We Craft Authentic Wines
Genuine Wines from Valdeorras
Follow us to O Cabalín, a gorgeous spot in the region of Valdeorras within the province of Ourense, in the north-west corner of Spain.
It is located on a steep hill, part of a V-shaped valley, at an altitude of approximately 600 m above sea-level.
I remember when Teresa first told me about O Cabalín. She brought me here and I was immediately love-struck: «We have to make our own wine here»
Luis Peique
A XV century abbey, together with the gold mine Las Médulas from the times of the Roman presence in the region, are signs of the historical wine-growing tradition of the area.
Facing south and featuring shallow slate soils, tradition has it that Valdeorras has throughout the centuries been famous for the production of high-quality wines.
Ferrán Centelles (JancisRobinson.com) states: O Cabalín is the revelation in Valdeorras reds
Ferrán Centelles (WSET, Advanced Sommelier CMS, Head of the wine list at the elBulli restaurant for thirteen years, 2006 Ruinart Award for Best Sommelier in Spain, 2011 National Gastronomy Award, among other titles and recognitions) states in his report on the Valdeorras Reds for the MW publication Jancis Robinson, that
The real revelation among the reds was Adega O Cabalín. Bottle after bottle of the top-scoring wines turned out to be theirs after a blind tasting.
Click here to find out all the details and, of course, the high scores our five red wines received.
Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate’s Galicia Report: points up! No O Cabalín wine below 92 points!
It was already a great boost to our project the scores we achieved in 2022 with none of our wines below 91 points. But … , in the latest Galicia’s report published in November 2023, the O Cabalín wine with a lesser score reached 92 points!
We are particularly happy because the last two additions to our family, Bascois y A Valigota, scored 93 and 93+ points respectively:
New addition to the family! A Valigota
After introducing Bascois in 2022, in 2023 A Valigota becomes the latest O Cabalín family member.
A Valigota is a 2500 m lot facing north on a steep slope, this being the reason why partially, it is spread out in terraces, half of the size of the lot approximately. According to the local vineyard record REVI, it was planted in 1919, on shallow slate and quartzite soils.
A Valigota 2020
Robert Parker Wine Advocate confirms the strength and soundness of our venture
By granting our latest vintages scores over 91 points:
Decanter Awards 2022: We hold on to our Gold Medal and receive a new Silver Medal
We were filled with joy last year when it was announced that Adega O Cabalín was granted the first Decanter Medals, and Gold and Sivler Medal! But it also meant a chanllenge for us: it couldn’t be just a one year achievement.
That is why we are so absolutely happy that after 12 months of hard work, and thanks to the generosity of our land, our O Cabalín 2019 has held on the its Gold Medal achieving 95 points, and our Viladequinta 2019 has also held on to its Silver recognition achieving, yet again, 90 points.
There is nothing more gratifying than seeing that our honest and hard work is rewarded with such positive assessment by prestigious and unbiased institutions such as Decanter World Wide Awards, because let us not forget, that this acknowledgement places our beloved wines within the 50 Best Worldwide Wines:
Adega O Cabalín featured by Luis Gutiérrez in http://www.robertparker.com!!!
We are absolutely thrilled not only by the excellent scores achieved by our O Cabalín 2017 (91 points) and A Espedrada 2017 (92 points) but also by the detailed review of our O Cabalín project.
Read on!
O Cabalín by Luis Gutiérrez
It’s not easy to start small independent projects in Valdeorras, because the larger wineries from other zones have driven up prices, and the availability of vineyards and even grapes can be a challenge. Adega O Cabalin is the personal project of winemaker María Teresa López Fidalgo. She started buying small plots of old head-pruned vines in 2015, and she now works three hectares spread into 38 separate plots, some of which are still in the process of being recovered, as they were semi-abandoned. In 2017, she settled in Villamartín de Valdeorras and produced one white and one red.
She started small, with the plan to reach 18,000 to 20,000 bottles in the future.
O Cabalin has invested a lot to recover semi-abandoned vineyards off the beaten path.
María Teresa looked for vines in the villages of Viladequinta and Carballeda, both in the small valley of the Casoiso River, a tributary to the Sil, in a relatively unknown or unheralded part of Valdeorras. She is taking an organic approach to the vineyards, which is remarkable.
This is a name to follow!
Visit our recovered vineyards
And yet the farmers started to walk away from their crops, vineyards were neglected…
The sixties decade in the XX century saw a boom of slate mining which radically transformed the economy and hence the traditional life style of the locals. Not only did it happen in and around O Cabalín but across the whole region of Valdeorras.
Wine-growing is gradually abandoned, particularly in the places where the layout of the land made it hardest, although socially related reasons were also behind this movement.
We are delighted to show you our vineyard reviving works, certainly one of the cornerstones of our venture.
If there is a new sprout there is life and pruning will be possible the following year. If nothing goes wrong you will have sufficient pruning material and therefore the first vintage of a 90-100 year old plant
Life and nature are utterly astonishing if you have just the minimum observation skills. Despite the hard work it is so gratifying… When you revive a plant you thought was dead, it is all worth-while
About Us
Here is our team: Teresa López, Luis Peique and Hugh McCartan
Teresa López is the driving force, the seed, the beginning and the purpose of Adega O Cabalín. Luis Peique is the conduit and the implementer, the one who made her dream come true. And Hugh McCartan, of Irish origin, has a passion for both wine and the Valdeorras region.
Teresa’s family comes from this area and she was born here aswell so her roots are buried in this land, hence the deep emotional connection between her and O Cabalín. It is the land of her ancestors and the land where she lived the first years of her life.
Luis is known in his Bierzo of origin (a nearby region also renowned for wine growing and making) as «The Professor» as he is a qualified and fully active History teacher in a Valdeorras High School and at UNED (Open University). But he has also been the person in charge of taking care of the Peique family vineyards in Valtuille de Abajo, from which the Peique Family Winery produces their Bierzo wines
Hugh works as an English teacher and has been a friend of Teresa and Luis for many years. He has been involved in the Adega O Cabalín project since the very beginning, actively engaging himself in vineyard and winery works and gradually becoming an essential piece of this enterprise.
Our Wines
Our wines are made with as little human intervention as possible with the focus on our vineyards and terroir. Our wines depict a landscape and its enviroment, but essentially they are wines made to be enjoyed.
This is how we see them 👇🏼
40% Mencía, 20% merenzao, 10% Alicante Bouschet. 30% remaining: brancellao, grao negro, ferrón y sousón. *Estimated figures
Only indigenous yeast was used for the fermentation process which took place in just one 500 ltr open barrel. 30% of the grape fermented with the stems and was foot crushed in the traditional way. The rest was destemmed but not crushed.
40% mencía, 10% garnacha tintorera, 20% merenzao, and the remaining 30%: brancellao, sousón, caiño y ferrón (estimated amounts).
Fermentation and maceration took place in contact with the skins for a period of 35 days in 500 lt oak barrels.
100% Godello grape from hundred-year-old vineyards.
Crafted using a very special technique that features maceration in contact with the skins and fermentation in oak barrels.
Mainly Mencía and Alicante Bouschet grapes with small quantities of Merenzao, Sousón, Brancellao and others.
They all grow together in the same plot, as it was traditional in O Cabalín.
Photo Gallery
Get in Touch
Please do write to us for any additional information on our wines or where to purchase them:
Adega O Cabalin 