The bond with Galicia was there long before the company. Daniel's mother comes from the region, and as a child he spent part of every summer there: long family meals, the smell of the Atlantic, the villages where his family lives, and on the table, as a matter of course, the white wine of the land. Albariño was never a discovery for him; it was simply what home tasted like. When Chantal first travelled with him, she was quickly won over: the food, the coast and, above all, the wines.
What followed will sound familiar to anyone who has ever come home from a holiday with a few bottles too many. Each summer the car returned to the Netherlands a little fuller: first a few cases for home, then some for friends and family, until the boot could no longer keep up and the question asked itself. Not whether these wines deserved a place in the Netherlands, but how to do it well. In 2024, Daniel and Chantal founded Galician Wine & Spices.
Today, they travel to Galicia several times each year. These are not trade visits in the conventional sense: there are no appointment-only tastings in branded showrooms, no catalogues exchanged at a trade fair. They go to the bodegas themselves: to walk the vineyards, taste from barrel and bottle alongside the winemakers, and spend time at the family table where decisions about viticulture, blending, and style are still made by the people who own the land and work it.
This directness shapes everything about how GWS operates. When Daniel and Chantal select a wine, they know precisely which estate produced it, who made the decisions that shaped it, and what particular season and soil brought it into being. When they speak about a producer to a Dutch restaurateur or wine buyer, they are speaking from genuine, first-hand understanding, not from a technical datasheet or a distributor's sales pitch. That distinction, they believe, is the whole point of an import house worth its name.
The decision to focus exclusively on Galicia was deliberate and is not one they revisit. In a world of broad-portfolio distributors, true specialisation is a form of commitment. Galicia offers more than enough depth for a lifetime of serious, purposeful exploration: Albariño, Mencía, Godello, and a remarkable diversity of terroir within a compact and cohesive geography. GWS has no ambition to expand beyond the region. The richness is in the focus.
Alongside the import activity, GWS operates albarinoshop.com, a specialist consumer platform dedicated to Albariño and the broader Galician canon. It allows GWS to engage directly with wine-curious consumers and enthusiasts, building the awareness and appreciation that makes the B2B work more meaningful over time. Both channels reinforce each other: the importer's expertise informs the consumer voice, and the consumer reach supports the producer's profile in the Dutch market.
The philosophy is uncomplicated: quality over volume, authenticity over convenience, and real relationships over transactional ones. GWS carries a deliberately small portfolio, representing fewer producers than most importers of comparable scale, because doing justice to a producer's work requires sustained attention, accurate communication, and a willingness to build an audience rather than simply find one.