Wine Stats

Figures about the Wine World

Winegrape Cultivar Mix in Galicia’s Five Denominaciónes de Origen

Galicia-D.OGalicia has five Denominaciónes de Origen (D.O.) for wine, of which Rias Baixas has the largest vineyard area, produces the most grapes and has the most wineries.  Rias Baixas’ success has been based on producing fruity, refreshing, dry white wines from the Albariño grape cultivar. Also increasingly featuring on the international radar are red and white wines from Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras and Monterrei.  Part of their attraction is their use of indigenous grape cultivars, which give many of the wines an attractive and welcome flavour profile change from that of the more commonly encountered international winegrapes.

The most important indigenous cultivars are Albariño, Godello and Treixadura (whites) and Mencia (black).  Many other cultivars may be permitted according to D.O. regulations, but are usually encountered in only small amounts.  The following pie charts show the compositional makeup of each of Gallicia’s D.O.s based on 2013 harvest information.  For Ribeiro, limited information only allows a split between black and white cultivars to be made.  Also included for comparative purposes is the 2013 harvest composition for the Bierzo wine region which, although located in Castilla y Leon, is contiguous with Valdeorras.

Rias-Baixas-Harvest-Composi

Ribeiro-Grape-Composition-2Ribeira-Sacra-Cultivars-201Monterrei-Grape-Comp-2013aValdeorras-Grape-ProductionBierzo-Harvest-Comp-2013a

Posted under: Galicia, Grape Production, Grape Varietals, Rias Baixas, Ribeira Sacra, Spain

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