2020 Dominio do Bibei `Lapola` White Ribeira Sacra

Product Description

Founded in 2001 by Javier Dominguez, Dominio do Bibei is widely credited as a driving force behind the quality revolution in Spain’s historic Ribeira Sacra region. Ribeira Sacra’s vines were first planted by the Romans, who came to the area to mine gold. They constructed hundreds of terraced vineyards on the precipitous slopes hugging the curves of the region’s three river gorges, the Sil, the Miño and the Bibei. These vineyards were later farmed by monks for several centuries, which inspired the region’s name, ‘sacred riverbanks’. Eventually, the devastation of phylloxera, economic depression and civil war drove local families to leave Ribeira Sacra and begin new, easier, lives elsewhere.

In the late 1990s, Javier Dominguez was among an influx of young winemakers attracted by the region’s old vines and untouched, Jurassic landscape. His family bought land in the Bibei valley, Ribeira’s most easterly sub-region, and today they own a 140-hectare estate, of which 45 are planted with vines. Javier has since worked tirelessly to revive the region and its indigenous vines, undertaking what is known locally as ‘heroic viticulture’.