Raquel Arias, Delegate of the Galician Government for Lugo Province
'Wine from the Ribeira Sacra is more than just wine'
Raquel Arias, from Proendos, in the council of Sober. Qualified as a journalist but who today has the position of Delegate of the Galician Government for Lugo Province following on from many years as the Mayoress of Sober, one of the councils within the D.O. Ribeira Sacra. Staunch defender and a driving force for the land where she was born, she understands that the Ribeira Sacra is both wine and a landscape, and that this is a way of life.
How would you define the relationship of Raquel Arias with the Ribeira Sacra?
I have the Ribeira Sacra within me. The relationship is one of interdependence like most of the people that live here. Life has no meaning if it is not connected to wine, the wine becomes a way of life, also it forms the base of the economy. Wine is related to everything and is one of the future pillars of the region.
You are the daughter of a bodega owner, in what way did this influence your perception of the region and the wine sector?
Originally, my family wasn´t connected to wine. The Denominación was meant to benefit the people who had always worked with wine and also to attract new people into the sector, as was the case with my father and this continues to be one of the benefits of the Denominación and it generates hope for the future, its capacity to continue attracting people into the wine sector. If I think back to when I was a girl, wine was associated with home consumption and as something festive and recreational. Today something of this still remains, especially in little family bodegas, but, at the same time, when I think of the wine of the Ribeira Sacra today it is of a sector with a high degree of professionalism. The credit is due to the Denominación, which was there from the beginning in this project.
The development of the wine sector in the Ribeira Sacra is evident, but do you think the consumers are aware of this?
In the last few years many critics and experts have evaluated the quality of the Ribeira Sacra wines. This has helped bring the consumers attention to our wines, but as consumers ourselves we still have to believe more in the Ribeira Sacra wines, it is the work of everyone. I want to take this opportunity to give a suggestion to all the restaurant owners, especially in the province of Lugo, that they offer the wines of the Ribeira Sacra as their first option. The restaurant owners should have these wines on their menus more and promote them and the consumers and politicians should request them.
Do we have a message for the restaurant owners so that they can tell the consumers why they should ask for Ribeira Sacra wines?
That they pay attention to its quality and its qualities, that they taste it and place value on it because it is the wine of the Ribeira Sacra. Behind the bottle and the label there is a landscape, a way of cultivation, the secular culture of a town,..The wine of the Ribeira Sacra is more than just wine, in one glass you are drinking a process, contributing to a sustainable environment, maintaining a rural way of life, to economic development,...
To drink a Ribeira Sacra wine is a privilege because, most importantly, it is a wine of excellent quality, praised by both national and international critics.
In what way is the self-governing administration helping to give a hand to the wine sector in the Ribeira Sacra?
They have just financed lifts for transporting the grapes in order to reduce the hardships of working in the vineyards, there are subsidies available for this matter. We are also talking about a plan between the Ministry and the Galician Government to help vineyard access. The Rural Environment will continue to support the Ribeira Sacra with special assistance to bodega owners and agriculturists and with policies that favour the general infrastructure in order to facilitate the work in the vineyards.
Finally, can you understand the Ribeira Sacra without wine?
Today it is not possible. The name is also associated with a religious theme, the monasteries, churches, hermitages,... but the other fundamental part is the landscape and the landscape is shaped by wine cultivation. The relationship between wine and landscape is fantastic, we have to understand this to appreciate it and by doing this we can understand the rest.