Ribeiro (DO)

Ribeiro is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) (Denominación de Orixe Protexida in Galician) for wines located in the northwest of the province of Ourense (Galicia, Spain), in the valleys formed by the Avia, Miño, and Arnoia rivers. It extends over the territories of nine municipalities in their entirety and includes parishes in five others.

History

The first mention of viticulture in Ribeiro comes from the writings of Strabo in the 2nd century BCE. Ancient stone wine presses dating from that period further prove the prevalence of winemaking during this period.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, little is known about winemaking in the Ribeiro until the medieval period, when Christian monks founded several important monasteries in the Ribeiro region. These monks expanded viticulture to supply local monasteries with wine, and the monasteries became the main drivers of viticulture in the region, encouraging the plantation of vineyards through feudal contracts. In addition to the monasteries, aristocratic families of large and medium-sized landowners also acquired vineyards in the region beginning in the 11th century.

Wine from Ribeiro became one of the most prized commodities in medieval Galicia, evidenced by the approval of a decree from 1133 listing the prices of foodstuffs sold in Santiago de Compostela which listed Ribeiro wine as the most expensive commodity. A few centuries later, Ribeiro wine was exported to the rest of Spain as well as Europe, with the English as the main customers outside the Iberian Peninsula.

By the 15th and 16th centuries, wine was Ribeiro's main export and was traded throughout Spain and Europe, reaching France, Portugal, Italy, and especially Great Britain. From the port cities of Pontevedra, Vigo, Baiona, and A Coruña, Ribeiro wine was transported to Brittany, Flanders, and especially England.

Amid this success, attempts to pass off lesser-quality wine as Ribeiro became more frequent. To guarantee the quality of the wines being sold, the Ordinances of Ribadavia (1579) were written to codify wine-growing areas and aspects related to wine production and sales. This document is considered as a precedent for modern appellations of origin and is recognized by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) as the first precursor to a geographical indication in Spanish law.

In the 19th century, the successive crises of powdery mildew, downy mildew, and phylloxera devastated the region. After the phylloxera epidemic ended, much of the region was replanted to disease-resistant and highly productive varieties like Palomino and Garnacha Tintoreira, to the detriment of the native varieties.

In 1932, Ribeiro became one of the first official Denominaciones de Origen in Spain with the passage of the Estatuto del Vino. Wine production during most of the 20th century was mostly limited to bulk wine made from Palomino and Garnacha Tintorera. In 1956, the Regulatory Council for D.O. Ribeiro was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. Later a second regulation was published in 1976, which was modified in 2004, to include Viño Tostado as a protected product based on its historical production. Since the 1980s, Ribeiro has slowly recovered local grapes, recovering and creating new plantations through vineyard reconversion and restructuring programs financed by the Xunta de Galicia.