??It was a hardship to collect the grapes,...but the harvest was also a fiesta"
Belarmino Fernández Iglesias. RUBAIYAT
Belarmino Fernández Iglesias, born in Rosende, Sober (Ribeira Sacra) in 1931, who has spent 20 years as an emigrant in Brazil, in São Paulo. There he started up the restaurant chain Rubaiyat, which later spread out to Argentina and Spain. In his birthplace he set up the Belarmino Fernández Iglesias Foundation that started up the Catering School, ´Escuela de Hostelería Belarmino Fernández Iglesias.´A lover of his homeland, the Sober businessman returns to the Ribeira Sacra whenever he gets the opportunity, although during the Galician winter he prefers the climate in Brazil. Although he has seen much of the world, he says that he has never seen people celebrate things like the Galicians, where they have a fiesta for everything.
When you left for Brazil what was the wine sector like in the Ribeira Sacra?
Well, everybody made wine and nearly all of it was for home consumption, if somebody didn´t drink it they sold it or they sold what was left over. There was no Denominación.
What do you think about the D.O. Ribeira Sacra today?
I helped with the setting up of the Denominación. From its initial start to today the development has been huge. In the past the wines from here weren´t known, not even in Galicia. Today they are known practically all over the world and many of them have been given high evaluations by wine gurus such as Robert Parker.
Are there Ribeira Sacra wines on the Brazilian market, do you ever hear people talking about the Ribeira Sacra over there?
Over there they know the famous Spanish wines such as Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorato. A few years ago I brought some Brazilian people connected with the world of wine to Galicia to taste the red wines of the Ribeira Sacra and the white wines of the Rías Baixas. They loved our wines, but it is another thing to market our wines over there. The reason is the price because of the conditions in the vineyards, our wines come with a higher price and the people are used to having cheaper prices for wines that offer good quality. In any case the wines from here have to continue getting themselves known and promoting themselves more abroad.
Is there anything special about the wines of the Ribeira Sacra?
I believe that what makes them special is the grape Mencía. I think that they have a distinctive climate and terroir, and it´s possible, occasionally, that this gives the grape a certain acidity, but I understand that this is being corrected.
Belarmino Fernández produces wine with grapes from this soil, when you drink this wine in Brazil,.. do you think of Galicia?
I remember the grape harvest which was hard work for me because I had the job of carrying the baskets out. In the past the harvest was done with baskets, there weren´t any crates to transport them and almost no roads... it was a hardship to collect the grapes...but the harvest was also a fiesta, it had an incredible fun atmosphere. I have travelled a lot in my time and I have never seen people celebrate things like they do in Galicia. Here, everything is a fiesta.
How can we sell this area, the Ribeira Sacra?
The name tells you everything, it has convents, hermitages, chapels,...and the wine. With this name and what it has to offer it can almost sell itself, but from the tourism point of view it could be promoted better, there is still a lot of work to be done at this level.
And the wine what would you say about that?
The wine is already selling well, from what I understand they sell all the wine produced from each harvest. This is good, but you always have to keep on working and putting the effort into making better wines. Today the bodegas have specialist enologists, before there was nothing like this, only a few daring people who were trying out things. I believe the word enologist
only began to be heard with frequency in the Ribeira Sacra when the Denominación started.
Does the landscape of the Ribeira Sacra help to sell the wine?
The Ribeira Sacra is beautiful, the landscape is stunning, but in order to sell wine the most important thing is the quality, if the wine isn´t good it won´t sell. On the other hand if the wine is good, the area where the grapes come from can be another selling point, but it always starts with quality.
Ribeira Sacra. When did you first hear these two words associated with this land?
I think with the wine and the start of the Denominación. Before when I was living in the Ribeira Sacra I didn´t know that this area had this name and I don´t think many other people did either.
As well as ??creating? the name Ribeira Sacra, what role does wine play in the region today?
I believe wine is the driving force, it is practically the only industry. The wine sector is an alternative for the young people. I can tell you that I come from an era when the only thing that a local person hoped for was that their children went away to work as a civil servant, leaving their village behind, today many of the young people stay here because they can find job opportunities in the wine sector. The wine is fundamental to the Ribeira Sacra, although in the past it wasn´t an industry or an economic sector like today, it was always essential to the people. If you went to a cantina, the same as today, there would be your neighbours with a glass of wine in their hands. At home, at mealtimes, there was always a jug of wine, it was a fundamental part of the meal. This is the role that wine has always played in the Ribeira Sacra. Now a similar thing happens but with a more professional aspect.