Meet the sommelier: Award-winning Dani Giganto Arias on top pairings and go-to wines

It happened in 1997, when my father, Amancio, opened his [eponymous] restaurant [in León] and I started, aged 16, pouring wine at the bar. No one really took me seriously until José María Prieto, then doing sales at Ramón Bilbao and now a close friend, took the time to walk me through their portfolio. Ramón Bilbao’s Edición Limitada became the house wine from that day until the restaurant’s closure in 2018, when my father retired.

Young wines from my home province’s [León] indigenous grapes. Some favourites are: Bodega Mengoba’s Godellos; Raúl Pérez’s Los Arrotos del Pendón Albarín; Prieto Picudo-based rosés, especially Sara González’s Jagatas Rosado; and young Mencías, especially Michelini i Mufatto’s.

I often buy international [non-Spanish] wines at Lidl. They usually have a good selection and great price/enjoyability.

Uff… I’ve had quite a few but there’s one I remember with particular tenderness. On my first day at elBulli, my friend and mentor Ferran Centelles opened a three-metre-wide cupboard full of glasses and asked me if I was familiar with all the Riedel models displayed. ‘Yes, yes,’ I said. I just wanted the ground to swallow me up – complete imposter syndrome. At my [former] restaurant there were only two kinds of glasses: cheap wine, small glass; expensive wine, big glass. What followed were two hours studying the catalogue as if it were the Bible.

The hunters of ‘unicorns’ who drink labels instead of wines. The ostentatious display of wealth without interest for the history and craft behind each bottle, ordering one after another without finishing a single one. And in doing so, making it harder for those who would truly enjoy those wines to afford them.

Huevos fritos (fried eggs) with puntilla (the golden, crispy rim that forms when eggs are fried in really hot oil), fries and laminated papada ibérica (guanciale). The pairing: Champagne. And because I don’t intend to pay for my last meal, I’d go with Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Francaises 1996.

Right now at Muna we’re serving a Japan/ Bierzo menu. My favourite dish is a mosaic of ajoarriero [shredded salt cod cooked with garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, onions and red peppers] and Atlantic seabass with a miso beurre blanc. I pair it with a 2023 white Burgundy from Domaine Tessier.

My favourite moment: Saturday night, back home after the last service of the week. I make myself a good sandwich and a good kalimotxo [equal parts red wine and Coca-Cola] with a carbonic maceration red from my friend [José Luis] Prada; put on a film; and enjoy the week’s good work.

Finca Hortanza always surprises. It’s a blend of Gewürztraminer and Riesling grown on a small parcel in Cantabria – perfect for our food and great value.

Champagne always! I like the classics (my fétiche cuvée is Pol Roger’s Sir Winston Churchill) as well as iconic small producers such as Bérêche [et Fils], Aurore Casanova, [Frédéric] Savart or [Jacques] Lassaigne.