Ribeira Sacra: what heroic viticulture really means

No tractor runs in the Ribeira Sacra. The vines stand on walls set into the sides of two river gorges some two thousand years ago, and every grape comes down in a crate that somebody carried or loaded onto a rail.

There is a technical term for this: heroic viticulture. CERVIM, a research centre for mountain viticulture, counts slopes above 30 percent, sites above 500 metres, terraces and viticulture on small islands. On many slopes of the Ribeira Sacra, several of these come together.

The grape that sets the tone here has its own story with us: Mencía, Spain's most elegant unknown. This one is about the place. The slopes, the rivers, the work, and what of all that ends up in the bottle.

A canyon somebody planted vines into

The Ribeira Sacra lies in southern Galicia, where the Sil and the Miño have cut deep into the rock. The walls carry terraces at up to 85 percent gradient. Many of them go back to the Romans. Anyone working there today is working on top of their walls.

How steep that really is shows in the figures for our wines. Ronsel do Sil's Dona Branca grows at 600 metres on a 60 percent slope. Algueira's Homenaje comes from 50-year-old vines, also on a 60 percent slope. Our wines from there grow between 350 and 650 metres.

Terraces above the Sil, with an old stone hut.

Five subzones, two rivers

The D.O. splits into five subzones: Amandi, Chantada, Quiroga-Bibei, Ribeiras do Miño and Ribeiras do Sil. Amandi, with its south and east facing Sil slopes, counts as the strongest. Chantada and the Miño side catch more Atlantic, more rain, more granite. Quiroga-Bibei is the most continental, shaped by slate and quartzite.

Our estates spread across exactly this map. Guímaro and Algueira are both in the municipality of Sober, Guímaro right in the middle of Amandi. Ronsel do Sil has vines on the Sil slopes and in the Bibei valley. The winery itself sits right down by the river, looking across at the vineyards of Amandi.

How much the river matters, you can check for yourself. Pedro Rodríguez of Guímaro makes wines from parcels that lie close together and still taste different, because the Sil shapes a wine differently from the Miño. His San Pedro comes from vines over 65 years old along the Sil, on slate with iron and quartz. His Mundín comes from parcels along the Miño, on deep granite. Both are 2021, both around 80 percent Mencía, both aged 18 months in 3,000-litre casks. San Pedro is the fuller one, with lively acidity. Mundín is silkier and finishes earthy. Since the cellar is the same, what is left as the difference is the place.

25 hectares, 86 parcels

Fernando González of Algueira farms around 25 hectares. They are spread across 86 parcels. There are no continuous blocks here, only ledges, niches and shelves, with rock and forest in between. Every parcel is reached separately, worked separately, picked separately.

Because no tractor gets up there, many slopes carry a monorack rail, a narrow cog track that runs steeply up the hillside and brings the full crates down. That is as much machine as it gets. Under the bush vines of the Dona Branca, over 85 years old, Ronsel do Sil works the soil by hand. Sheep graze between the rows, and the compost is made with broom.

A monorack rail runs steeply up the slope, with a worker carrying a crate of grapes beside it.

At Ronsel do Sil, picking goes into crates of 15 to 20 kilos. Nobody could carry anything bigger here, and the grapes need to reach the bottom intact. Yields stay small: 3,500 kilos per hectare for the Caiño Al Pie del Cañón, 4,000 for the Dona Branca. The effort per bottle is a multiple of what flat land costs. That is why these wines cannot sell for three francs, and why the region came close to being abandoned for decades.

Picking on a narrow rock ledge high above the river.

What reaches the glass

The slate stores heat and drains water, the Atlantic keeps the nights cool. That gives wines with ripe fruit and still high acidity. With the reds, you know this from the Mencía story. Less well known is what the same slopes do with white grapes.

We think the whites of the Ribeira Sacra are underrated. Godello brings body and an acidity that tastes more of the Atlantic than of Spanish sun. Guímaro's Blanco follows the region's old habit of blending whites from several varieties: Godello with Treixadura, Albariño, Torrontés and Loureira, from sites in and around Amandi. And then there is Dona Branca. Across the whole D.O., only around 5,800 kilos of it are harvested a year. Ronsel do Sil turns that into 1,450 bottles.

What nearly disappeared

The second discovery is red varieties that hardly anyone grows outside Galicia. Merenzao, known in France as Trousseau, makes pale, fine wines, in Ronsel do Sil's Alpendre with sloe, roses and pink pepper. Brancellao, also called Albarello, smells of sour cherry in the Pórtico da Gloria. Caiño brings smoke and liquorice, plus an acidity that keeps the wine upright. Sousón mostly works in blends, at Algueira in the Fincas alongside Caiño.

That these varieties still exist is down to estates like these. Ronsel do Sil bottles Merenzao, Brancellao and Caiño each on their own, in runs of 650 to 1,400 bottles. With the Mundín, Guímaro honours the colleiteiros, the grape growers who did much to keep these varieties alive.

Not everything is on the label

A wine from the Ribeira Sacra does not have to say «Ribeira Sacra». Carlos Carballo works in A Pobra do Brollón, in the middle of the region, and bottles his wines outside the DO rules on purpose. His Viña Aurita Tinto grows on steep slopes along the Sil canyon, and some of his wines exist in only a few hundred bottles. There is more about him and his father Patao in the Mencía story.

If you want to start

Take Ronsel do Sil's Muller Cepa. It comes from slate slopes in the Bibei valley, at 650 metres and with gradients of more than 50 percent, picked into 20-kilo crates. There are 1,000 bottles of the 2022, fermented in a single 2,500-litre French oak cask.

For the grape itself, read the Mencía story. For Galicia as a whole, our Galicia story. For the other Spanish regions in our range, the overview of Spain beyond Rioja. The growers have their own pages: Algueira, Guímaro, Ronsel do Sil and Carlos Carballo.

For more Spanish wine beyond Rioja, see our page Spanish wines.