The producer
Bodegas El Paraguas opened in 2011 in Cobas, Ferrol, a coastal address in A Coruña province that sits well north of Rías Baixas and carries none of that zone's commercial familiarity. The founders chose Treixadura as the backbone of their flagship blend rather than Albariño, the grape that had already won international recognition for Galicia. Atlántico, a dry white of 88% Treixadura, 7% Godello, and 5% Albariño, was named Best Spanish White Wine by the Asociación Española de Periodistas y Escritores del Vino in 2013 and again in 2017. A second wine, Fai un Sol de Carallo, received 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate for the 2013 vintage, the highest score awarded to any Galician white that year.
Atlántico is fermented in stainless steel with the Godello portion handled separately in 600-litre Burgundy oak barrels for three months. Those larger casks move little oak character into the wine; the effect is a softer, rounder mid-palate rather than any vanilla or toast. The stainless steel fraction keeps the citrus, herb, and mineral line clean. The winery also runs a research project called Astillero, growing the Blanco Legítimo grape variety in what is registered as Spain's most northerly vineyard, pushing the Atlantic frontier of Galician viticulture further north.
Known for
Treixadura-led Atlantic white blends from coastal A Coruña; research viticulture with Blanco Legítimo at Spain's northern viticultural limit.
Notable facts
- Atlántico was named Best Spanish White Wine by the Asociación Española de Periodistas y Escritores del Vino in both 2013 and 2017.
- Fai un Sol de Carallo received 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate issue 216, the highest score for any Galician white from the 2013 vintage.
- Atlántico leads with 88% Treixadura, a native Galician white variety rarely seen on international markets, with Godello and Albariño completing the blend.
- The Godello component of Atlántico is aged separately for three months in 600-litre Burgundy oak barrels before blending, shaping the mid-palate texture without adding oak flavour.
- The Astillero research project grows Blanco Legítimo in Spain's most northerly registered vineyard, on Galicia's Atlantic coastal margin.
From the atlas
Bodegas El Paraguas
At A Glance
Producer: Bodegas El Paraguas Country: Spain Region: Galicia Province: A Coruña Location: Cobas, Ferrol Founded: 2011 Key Grapes: Treixadura, Godello, Albariño, Blanco Legítimo Flagship Wine: Atlántico
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The Producer
Bodegas El Paraguas is a small Galician white wine house founded in 2011 and based in Cobas, Ferrol, in the province of A Coruña. It sits at the Atlantic edge of Galicia, well north of Rías Baixas, and it built its reputation not on the Albariño that defines that better-known zone but on Treixadura, a native white variety that rarely travels far beyond Galicia's inland river valleys.
Within a few years of its first harvest, Atlántico had been named Best Spanish White Wine twice by the Asociación Española de Periodistas y Escritores del Vino, and a second wine, Fai un Sol de Carallo, earned 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, the highest score given to any Galician white from the 2013 vintage. For a producer working in an unfamiliar address with grapes most international buyers had never encountered, that recognition landed fast.
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Place
Cobas, Ferrol is in the far northwest of Spain, on the Atlantic coast of A Coruña province. Galicia as a whole is green, wet, and cool compared with the rest of Spain. The coast here is shaped by the Rías Gallegas, the long drowned valleys that push the ocean deep inland and keep temperatures maritime even in summer.
Ferrol sits north of the Rías Baixas zone, which means the wines made here carry more Atlantic exposure and less of the warmth that pushes Albariño toward the riper, broader style associated with the south of Galicia. The freshness in the glass, the saline mineral lift on the palate, and the clean aromatic line in Atlántico trace directly to that northern position.
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Soil And Site
No confirmed soil or geological data is available from verified sources for this producer. The location in coastal A Coruña is consistent with the granitic and schistose profiles common to Galicia's Atlantic margins, and the cool maritime climate shapes the acidity and aromatic freshness in the wines, but no specific site geology has been confirmed.
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Story
Bodegas El Paraguas opened in 2011, a year when the better-known names in Galician white wine were Albariño-focused houses in the Rías Baixas DO. Ferrol was not a wine address. A Coruña was not a grape origin that appeared on international lists. The founders chose Treixadura as the backbone of their flagship blend rather than the commercially safer Albariño, and they built the Atlántico label around three native varieties: Treixadura at 88%, Godello at 7%, and Albariño at 5%.
By 2013, just two years in, Fai un Sol de Carallo had received a score of 93 from Wine Advocate. By 2017, Atlántico had won the national Best Spanish White award for the second time. A winery that began without an established regional name had made a case in bottles rather than in reputation.
The house also runs a research project called Astillero, working with the Blanco Legítimo grape variety in what is registered as Spain's most northerly vineyard. The project has no confirmed tasting record yet, but it places the winery at the furthest northern limit of Spanish viticulture.
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Vineyards And Cellar
No confirmed vineyard size, farming certification, or field-level detail is available from verified sources. What is confirmed is the cellar method for Atlántico, and it explains much of what happens in the glass.
The base fermentation runs in stainless steel, which keeps the aromatics clean and the fruit profile direct. The Godello component is handled separately: after fermentation it goes into 600-litre Burgundy oak barrels for three months. Those larger-format barrels move less oak character into the wine than a standard 225-litre cask would, so the Godello's contribution shows up mainly as a softer mid-palate texture and slightly rounder body rather than as vanilla or toast. The stainless steel fraction keeps the citrus and herb line sharp; the barrel-aged Godello fills the mid-palate out.
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Wines
The confirmed range has three wines.
Atlántico is the flagship white: 88% Treixadura, 7% Godello, 5% Albariño, fermented partly in stainless steel and partly in French oak with the Godello portion aged three months in 600-litre Burgundy barrels. It is a dry, aromatic white with ripe stone fruit on the nose and a savoury, freshness-driven palate. The blend puts Treixadura in command, with Godello rounding the texture and Albariño adding a small aromatic lift. It has won the AEPEV Best Spanish White twice, in 2013 and 2017.
Fai un Sol de Carallo is a separate wine confirmed to have received 93 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate in issue 216 for the 2013 vintage, the highest score awarded to any Galician white that year. No confirmed production or tasting detail is available beyond that score and vintage.
Astillero is the winery's research and development project, built around the Blanco Legítimo grape variety in Spain's most northerly registered vineyard. No tasting notes are available for this wine.
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In The Glass
Atlántico opens pale lemon-yellow with a greenish rim. The nose carries ripe pear and apple, then aniseed and spice, then a quieter layer of mimosa flowers, bitter herbs, and wet rocks. The aromatic sequence moves from fruit to herb to mineral without any one element dominating.
In the mouth, Atlantic freshness arrives first: a clean, mouth-watering acidity that frames the fruit rather than cutting through it. The mid-palate is fruit-forward and rounded, the texture slightly plush from the three months the Godello spent in oak. The finish is long and savoury, with a mild floral aftertaste that echoes the mimosa on the nose. The wine reads as both approachable and structurally considered: the acidity keeps it alive, and the partial oak on Godello gives the whole blend just enough weight to hold the finish.
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A Bottle To Understand It
Atlántico is the right first bottle. It is a dry white blend, mostly Treixadura with Godello and Albariño completing the picture. The nose gives you pear and aniseed and wet rock, the palate gives you Atlantic freshness and a rounded mid-palate from the barrel-aged Godello portion, and the finish is long and faintly floral. Nothing about the wine is difficult. It delivers a clear account of where it comes from: a cool, coastal Galicia that tastes different from the Albariño-led south.
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Anecdote
Fai un Sol de Carallo was the first vintage of a wine from a winery that had only been open for two years. The house had no regional heritage to lean on, no famous appellation on the label, and a name that translates as an old Galician expression for blazing sunshine. When Robert Parker's Wine Advocate published issue 216, the score against that first vintage was 93 points. The editors noted it as the highest rating awarded to any Galician white wine from the 2013 harvest. A two-year-old producer, working in a province that did not appear on international wine maps, with grapes that most buyers in those markets could not name, had landed at the top of the vintage table for an entire region. The score did not mention A Coruña or Treixadura as credentials. It mentioned the wine.
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Final Word
Bodegas El Paraguas is a young producer that built its standing bottle by bottle from an unfamiliar Atlantic address. Atlántico is the clearest account of what that address tastes like: cool, aromatic, mineral, and alive with acidity. The research project pushing Blanco Legítimo to Spain's northern limit suggests the ambition has not stopped with the flagship.
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Sources
- https://www.bodegaselparaguas.com/en_GB/
- https://www.enterwine.com/en/el-paraguas-atlantico-2024
- https://www.bodegaselparaguas.com/es_ES/