Eric Asimov. The New York Times
In Spain, these hills are alive, again!
The New York Times
The stone terraces, thick with green vines, rise up the face of a mountain from the River Sil at the impossibly steep angle of a rocket ascending toward space. The only way down, or up, is by foot, and even thinking about the climb in the brilliant heat of the summer sun is enough to make the legs throb, the back protest and the mind boil in rebellion against such seeming insanity.
Yet outside this small town in the heart of the Ribeira Sacra, in the Galicia region of northwest Spain, grape growers have been making that crazy climb day after day for 2,000 years.
The Romans first carved these terraces to supply wine for their march to the Atlantic. Over the centuries the locals joined in, led by monks, who cut vineyards into canyons and precipitous gorges of the Sil and two other rivers: the Miño and the Bibei.
For millennia, terraced vineyards have been the face of this land. Farmers tended animals, grew grain and raised grapes ?? another subsistence crop.
But the 20th century proved disastrous. First phylloxera, a scourge of root-devouring aphids, devastated the vines. Then the Spanish Civil War ravaged the economy. Young people left in droves, escaping agricultural life. Farmers abandoned the terraces, and forests reclaimed them, the crumbling stones ghostly shadows of an older way of life.
Yet alongside these abandonados, as the old terraces are called, new energy has come to Ribeira Sacra. Old terraces are being rebuilt, vineyards are being renewed and wine is being made again ?? sometimes stunningly good wine ?? which, to the astonishment of some older Galicians, is earning raves half a world away.
It is the potential for making great wine that is bringing the 21st century to a region that has barely come to terms with entering the 20th, and has brought Ribeira Sacra to a winemaking crossroads. Here in this isolated region, so obscure it is little known even in the rest of Galicia, the potential for distinction comes from the combination of indigenous grapes, the slate and granite soils, the peculiar microclimates of the rivers and terraces, and the human determination to make singular wines.
But there is pressure against making such wines as well. The local wine bureaucracy prefers squeaky clean, inexpensive wine for high-volume sales. Others argue for planting grapes with proven international popularity, like tempranillo, the grape of Rioja. Dedicated winemakers scoff at that view, calling it ??Rioj-itis.?
??There are two types of winemakers: those who want to make money and those who want to make wine,? said a winemaker of the D.O.R.S. ??The tradition here is to make your own wine, for yourself to drink. A lot of people say, ??Make more, make more,?? but why??
As long as anyone can remember, mencía has been the dominant red grape, as it is in the neighboring region of Bierzo to the east. But where Bierzo produces dark, dense wines, Ribeira Sacra??s are lighter-bodied with a silky balance of fruit and minerality that can sometimes be reminiscent of Burgundy.
??If you look at the great wine regions of the world ?? Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux ?? it??s very difficult to find similar conditions in the south of Spain, but you can find those conditions here,? said Raúl Pérez, who makes wine from several Spanish regions, including Ribeira Sacra since 2002.
In the Amandi Valley, people instead used to carry the grapes on their backs twice a day uphill to the wineries. Now they just carry the heavy loads to the road above, which, incidentally, was paved just last year.
Not surprisingly, many growers and winemakers here seem to have back trouble.
Some of the lowest of the original Roman terraces have been swallowed up by the river, since hydroelectric dams raised the water level. Across the river, on another steep hillside, the terraces are empty and overgrown.
One can??t help sensing the timeless nature of Ribeira Sacra, of how a bottle of this wine can taste of 2,000 years of history.
High over the Sil, the heat is intense by day, though the nights are cool. His vines are spread over 15 different sites. The grapes, all mencía, seem to react differently to each bend in the row, each angle of exposure to the sun. ??Same grapes, different flavors,? one winemaker said.
Tastes of Galicia
The best wines from the Ribeira Sacra region are made in small quantities and may be difficult to find. Here are some producers worth seeking out. In Manhattan I have found Ribeira Sacra wines at Astor Wines, Cabrini Wines, Chamber Street Wines, PJ Wine and Sherry-Lehmann.
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