn more about the Albarino grape (the name of the wine made in the region). Besides Albarino, this shareholder also grew Kiwis, another plentiful and profitable crop in the region. This trellising system, traditional in Galicia, is very different from those in the US - our grapes are typically grown on sort of a "T" shape trellis, much lower to the ground.

Mariola, our hostess, teaching us more about Albarino

The vines are so high off the ground, I could stand under them!

My co-workers, the California sales team

After Santiago, we moved to the town of Cambados for two nights stay. This town could be seen from the patio at the Martin Codax winery. It was a charming little seaside town.

Private concert in Cambados

The next day, we drove down to the O Rosal area of Galicia. This is the southernmost part of the region and borders Portugal.

In the distance, you can see a bridge - that bridge goes to Portugal

The day we visited was the very first day of the fall harvest. Our hosts were so thoughtful and asked us to make the very first cut of the 2009 harvest. Cindy, the marketing manager at Gallo for the Codax wines, had the honor of making this first cut.

After Cindy, we all got a chance to cut a few clusters off the vines

Enjoying a glass of Albarino as we look out over the vineyards, into Portugal

After the vineyard tour, we headed to the town of Bayona for lunch. The drive along the coastline was breathtaking!

A replica of the Nina (Christopher Columbus), which set sail from Bayona

View from our lunch spot

Although we had just finished a three-hour lunch in Bayona, we headed back to the hotel to change for a cocktail party and dinner at the Codax winery. When we arrived, traditional Galician dancers were there to greet and entertain us. Galicia has a strong Celtic history, so the culture is an interesting mix of Spanish and Celtic traditions.

Pablo, the sales manager, myself, and Luciano, the winemaker

From Galicia, we hopped another short flight, this time to the Rioja region of Spain. Again, everything in Spain is very regional - from the food to the wine to the language. In Rioja, the wine is mostly red and they eat beef, lamb and pig (which we didn't mind after three days of seafood and Albarino, a white wine). In this region, part of the Baqsue area, Basque and English are spoken over Spanish. In Rioja, we had the privilege of staying at the Hotel Marques de Riscal, designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.

The next morning, we went to see where Martin Codax makes their red wine, a "Rioja" (named for the region, but the grape is called Tempranillo). Spanish law only allows certain grapes to be grown in certain regions, so the red wine cannot be made in Galicia, where the white wine comes from (the Albarino).

Mariola, export manager for Codax, and Maria, winemaker for the Codax red wines

View of Rioja from the vineyard

Again, we visited during harvest, so many of the shareholders were delivering their grapes for processing while we were at the winery. I had never seen a winery during harvest, so this was a fun treat!