Dominio do Bibei Lacima Ribeira Sacra 2021
£44.75
The wine
Lacima is the flagship red of the estate, made from Mencía grown on the steepest and oldest terraces in the Bibei valley.
Ribeira Sacra in Galicia is viticultura heroica, heroic viticulture: terraces cut into gorges above the Sil and Miño rivers at gradients up to 85 per cent, worked by the Romans and abandoned for much of the twentieth century before a revival from the 1990s. Mencia is the leading red, thin-skinned and aromatic, closer to Cabernet Franc than to Rioja. Fruit from vines worked at that gradient costs a great deal to pick, which is why the wines of the region are never cheap and why the terraces were abandoned in the first place. Dominio do Bibei work the Bibei valley in Ribeira Sacra, on terraces so steep that everything is done by hand or by winch.
The producer
Dominio do Bibei
View all Dominio do Bibei winesIn the steep, terraced valleys of Ribeira Sacra, in Galicia, Dominio do Bibei is one of Spain most acclaimed estates. Farming schist and granite slopes that plunge toward the river, it works with the region native grapes and a fierce respect for terroir. This is Atlantic Spain at its most thrilling.
The domaine farms organically and biodynamically, tending old vines on some of Europe most dramatic terraces. Precise, low-intervention winemaking captures the freshness, minerality, and energy of the cool, wet climate. The style is pure, detailed, and distinctive.
The range spans structured Mencía-based reds and mineral Godello whites, from Ribeira Sacra and neighbouring Ribeiro. Each traces the wild, granite-driven character of Galicia.
To pour a Dominio do Bibei wine is to taste Spain at its most distinctive. Fresh, mineral, and profound, these are wines for the adventurous connoisseur.
