The Rías Baixas appellation

Four years later, on April 30, the regulations of the Denominación Específica Albariño and its Regulating Board were officially approved.

Because of the need to adapt Spanish legislation to that of the EU, the Department of Agriculture, in an order dated March 17, 1988, recognised the Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas, and on July 4 published the order which approved the regulations of the appellation and its Regulating Board, ratified by a ministerial order on July 28 of the same year.

During its short history, the Rías Baixas appellation has evolved in a sound and ordered way; and in the period between the years 1987 and 2001, the number of growers rose from 492 to 5,059, the number of wineries increased from 14 to 161 and the surface vineyard area expanded from 237 hectares to 2,408 (585 acres to 5,948).

This expansion is also mirrored in the increase in the number of wine zones. In 1988 the Rías Baixas appellation comprised 3 perfectly individualised sub-zones in the province of Pontevedra: Val do Salnés, Condado do Tea and O Rosal. In October1996 Soutomaior joined as a new sub-zone, followed by Ribeira do Ulla in May 2000.

Location and natural environment

The Rías Baixas appellation stretches over a group of areas in Galicia whose lands share a series of common features that give an identity and particular characteristics to the wines.

These lands are lowlands, generally situated at an altitude of less than 300m, close to the sea and the lower stretches of rivers, which bring about Atlantic climatic conditions with mild temperatures and extensive rainfall and a drier period during the months of summer.

These climatic characteristics combined with the appellation’s soil types –poor, acid and loose sandy soils- provide the grapes with their individual, fresh and aromatic character.