Wine by the winery Guímaro

Ribeira Sacra is one of the best examples of what is known today as heroic viticulture. Therefore, since 2011 the area already has a specific international seal (CERVIN), which defines this type of viticulture. The term refers to the orography and the conditions of the terrain, which complicate the work in the vineyards and make that winegrowers and winemakers challenge steep terraces, harvest after harvest. All this combined with a smallholding of plots, an Atlantic climate, rivers that act as thermal regulators, low rainfall, slate-shale or granitic soil, distribution on terraces that favours soil drainage, well-exposed slopes and, in many cases, with very short productions. The results are wines of excellent quality and, above all, with great personality, gathering the dramatic emotion of their landscape. Changes in altitude, orientation and soil type, even in narrow vineyards, give rise to very different wines of the same variety, focusing almost exclusively on the Mencía, which changes its profile according to its terroir. There are still few wineries that advocate for single-vineyard wines, but Adegas Guímaro is one of the pioneers.

History of the winery

The Guímaro project was born in 1991, when the original winery went through a large technological renovation, in anticipation of what the Denomination of Ribeira Sacra could provide. However, they continue to use the old winery, where the family of the mother of Pedro Rodríguez, the alma mater of the project, made their wine in a traditional way, within immense granite walls and a black tiled roof, that nowadays serves as a barrel room. The winery is located in Sanmil, parish of the small town of Santa Cruz de Brosmos, near Deoade. It is surrounded by vineyards and chestnut trees, in the heart of Ribeira Sacra, and most of its production comes from its own vineyards in the Amandi sub-area. As the lead of the winery we can find Pedro Rodríguez who, alongside his parents, focuses all his efforts on the vineyard; he is one of the originators of the revolution in Ribeira Sacra.  For Pedro, the added value given by the singularity of a plot is important for small wineries, because they can make very short productions profitable, which is an encouragement to care for viticulture, the way different things are done. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning oenologist Raúl Pérez, who started to collaborate with Adega Guímaro in 2002. This is where El Pecado was born, a wine that radically changed the vision of reds in Ribeira Sacra, when the 2005 harvest was given 98 points by who was at the time Parker's man in Spain, Jay Miller; in fact, it was Guímaro's aged red. In 2007 the Guímaro B1P and B2M were born, renamed later with the names of their vineyards of origin: Capeliños and Meixemán. In the harvest of 2010, Finca de Pombeiras was born; it was vinified separately for the first time .

Work philosophy

The vineyards of Guímaro are located in Deoade, on the slopes of the river Sil, in the Amandi sub-area. They are the inheritance of the family, and except for a small farm, all the production is from their own grapes. The youngest vines are around 30 years old, while others are over 95 years old, as far as the records show, so they could be more than a century old. The winery has 8 hectares of own vineyard, and around 13 more managed hectares where they grow the white varieties Godello, Treixadura and Dona Branca, and the red varieties Mencía, Caiño, Sousón and Merenzao, among other less popular ones. The winery's work philosophy is to combine traditions with new technologies, without forgetting the vineyards, their most precious treasure. For this reason, they are very respectful with the environment, so they only apply sulphur and copper in the vineyard. They also pay special attention to the production and the amount of sulphur in their wines.

The making of the wines is also very unique. The harvest of each of the farms goes to a tank, and that must is transformed into wine, independently from other tanks. Only for young red wine, the wine is mixed with others from other farms. High-end wines are fermented in truncated cone-shaped oak tanks, almost all with 50% of the stems, and with native yeasts. After fermentation, they are left to macerate on their lees for around 60 days, and then, they age in French oak barrels, never new, for 12 months.

They use used barrels (3rd-4th use) because they do not want the wood to cover the taste of the fresh fruit that identifies their wines. Therefore, they buy the new barrels and age them themselves with wine, which will then be mixed with the wine from the tanks containing the young Guímaro.

Wines from Bodegas Guímaro

Guímaro Blanco is made with 75% Godello, 25% Treixadura, Torrontés, Loureiro and Albariño, from several plots with granite, slate and sandy soils, located in the ​​Amandi sub-area, between 300 and 500 metre of altitude, with south-west and south-east orientations, and an age of between 35 and 40 years. The wine is kept with its lees for 6 months without stirring. Then, it goes through a slight clarification and filtration, and it rests in the bottle for at least 2 months before it is released on the market.

Guímaro Blanco Cepas Viejas is made with Godello, and a small percentage of Treixadura, Torrontés, Loureiro and Albariño. The wine is fermented in French and American oak barrels and left for 15 days, then it is transferred to remove traces of the fermentation, and returned to the barrels, where it remains between 4 and 6 months without stirring. On the nose, it has clean, intense aromas of ripe fruit. Tasty, elegant, with good acidity and very balanced, with a long and seductive aftertaste.

Guímaro Tinto is the basic wine of the winery, made with 85%, Mencía, Caiño, Sousón, Merenzao, Brancellao, Grenache, Mouratón and Negreda, from different plots planted on slopes with different orientations and altitudes, with an average age of 35 to 40 years. The wine is kept on its lees between 4 and 8 months, without pump-overs, and it is then clarified and bottled. On the nose, it is very fresh, with prevailing aromas of red fruits. In the mouth it is fresh, with a good acidity, where the red fruits appear once again, accompanied by a mineral background.

Guímaro Finca Capeliños is made from 80% Mencía and a mixture of different varieties from Finca Capeliños, located on a steep slope next to the river Miño. It is the same farm where Raúl Pérez made his famous wine El Pecado, which was given 98 Parker points in the 2005 harvest. Finca Capeliños is made with 40% of stems and 60% of whole grape. It remains between in 225-litre used barrels of 4th and 6th year, for 12 and 14 months. It is the wine that Luís Gutiérrez (Robert Parker) awarded with 96 points. It is a complex and intense wine, with notes of red and black fruits, mineral, balsamic, with notes of undergrowth. In the mouth it is subtle, with a good fruity expression, fresh, with a balanced acidity, and a very persistent and elegant finish.

Guímaro Finca Meixeman is made with 80% Mencía that is 70 years old, 20% Caiño, Sousón, Brancellao, Merenzao, Negreda, Grenache and Mouratón from the farm Finca Meixemán, of 1.2 hectares, oriented south-west at 400-450 metres above sea level. It ferments in closed truncated cone-shape deposits with 40% of the stems and 60% of whole grapes. It remains in 255/500-litre used French oak barrels for 12-13 months.

Guímaro Finca Pombeiras is the most special wine of the winery, and the one that, according to its authors, represents the terroir that resembles Ribeira Sacra. The farm Finca Pombeira started to be vinified separately in 2010, and its production is always very small. It is the farm where Raúl Pérez makes his wine La Penitencia; here, he shares the production and the ageing. It is made with 80% Mencía, 20% Caiño, Sousón, Brancellao, Merenzao, Negreda, Grenache, Mouratón, with an average age of more than 70 years. It ferments in vertical 1800 and 700-litre open barrels, with 100% of the stems and native yeast. Later on, the wine is aged for 10 to 12 months in French oak barrels with a capacity of 225/500 litres. It is bottled without clarifying or filtering, and it remains in the bottle for at least 5 months before it is launched on the market. Its production is limited to a single barrel of 500 litres, from which they extract around 660 bottles. It has a very fruity aroma with intense notes of very ripe plum, nuances of the skins and a very fine and elegant wood that provides roasted nuances. In the mouth it is intense, it has a pronounced tannin with sweet touches and a very well integrated wood that fills the mouth with a very well assembled acidity. It has the long and persistent aftertaste of the variety.