Galician wine

During the medieval period, cultivation spread until much of Galicia was under vine, with plantations in the Miño River valley and that of its tributary, the Sil; the Rías Baixas, the estuaries of A Coruña, and the northern coast.

The cost of purchasing equipment like bellows for spraying sulfur and Bordeaux mixture was prohibitive to many small wine growers and caused widespread abandonment of vineyards and emigration to Galicia’s coastal regions and the Americas.

[4] Throughout the 20th century, Galician wines were mainly produced in small quantities for self-consumption or transported in bulk to cities like Santiago de Compostela or A Coruña.

The 1932 Estatuto del Vino granted Denominación de Origen status to Ribeiro and Valdeorras among other regions in Spain, in an attempt to recover the prestige of the best Spanish wines in the exterior market.

The region of Galicia has shown itself to be quite successful in harvesting grapes and regularly produces some of the highest yields in Europe, averaging 5.7 tons per acre (100 hl/ha).

The majority of the area's vineyards are found to the south of the region in the provinces of Ourense and Pontevedra, though there are some significant plantings in Lugo to the east.

[1] Around 137 hectares (340 acres) of the Southwest France wine grape Camaraou noir (known in Galicia as Espadeiro) is grown here and often blended with Mencía and Caiño tinto.

The region was first granted provisional DO status in the early 1980s but lost the designation as Spanish authorities determined that the producers of Monterrei were not committed to upgrading their estates and improving wine quality.

At the turn of the 20th century many of the region's vineyards were replanted with low quality hybrid vines and some plantings of the Sherry grape Palomino that didn't produce as well in the cooler climate of Rías Baixas.

[1] However, by the late 2000s, Palomino was the most widely planted grape in the region though Mencía still has a significant presence producing what wine expert Tom Stevenson calls "promising reds".

However, growers were quicker to turn away from the low quality hybrid plantings and back to the native Torrontés, Treixadura and Lado varieties.

[2] Prior to the phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century, the indigenous Godello vine was heavily planted and is only just recently starting to make a comeback in the region.

[1] Other grapes grown in the Valdeorras region include Doña blanca, Godello, Gran negro, Lado, María Ardoña, Mencía, Merenzao and Palomino.