A seafaring town in O Salnés (Pontevedra), the capital of Albariño, formed by the union of three historic centres: Fefiñáns, Cambados and San Tomé do Mar. In the 12th century, under Diego Xelmírez, it came under the lordship of the see of Compostela; the origin of its name is uncertain.
12th century (legend) / 1953 (fact)The monks of Cluny and the challenge of 1953: the Albariño of Cambados
They say in O Salnés that the Albariño grape arrived in the 12th century with French monks from Cluny, who are supposed to have planted it beside the monastery of Armenteira, a few kilometres from Cambados, from where it spread along the rías. The story changes depending on who tells it: sometimes the monks are Cluniacs, at other times Cistercians from Burgundy. What is documented happened much later: in the summer of 1953 two winemakers from Cambados challenged each other to see who had the best wine from the previous vintage, and that tasting among friends, with an afternoon snack and nine growers, became the Festa do Albariño, the oldest wine festival in Galicia.
Alive today: The Festa do Albariño is held every August in Cambados and has been a Festival of International Tourist Interest since 2018 (of Galician interest in 1977, of National interest in 1990). Cambados is the capital of the Val do Salnés subzone of the DO Rías Baixas, with historic bodegas such as Palacio de Fefiñanes, which has been bottling branded Albariño since 1928, and large houses such as Martín Códax.