One thing becomes overwhelmingly clear upon visiting Ribeira Sacra: the human desire to make delicious wine is stronger than any fear. And there’s plenty to fear on the dizzying vineyard terraces of this cavernous valley—backbreaking labor, steep pitches, isolation, and exposure to the elements are all facts of life, so much so that the region was mostly abandoned a generation ago. Pedro Rodriguez is part of the new generation that has brought the Ribeira Sacra and its neighboring Galician wine zones back to glorious life, and you couldn’t ask for a more dramatic example than today’s single-vineyard Mencía masterstroke, “Finca Meixemán.”
Over the last few years, Galician wine—white and red both—has been an obsession of ours. The reds from Mencía have continued to grow more intriguing with each new vintage, as a cadre of conscientious growers like Rodriguez demonstrate just how much impact organic farming and minimalist winemaking can have on the quality of the wines. But then, of course, there’s the terroir—mineral-rich granitic soils, cool temperatures, and dramatic exposures which, for me, conjure memories of another dramatic wine zone perched on the high slopes of a river valley: Côte-Rôtie in the Rhône Valley. We’ve tasted many Mencías from Ribeira Sacra that have reminded us of top-tier Côte-Rôtie, but none quite as vividly as Guímaro’s 2018 Finca Meixemán. This, to me, is a new benchmark not just in Galician red wine but in Spanish red wine—heck, in red wine, period. “Guímaro” means “rebel” in Gallego, and it’s a fitting name given the revolutionary wines this tiny estate produces. Finca Meixemán is one of their best: meaty, glossy, and brooding, with an undercurrent of minerals and dark fruit. Just one sip is evidence that this is sacred wine from a sacred place—I’m a believer!
The Guímaro estate is a multi-generational labor of love, originally founded by winemaker Pedro Rodriguez’ parents in 1991. They transitioned from selling glass jugs of wine to locals to estate-bottling their old-vine fruit, and quickly set the bar for the Ribeira Sacra DO. Pedro descends from an impressive line of hardy colleteiros—small, independent Galician producers who make wine from their own estate-grown grapes. He inherited a wealth of hard-won ancestral knowledge thanks to his family’s history of viticulture in the Amandi area, Ribeira Sacra’s most prized subregion. Here, incredibly steep vineyards weed out the faint of heart. Metal ladders run the length of each block, and pickers must shimmy up the south-facing slopes of pure slate in order to hand-pick each bunch. The work demands a sure foot and a strong stomach for heights—both of which Pedro developed while helping his parents establish their adega (winery). Since then, the family has made significant improvements in their vineyards, reducing yields, eliminating chemicals, pushing for organic certification, and paying careful attention to aspect and slope to preserve natural acidity.
Thus, Guímaro has grown from selling wine to local cantinas to redefining Galician excellence on a global stage. But success hasn’t exactly gone to their heads: Pedro and his parents, Manolo and Carmen, still tend to chickens, rabbits, pigs, and an organic vegetable garden with the same abundant love they show their old vines. They work harvest as a family; it’s an honest life of hard work and proportionate reward. And in the winery, the same attention to detail prevails. Their old-fashioned winemaking methods have been carefully preserved: wild yeast fermentation, foot-stomping, raspón (stem) inclusion, low sulfur additions, and aging in neutral barrels. This Finca Meixemán is some of the most distinctive and age-worthy wine being produced in Ribeira Sacra. The Meixemán plot is the original family-owned vineyard around which the Rodriguez’s family founded their adega. These 72-year-old vines produce powerfully concentrated Mencía fruit that is fermented in open-top foudres with a nice long maceration. The wine was aged for 12-14 months in used Burgundy barrels, and bottled without fining or filtration. One thing is for certain: this isn’t your typical fruity, Beaujolais-modeled Ribeira Sacra. Finca Meixemán has got power, depth, and backbone for the long haul.
While you could drink Meixemán straight out of the bottle and achieve extraordinary results, I recommend a Burgundy stem and a half-hour of decanting. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to wait on this wine once the initial aromas of kirsch, muddled blackberries, and coriander uncoil under your nose. This is a bold, concentrated beauty packed with dark fruits, sanguine undertones, and fresh minerals that leave a faint trace of salt and graphite on the tongue. The palate is generous on the fruit (crushed currants, ripe fig skin) but balanced by a captivating whiff of smoked meat. It’s ideal for pairing with rich food like this savory porridge heaped with morel mushrooms and slivers of seared chicken livers. The overall effect is of sleek muscle and perfect freshness, a wine that will undoubtedly weather the next five to eight years with elegance and intensity.
