Wines from Rias Baixas

RÍAS BAIXAS

The wine of the sea

In the northwest of Spain lies a green, hilly land with a moist, mild climate where grapes grow well and even citrus fruits thrive. This is Galicia.

The land is blessed with natural wonders. One of the more impressive elements of this lush land is the rías, which are deep, wide inlets of water encroaching many miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean along the coast. The southern group of these rías are known in Galician as the Rías Baixas. To the delight of wine lovers, these rías are surrounded by fine vineyard land. Since the rías are such an important element in the wine region, Rías Baixas was also taken as the name for the region's denomination of origin, which was awarded in 1988.

Perhaps the major reason Rías Baixas was believed to merit its own D.O. is the Albariño grape variety, a native grape which is grown only in this region of the world. While other white grape varieties are grown here and are sometimes blended with Albariño grapes, these wines cannot be labeled Albariño, since the wine must contain 100% Albariño to be labeled as such. Indeed, it is the Albariño variety which has truly put Rías Baixas on the world's wine map. This grape variety, despite its low yields, difficulty of cultivation, and delicate, expensive grapes, produces exceptional wines.

The Rías Baixas climate is Atlantic with high rainfall and, above all, high relative humidity. Temperatures are generally mild with maximum temperatures rarely higher than 30 ºC and minimums, which only drop to freezing in December and January. Mean temperature: 14ºC, rainfall: 1400mm/year. Average hours of sunshine: 2200 hours of direct sunlight a year.

Regarding the soil, The Valle del Salnés subzone is composed of slightly rolling terrain formed by the basin of the Umia River. The vineyards are planted on gentle slopes facing different directions and on flat terrain. El Rosal and El Condado de Tea are located in the valley of the River Miño. In El Rosal the vines are planted on large alluvial terraces facing southwards. The relief in Condado is more uneven, made up of a series of small river valleys. Most of the land is composed of brown humid soil over thick granitic or schistose elements. The soil drains well and has a good level of organic material content, little phosphor, potassium or trace elements.

Until very recently, relatively little Albariño wine was produced, and it is only within the last decade or so that this wine has become available to any significant exterior outside Galicia.

since the granting of D.O. status, however, numerous bodegas have been founded and existing ones have invested seriously in improving their equipment, vineyard management, winemaking and marketing. These changes have resulted not only in more wine, but in better, consistently superior wines.