Furanchos are small family businesses similar to the once-popular inns, where you can taste the typical gastronomy, the home-made wine and the home-made dishes. They are cosy Galician spots where the best ingredients (good wine, good food, nature and friendly people) meet. In short, we could say it’s like going out for tapas, but with great homemade taste.

They are scattered all over Galicia, either in private wine cellars or in the cottage courtyards. Along St. James’s Way we’ll find hundreds of them. They flourished as a way of getting rid of all the wine surpluses.

At the beginning the locals brought the food (empanadas, tortillas, tinned food,…) and gathered to have a glass of wine. But, nowadays, they are open to the public, whom they treat as if they were family members (in contrast to other establishments which are more commercial).

Among the home-made delicacies, which are as good as the wine, we can highlight tortillas (with free-range eggs), empanada de choco, zorza, oreja, chorizo, tetilla cheese with quince jelly,… in short, all the typical Galician food which you can eat using your hands o a toothpick (if you need a fork and a knife, the place is not a furancho). And the home-brewed wine is served in a cup and it comes directly from the barrel; in no case it’s bottled wine.

Regarding etymology, the word furancho comes from ‘furo’ (hole), which refers to the hole which was drilled to open the wine barrel after 6 months of ageing.

Furanchos are also known as loureiros, since these cottages had a bay (loureiro in Galician) twig over the doors to inform that wine was sold in that place. Furanchos are usually named after the family name.

Furanchos have had to adapt to Galician regulations, declare their annual production and pay their taxes to prevent people who don’t have a vineyard from opening a furancho. In spite of that, they still maintain their traditional and familiar ambience.