It is believed that it was the ancient Romans who first introduced grape growing and wine making in this region. The wines from Monterrei were renowned during the Middle Ages. As Federico Justo Méndez stated in his book Brotes de Raíces Históricas: “The wines from the Monterrei valley, due to their excellent quality, were on a par with the wines from Porto, and for a time were sold all over Latin America”.
Exports increased during the reign of Philip II, especially as the 5th Count of Monterrei was nominated viceroy to the new Spanish colonies in the New World. It was around this time that the city of Monterrey in Mexico was founded.
In modern times, most of the wine produces is still sold in bulk, but pioneering wineries have started to bottle and market their own brands.
Provisional DO status was originally acquired in the 1980s but was suspended. It was not until the 1994 that it was recovered.
The area has had DO status since November 25, 1994 and the supervisory authority has been in place since January 1996. In total, more than 3000 hectares of land are approved for the cultivation of quality wine. The regulations are generally closely monitored. At the moment (as of 2005) there are 16 wineries and around 580 part-time winegrowers who work for these wineries.
All types of wine are permitted within the wine-growing region. The white grape varieties lead with a total of over 60 percent. Internationally, attempts are made to benefit from the current fame of the white Godello grape variety , which had almost disappeared due to phylloxera . The sparkling wines of this rare variety have been rediscovered in the Valdeorras area and are also an important factor here. Other white varieties include Treixadura , Doña Blanca , Monstruosa , and Palomino .
The red wines are mainly made from the Mencía and Bastardo varieties and sometimes also blended with Garnacha , Gran Negro and Merenzao (also called María Ardoña).
The vines grow on the sides of the valleys around the river Tâmega. The main town is Verín. The vineyards are at an altitude that varies between 400 and 450 m above sea level.
There are two different sub-zones: Val de Monterrei (Monterrei Valley) and Ladeira de Monterrei (Monterrei slopes). The vines cover an area of about 3000 hectares, even though not all of them are covered by the DOP.
Monterrei is the warmest and driest area in Galicia, sharing some climatic characteristics with the Spanish central plain. The Serra do Larouco range produces a rain shadow effect in the area. Besides, summers are long and sometimes dry, sometimes with a daily temperature range sometimes as wide as 30 degrees Celsius.[2] Temperatures can fall below 0 °C in winter. Average annual rainfall is about 700 mm and the influence of the Atlantic produces cold autumns.
Plurivarietal wines such as Rosal and Condado do Tea, incorporate other varieties of the subzone such as Loureira and Treixadura, respectively. These wines have an intense aroma, with a slight acidity, and are complex in the mouth, where the influence of the varieties of the area provide differentiating nuances with plant and floral sensations in the nose provided by linalool (rose) and hexanol (vegetable).
Monterrei white and red wines subjected to aging process in oak barrels can use the terminology of Barrica, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva.
These wines have a minimum of 12% of alcohol if red and white wines 11,5% and a volatile acidity of 1 gram per litre up to 10% alcohol and 0,06 grams per litre more for each alcohol content that is over 10% and a minimum total acidity of 4,5% tantric per litre and a sulphur content not over 160mg per litre.
