Algueira: In Ribera Sacra—a new, very old world

“[Algueira’s] wines and spectacular vineyards have been praised by The New York Times and Le Figaro, so are better known internationally than in Spain itself. The wines of Algueira are considered by many the finest and most elegant in Ribeira Sacra.” The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain, Jesús Barquín et al.

“These [Ribera Sacra reds] are lively, graceful wines, with the same sort of aromatic loveliness and lissome body that draws people to Burgundy and Barolo.” Eric Asimov, The New York Times

If you asked us to nominate the most exciting wine areas in Europe at the moment, Galicia would be one of the first names that would offer. Going further, we would have to single-out the Ribera Sacra as Galicia’s viticultural hot spot. Not only are the finest producers of this ancient region crafting a quality and style of wine that rivals the best in Europe, they are doing so with their own indigenous varieties, many of which had been unknown outside of Galicia not twenty years ago.

The terraced Algueira vineyards are a sight to behold. The vines on these unbelievably steep, rocky, predominantly south-facing slopes cling to the precipitous riverbanks like a young cub to its mother. Fernando González and Ana Pérez tend 11 hectares of old vines here – perched on what the locals term solcacos, the small terraces cut into the hillsides, in the Amandi and Doade-Sober sub-regions of Ribeira Sacra. These are inland ‘fjords’ that have been carved though slate and schist over millennia by the snake-like River Sil. Fittingly, Algueira’s wines are a perfect match for the splendour of this scenery.

The Estate’s reds – made from old-vine plantings of Mencía, Merenzao (better known as Trousseau), Brancellao and the like – are... learn more