Talking wine with... Sergio Pazos

The classics never fail, your trusted wine?

Although I have been in love with Godellos for a long time, and even more so being from Ourense, I have to admit that I am crazy about the Albariños from Pazo de Rubianes, the Albariño de las Camelias and winner of the best white wine of 2021. But if we are going to get exquisite, then the García de Caamaño 2016. Not only do I recommend trying them all, I recommend a visit to the Pazo Histórico in Vilagarcía, where you will understand the whole philosophy they have with history, nature and the vineyard.

A tapa (or dish) that represents you?

If you are in Vilagarcía drinking that wine, I'm sure that a spider crab, necora or seafood from the area will go down a treat, but I, as a good Galician inlander, go for the octopus a feira. Something delicious if it is perfectly cooked, with good bread from Cea, and quality oil and paprika. Uff

Here we are very much into bars, what is your favourite bar?

That one no longer exists, but it was the best tortillería in the world. "A Pita Tola" (La Gallina Loca), and it was mine, in Ourense, for about seven years. Thirty-two different tortillas and all with a name: La Lola de España, La Electro shock, La Alvaro Pino, la Perestroika...and so on up to 32. Today I would recommend going to the wine area of the old town of Ourense and try to get into as many as you can. If I have to choose one, my childhood takes me to the Bar Ribeiro, located in the street Cabeza de Manzaneda, very close to the wine area. A mythical vintage Ribeiro wine bar where the "artistiñas", a group of painters, sculptors and leftists who in the seventies and eighties used to meet in the Bar Ribeiro to drink, politicise and sing, used to swarm and paint on its walls. There are still some of them left. Its walls are a living museum of that time of enthusiasm for democratic change and for improving society. Mythical, as we would say in Galicia.

Who would you dream of having a drink with? Dead or alive...

Well, here I'm going to use my feelings and I'm going to take it to my personal ground, and excuse me for this audacity, but I'd love to have a drink with my mother, Doña Teresa, as I used to call her. She left too soon - in 1980 - and it wouldn't be bad if she came one night to the world of the living to have a drink and tell me "cousiñas e historias do mais alá".

Song of the year?

Man, there's no doubt about it, that of Leticia Sabater, who releases one every year. She's got a mood lift every time. Heh heh heh heh. Now seriously... I'm not much into current music, but since they're in fashion because of Eurovision, my fellow countrywomen "Tanxugueiras".

And the film of your life?

The film in which I will be the protagonist and will definitively launch me to fame, and while I'm at it, I'll be able to retire and do more mundane things, like drinking wines recommended by the Peñín Guide ha ha ha ha. But until then, enjoy the good films that are being made, and revisit the classics, such as Buster Keaton, Charlot, The Marx Brothers, and any of the master Fellini. It's very difficult to say one, it depends so much on the moment you're in. Long live cinema, dammit!

What are we toasting to today?

This section would not give me the time to try to change things with a toast, so my toast is to all of you who love good wine, because by loving and drinking it, we will change the world for the better. There you go! I even look serious ha ha ha ha.