Ribeira Sacra DO

Ribeira Sacra is one of Spain's most dramatically beautiful and viticulturally extreme wine regions, situated in the deep river canyons of the Sil and Miño rivers in Galicia's interior. The region's vineyards are planted on impossibly steep granite and slate terraces that drop nearly vertically to the river below — heroic viticulture that can only be worked by hand. The primary variety is Mencía, which on Ribeira Sacra's cool granite terraces produces wines of extraordinary minerality and aromatic elegance quite different from the richer Bierzo versions. The ancient monasteries that give the region its name (Sacred Riverbank) have been associated with winemaking since the Romans.