Ribeira Sacra 3 day tour

Winemaking in Galicia has long been associated with the tart, fruity white wines from the Ribeiro and Rias Baixas wine appellations. Until very recently, Galicians and other Spaniards could be seen ordering classic Spanish reds in the region’s bars and restaurants, while snootily turning their noses up when recommended a Ribeira Sacra red. Thankfully, narrow-minded attitudes like this are now being consigned to the past, largely due to the heroic efforts of a number of pioneering individuals from the Ribeira Sacra, a wine producing area deep in the Galician interior. Ribeira Sacra means something like sacred river shore or bank.

The Miño and Sil, as they wind their way west from Ourense province towards Lugo, cut a spectacular, ever deepening gorge into the countryside. Oak, pine and chestnut forested slopes, dotted with precariously perched dwellings and the odd Romanesque church or monastery, plunge right down to the water line, and it’s on these vertigo-to-go slopes, on tiny granite terraces known as bancadas, that the local grape variety and flagship of the appellation, Mencía is grown. In places the vertiente, or slope is so steep that the only way to ‘evacuate’ the precious Mencía cargo was by boat. Today, some vineyards have motorised conveyors to move the grapes to the top of the mountain, others rely on the strength alone of the pickers, all of whom carry 20kg capacity crates on their shoulders. Literally back breaking work!

The area has long been synonymous with the grape. During Roman times, wines from Amandi, today one of the appellation’s five sub-zones, were regularly shipped to the Emperor’s table in Rome, along with that other great Miño delicacy, Sea Lamprey. By the middle ages, the remote Miño and Sil valleys began to attract monastic communities that carried on the tradition of planting vineyards, making wines to be sold to the inns and hospices along the nearby Camino de Santiago. In the late 19th century, as happened to a lot of vineyards across Europe, the vines were smitten by Phylloxera, a voracious insect that arrived as a stowaway on cargo ships from the USA. Some vineyards were catastrophically hit, others less so.

In the 20th century, in spite of war, hardship and forced emigration, people doggedly carried on making Mencía, though mainly for local consumption. In the early 21st century a new generation of professional winemakers arrived on the scene. Their approach was simple, that of marrying time-honoured tradition with modern vinification techniques. As result, the D.O. Ribeira Sacra appellation is now putting Mencía firmly on the international map. With North West Iberia Wine Tours you’ll have the opportunity of meeting these guys personally and taste their great wines.