After their experience in Gredos in Central Spain, Madrid-born winemakers Curro Bareño and Jesús Olivares have developed a professional career in Galicia since they founded Fedellos (the name means mischievous in Galician) and produced their first wine in the 2013 vintage.
Initially, they sourced grapes from Abeleda, in the part of Ribeira Sacra that lies in the province of Ourense and in the Bibei valley, the river that borders the DO Valdeorras. In the 2016 vintage, they left the appellation and started Peixes from vineyards upstream of the Bibei, beyond any DO. This changed their outlook on the area, as they no longer considered the two banks of this river as if they were two different regions.
The high elevation of the Bibei prolongs the growing season and makes it easier to produce fresh, elegant wines. This style is reinforced by the choice of vineyards exposed to the morning sun, which are cooler and healthier because the dew disappears earlier.
Fedellos now sources grapes from Valdeorras, Ribeira Sacra and Viana de Bolo, but none of their wines carry the seal of a DO. Vinification takes place in an old underground cellar in the old wine district of Seadur, part of the village of Larouco. It largely follows the Gredos style: spontaneous fermentations with indigenous yeasts, long, gentle macerations with very little extraction, lasting 45 to 60 days for reds and about five days for whites, and ageing in well-seasoned oak vessels.
The range has expanded in recent years with new wines such as As Xaras (5,000 bottles, €16), which has been in production since 2019. This is Mencía from Chandoiro and Larouco, on both banks of the Xares river, a tributary of the Bibei; a blend of young vines at 650m elevation and old vines at 550m, on granitic and metamorphic soils (schist with quartzite).
Classic wines include the red Lomba dos Ares (€18, around 6,000 bottles) and the white Conasbrancas (€18, 4,000 bottles). Both are made from 60- to 80-year-old vines, with a mix of grape varieties, spread over several parishes in the village of Manzaneda, along the Bibei River. Lomba is a blend of mostly Mouratón, Mencía, Alicante Bouschet (Garnacha Tintorera in Spain) and Grao Negro, while Conasbrancas is made from Dona Branca, Godello and Colgadeira. For the latter, they have refined the winemaking process, limiting and carefully selecting the amount of skins used in the wine. Fedellos produces another white wine from old vines of similar age, planted along the Bibei river on schist and gneiss soils: Testorio (1,000 bottles, €26). In this case, however, the grapes come from a specific parish in Manzaneda called Soutipedre.
Another classic red in the range is Bastarda (€30, 5,000 bottles), named after the local term for Merenzao or Trousseau. It combines young and old vines grown on granite soils in the Bibei valley.
The red Camándula (€15, 3,000 bottles) is made from the region's most powerful red variety, Sousón. This is the most tannic red in the range and requires more bottle ageing. The grapes come from Córgomo in the Sil valley (Valdeorras), where shale and alluvial soils with pebbles are dominant. Also from Córgomo and with similar soils, Eixe (€27, 3,000 bottles) aims to recreate the blend of pre-phylloxera wines that, according to José Miramontes' writings published in 1860, included Merenzao, Albarello or Brancellao and Negreda. The wine is made from trellised vines under 20 years old.
Juicy and structured, the red Os Bidueiros (€21, 4,000 bottles) is made since the 2018 vintage with grapes from Seadur, the village between the Sil and Bibei valleys where the winery is located. The peculiarity of this wine is the presence of almost 50% Sumoll, a Catalan variety that arrived in this part of Galicia at some point in time and of which some vines remain. Garnacha Tintorera and Mencía complete the blend.
The Peixes project is confined to the area of Viana do Bolo, with vineyards planted on terraces between 600 and 800 metres above sea level. The growing conditions are colder and harsher, with a high risk of frost and a challenging ripening process. The red varieties (Mencía, Gran Negro, Mouratón, Tintorera, Bastardo) and the whites (Godello, Dona Blanca, Palomino), all bush vines, are planted in small plots on very shiny soils due to their high mica content. The vines are over 70 years old.
Two red wines are produced. Peixe da Estrada (€16, 13,000 bottles), a blend of 90% red and 10% white grapes, and Peixes da Rocha (€20, 3,000 bottles), from Fedellos's highest vineyards.
