Vento Mareiro
The origins of a name
Vento Mareiro is far more than just a few words, murmured amid vines. It’s a timeless concept that sums up our family identity, with the caress of Val do Salnés.
When Pepito Durán, Roque’s father, and the poet Ramón Cabanillas bumped into one another in the streets of Cambados, they would hail each other with the expressive words “¡Qué vento mareiro vai!” (“What a blustery sea wind!”). It was Ramón Cabanillas–the great Galician poet from Cambados who modernized Galician poetry–who introduced the expression “Vento Mareiro” (sea wind), used in the Salnés and Ría de Arousa areas, to the language shared by all Galicians. He used it for the title of one of the most emblematic books in Galician poetry and culture, “Vento Mareiro” (Havana, 1915).
This is the dedication to the 1st edition of Vento Mareiro: “A ti, me Cambados, probé e fiadlo e soñador que, ó cantareiro son dos pinales i ó agarimo dos teus pazos lexendarios, dormes deitado ó sol, a vería do mar”.
Sono dourado
Para miña muller
¡Ou meu sono labrego! Unha casiña
preto do río, ó abrigo dos pinales,
con piorno e alboios nos currales
e palleiros na eira e na curtiña.
Ó pé da casa un muíño cantareiro
ó son da lira de ágoa que enche o caño,
baixo o maino agarimo dun castaño
e os amorosos brazos dun cruceiro.
Todo ó longo da aberta do muíño
tortas e vellas cepas de albariño
cos asios mestos no bendito outono.
E un ferrado de terra por facenda
pra prantío e xardín, libre de renda,
diesmo a Dios, sin foreiro nin máis dono
Groria e lecer da casa, unha lareira
en que arderan enteiros os carballos,
arrodeada de afumados tallos,
con forno cheo e forte gramalleira.
E do inverno nas noites, cando o vento
nos altos pinos seus doores laia
e misteriosa rube dende a praia
a rouca voz do mar, no antigo asento
de meus avós labregos e cristianos,
presidindo o rueiro de aldeanos
que a relocente labarada doura.
(…)
Ramón Cabanillas: “Vento Mareiro”
(Havana, 1915)
The birth of a tradition
Tales of the sea, told on land
Early 20th century – 1980
This story could begin in the old Sisan wine press, where the maternal great-grandparents made wine and in the Durán family’s assembly house, opposite Santa Mariña Church in Cambados. They were seafaring people and, from the late 19th century, the owners of land and an inn. In the early 20th century, they were the first to fish for sardines, using purse-seine methods, selling them fresh and to the canning factories. And in the 1920s, Roque’s parents were the first to employ their sailors officially and to pay
their national insurance.
In the 1950s, Pepito Durán married Carmen Martínez, the daughter of livestock traders based in San Martiño de Meis and the farmers of land with vineyards. In the 1960s, they opened an inn in Cambados, with a small winery where they sold their Espadeiro wine and a little Albariño. In the 1970s, the family began to take part in the “Albariño Festival”, although they mainly concentrated on fishing through to the 1980s.
1980 – 2000
In the 1980s, Roque started studying at university and, at the same time, he began to modernize his parents’ artisanal Albariño winemaking process. He participated in the creation of the Rías Baixas designation of origin and in the agricultural and wine-producing revolution that Salnés underwent during the period.
Having graduated in journalism and sales management, he started to work as a journalist for TVE in Galicia. He also laid the foundations of his business and, in 1989, he created Albariño Vento Mareiro, with its own distinctive personality and recognizable design.
In the 1990s, Xosé Ramón Durán (Roque) started to become involved in the world of wine. He participated in the creation of the Rías Baixas Wine Route, he was a driving force behind the foundation of the “Adegas do Salnés” association in addition to being elected a member of the regulatory council, and he promoted the “Vintage Wine-Tasting Competition” to foster a raised awareness of the tradition of aged Albariño wines.
2000 – 2015
In the year 2000, he promoted and took part in one of the first sales campaigns, using a virtual POS, under the slogan: “A euro for the Galician language”, donating €1 for each bottle that was sold during “Galician literature month”. During that period, agreements were reached to extend the vine plantations in Sisan, Xil and Ribadumia.
It was in 2007-2008 when the Economic Interest Association (AIE) “Terra de Asorei”, as the union of several family wineries, with Roque being its President. One of its objectives is to elaborate, create a brand and market its Albariños internationally.
2015 until today
Later, this organisation will become “Adegas Terra de Asorei” buying some facilities of a winery in 2015, and exporting today to more than 22 countries. Currently, our “Vento Mareiro” is made in these facilities in San Martiño de Meis, being the “Limited Harvest” of the founder.
