As I was getting ready for Halloween in my “day job,” I started to think about how Halloween has impacted wines around the world, and I found a fun gathering that happens in Galicia every November. I started pulling at the thread, and you won’t believe the wonderful place I ended up. So this Halloween, grab yourself a glass, relax and join me in this cultural phenomenon.
Galicia is located in the northwest corner of Spain, directly above Portugal. Because of its position on the Iberian Peninsula, it is separated from the rest of Spain by rugged mountains, which historically helped keep it culturally distinct and connected to the maritime traditions of Atlantic Europe. Its unique identity was forged by Celtic roots, Roman engineering, medieval Christian pilgrimage, and a resilient modern cultural revival.
The Romans called it Gallaecia. They extracted gold and built lasting monuments. The ancient tribes built hilltop castros, and Galicia is known today for its bagpipes, nature reverence, and rich folklore.
The gathering
The lively autumn festival where Galicians gather around bonfires to celebrate the seasonal harvest and, in its folklore, honor their ancestors is known as O Magosto. It is a time when towns and villages across Galicia fill with the scent of woodsmoke, roasting chestnuts and pouring wine.
As the night goes on and the wine flows, it is a common tradition to rub soot from the roasted chestnuts onto the faces of friends and family.
They also enjoy viño novo, or young wine, and many gatherings feature queimada, a traditional Galician punch made from orujo, a grape-pomace spirit.
The official feast day is Saint Martin’s Day, San Martiño, on November 11, but magosto gatherings take place throughout the first half of November.
Ourense has one of the most famous celebrations. Families light bonfires in the hills around the city, while the plazas fill with free roasted chestnuts.
Fire, roasting chestnuts, stories, clay jugs of young wine.
The folklore
Galician folklore is a hauntingly beautiful blend of ancient pre-Christian traditions and Catholic mysticism. Because of Galicia’s misty, dramatic landscapes, these legends didn’t fade away. They became a core part of daily life.
The folklore surrounding the autumn season and the dead is especially powerful. According to legend, the most terrifying and popular is the Santa Compaña, or Holy Company. This is a phantom procession that wanders the parish roads at midnight.
It is said to be led by a living person who was cursed. Forced by a supernatural power, they carry a wooden cross or a cauldron of holy water. They must not look at the procession, and they grow paler and thinner every day until they die, unless they pass the cross to some other living soul.
It acts as an omen of doom, visiting the homes of those who are set to die next.
The meigas are deeply embedded in the community’s history too. The famous saying “Eu non creo nas meigas, mais habelas, hainas” means “I don’t believe in witches, but they exist,” and it is still very much alive there.
Here, they tell the tale of the good and the bad: evil witches who cast curses, and benevolent healers who protected the village. The evil witches were believed to cause illness and misfortune.
This is how Galicians protect themselves. An intense spell, or conxuro, is chanted aloud while the flaming queimada is prepared. It opens by naming owls, barn owls, toads and witches.
The wine
The young wine poured during O Magosto is traditionally viño novo in Galician, or vino nuevo in Spanish: new wine from the recent harvest. Accounts of the celebration specifically mention young red wine.
This reminds me of the November celebration of Beaujolais Nouveau in France.
Galicia is home to five official wine regions, or Denominacións de Orixe: Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras, Monterrei and Rías Baixas. And the cool thing is, depending on where you celebrate Magosto, you can drink a completely different local style.
Ribeiro, Ourense: Grown along the Miño and its tributaries, Ribeiro is mostly white, around 90 percent of its production, with blends led by Treixadura, though it makes reds too. It is one of the wines poured at Ourense’s magosto.
Mencía, Ribeira Sacra and Monterrei: If red wine is your jam, this is a grape to know in Galicia’s interior. Mencía can produce a bright, fruit-forward red wine with hints of wild berries and minerals. I would pair it with the smoky, charred flavor of wood-roasted chestnuts. I also love to pair this with Jamaican oxtail. In Ribeira Sacra, young reds are traditionally drunk from small white ceramic bowls called cuncas rather than glasses.
Albariño, Rías Baixas: On the coast, the crisp, aromatic Albariño white wine takes center stage. I would try its acidity against the rich, starchy texture of the hot chestnuts.
Why this young wine ties back to the folklore.
In an interpretation attributed to the historian Manuel Murguía, the chestnut represents death and the new wine represents life, even resurrection.
The folklore also says that for every handful of chestnuts you eat, a few should be thrown into the fire so the spirits can feast too.
Galicians were giving it up for the dead homies way back when.
How food and wine bring people together as the season changes and they remember those who came before them is amazingly fascinating.
As the autumn winds cool, locals across Galicia prepare for a feast of celebration. This usually begins the day after Halloween and continues until San Martiño. Whether we want to believe in the folklore or not, what we can believe in is the unity, the celebration, the coming together of a culture and a group of people who celebrate a young wine through a tradition that goes back generations.
I started with Halloween.
And along the way, I ended up with bagpipes, living souls carrying cauldrons, good and bad witches, and young wines that are as tasty as they are great at bringing people together along the Iberian Peninsula.