Ribeira Sacra is expected to be the first Galician wine region to enter crisis distillation. This measure was approved in early September by the Xunta de Galicia, the regional government, following a request from the local Agriculture Council. The aim is to remove the excess wine from the market to ease the pressure on overflowing wine cellars. Affected winemakers will receive financial support in exchange for having their wine distilled into industrial alcohol. However, this decision still requires ratification from the Spanish central government and the European Union. An initial fund of €500,000 has been allocated for the initiative, with the possibility of increasing it to €2.4m if necessary.
The Agriculture Council's request was based on warnings from small-scale farmers that their livelihoods were at risk due to unsold harvests from the previous year. The traditional route of selling wine to large companies is no longer viable, as these companies are also facing difficulties. For example, the winery Regina Viarum, the largest in Ribeira Sacra, has terminated contracts with around 400 winemakers due to an oversupply and a decline in demand for red wine, which accounts for 80% of Ribeira Sacra's wine production.
Concerned winemakers
Producers are dissatisfied with the funds allocated by the Xunta (€2.4m), which small-scale winemakers say are far from enough to cover their costs. Viticulture on the steep slopes and terraces of the region is labor- and cost-intensive. In addition, transportation to the distillery must be covered by the producers themselves, leaving them with less than one euro in gross profit per liter of wine.
On September 6, the local agricultural union protested in front of the Consejo Regulador of the DO, demanding an increase in aid. They fear that the current situation will worsen existing demographic problems: the average winemaker in the region is 65 years old, and Ribeira Sacra has lost almost 700 ha/1,700 ac of vineyards in the past decade due to abandonment.
Antonio Lombardía Crespo, the president of the DO's Consejo Regulador, has his own plan to address this issue. According to the Galician gastronomy portal Barinopia, he aims to make the region more exclusive. His plan includes reintroducing more native red grape varieties, reorganizing the DO to support single-vineyard wines, and shifting production toward mid- to high-end wines.
World Heritage Site?
The Xunta is particularly keen to preserve the terraced steep slopes of the Ribeira Sacra because the so-called ‘heroic viticulture’ there plays a key role in the UNESCO World Heritage candidature. The wine-growing region has reapplied for 2026. A first attempt failed in 2021. MS
