Cume do Avia 'Arraiano' Tinto, Ribeiro, Galicia, Spain 2022

East of Spain’s Rías Baixas lies the Ribeiro D.O., one of the country’s most historic wine regions internationally known for both red and white wines for nearly a thousand years. Here, a band of idealistic young brothers and cousins left city life to reclaim their family’s abandoned land, Eida de Mouro, and recapture their family’s ancient history. Their label, Cume do Avia, began nearly two decades ago, and their geologically complex mountainside vineyards are composed of granodiorite, schist, slate, and gneiss bedrock, clay and sand topsoil, and have nearly twenty indigenous grape varieties planted with ancient massale selections and overlook the Avia and Miño Rivers.

• Winemakers: Diego Collarte, brother Álvaro, and cousins Fito and Anxo 
• Grapes: blend of Caiño Longo, Sousón, and Brancellao, with 15–20% of Garnacha Tintorera, Carabuñeiro, Mouraton, Gran Negro, Mencía, and more, planted between 1995–2010.
• Farming: Sustainable with organic practices
• Terroir: The majority of the vines are older and sit at an altitude of 110–160m on southfacing, unterraced, medium-steep slopes over a mix of metamorphic (schist, slate, gneiss) and igneous (granite, granodiorite) bedrock, with a topsoil mix of very rocky sand, silt, and clay.
• Vinification: 40% whole cluster natural “infusion” fermentation over 2-3 weeks at 28°C (maximum) and 9 months of aging mostly in steel (sometimes large restored chestnut foudres). Before bottling, it is lightly filtered.