Adegas Ladairo

Ladairo is a 20 hectare property at around 400 metres altitude, near the village of O Rosal de Monterrei, in Oimbra province (just inland from the border with Portugal). The owners and viticultors are Jose Luis Vaz Vileda and his wife Pepita Vaz Garcia. The winemaker is Alvaro Bueno.

Adegas Ladairo’s vineyard is planted predominantly to Godello white and Mencia red; there is also some Treixadura, Bastardo (aka Trousseau, Merenzao, Verdejo Negro) and Aruaxa (the local name for Tempranillo). Ladairo’s wines are quiet and gentle, very much at ease with themselves. Don’t swirl too much, let them come to you, wandering and changing as they open on air.

Adega(s) is galego (Galician language) for Bodega(s), or winery (it can of course also mean wineshop). Adegas Ladairo itself is named for the galego term describing the typical slopes below the mountains in this part of the world – ladairas are gentle intermediary slopes below the hilltops and above the river, which precisely describes the situation of Adegas Ladairo. The vineyards have red soil at the top of the slope yielding to granitic sand below, closer to the river. Beneath the vineyard is the bodega itself, a lovely stable cold, humid cellar just above Rio Tâmega. SCOTT WASLEY