Winery description
This winery is the culmination of a project, a name that remains today in honour of its founder Maria del Carmen Prado Ferreiro. Although its wine dates back to several previous generations, it is in 1990 when they begin their expansion, being one of the pioneering wineries in the D.O. Ribeira Sacra.
It is a cultivator’s winery, all the grapes are 100% of the Mencía variety, which are made with current techniques without losing the traditional sense of the wines of the area, which configures them a brand of personality that they try to maintain in all vintages as their seal of identity. Oriented to quality and not quantity, it is a family business adapted to current production systems, using minimal treatments.
At first it was a winery for the production of red wine, although the project has undergone a transformation to what it is today, a winery within the Ribeira Sacra Denomination of Origin.
Located in the south of the province of Lugo, in the interior of Galicia, they make Romeo Domain and Don Xoán wine with grapes produced in the Amandi sub-area, on the slopes of the River Sil in small terraces and difficult access for the winegrower, where the orography prevents mechanisation in carrying out the tasks of caring for the vine.
It is currently Isabel, who has taken the reins of this old winery, after her mother´s retirement in 2019.
It has 2 hectares of vineyards spread over the Amandi sub-area, producing some 20,000 bottles a year. Currently, she is replanting old plots.
The culmination of heroic viticulture is lived during the grape harvest. Steep slopes that can reach slopes of 80-85% incline, make the harvesting tasks a real feat, where the winegrowers carry the grapes up the slopes that surround the canyons of the River Sil where lies its vineyards.
Once in the winery, the clusters are destemmed and the grape is slightly squeezed so as not to break the grain of the cluster. It is then driven to the macerator tanks where it is fermented at a temperature of 22º - 23º. Making an early discovery, sometimes without finishing the fermentation to achieve a redder wine with more fruity aromas.
It is impossible to know how to value the work, if you do not know closely the environment from which it comes and the special characteristics that its production requires. In addition to the fact that there are many hours of work and dedication required in these vineyards to be able to obtain a wine of the highest quality.
