Dominio do Bibei Lalama Ribeira Sacra 2022
£23.25
The wine
A vibrant, slightly spicy nose brimming with ripe black cherries, blueberries and dark fruit.
Lalama is Mencía-led with the local Brancellao and Merenzao, from vines between 300 and 700 metres. 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.
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.
