Galicia, Undiscovered

A day in the Ribeira Sacra of inland Galicia, where Miño and Sil rivers cut gorges so deep that vineyards are set on stone terraces first cut by the Romans. You take a private boat through Meandro Cabo do Mundo, the Miño's most iconic bend, where the river loops back on itself between the villages of Chantada and O Saviñao and the terraced vineyards rise from the water on both sides. Your host explains the region's viticultura heroica — heroic viticulture — where slopes exceed 70 percent and every basket of grapes has been, for 2,000 years, carried up on a back or winched down to the river. From the water, you continue to a winery for a tasting of signature Mencía reds and Godello whites — bottles from the colleiteiros, the tiny family growers whose wines are the soul of the appellation. Paired with a light lunch of Galician products from the surrounding land. Then a visit to one of the Romanesque churches or monasteries — the sacred buildings that gave the Ribeira Sacra its name.

The Ribeira Sacra is Spain's least-visited great wine region — a landscape of monasteries and impossibly steep vineyards, on the Tentative UNESCO World Heritage List since 1996 and largely unknown outside Iberia. Its wines have been made continuously for 2,000 years: first by the Romans, who called them "the gold of the Sil," and then by the 10th-century Benedictine and Cistercian monks who preserved the terraces and the tradition through the Middle Ages. More than eighty Romanesque churches, monasteries and hermitages still crown the canyons. The standard way to see it is a public catamaran through the canyons and a walk-in tasting room. What Reyes has arranged is a boat that is private for the ride, a colleiteiro cellar not open to walk-in visits, a monastery visited rarely, and a light lunch of the produce grown on the same slopes as the vines. Everything on the day exists because of relationships she has built with the families who live and work here.

Your host is a local expert deeply rooted in Ribeira Sacra culture, with knowledge of the region's viticultura heroica, its Benedictine and Cistercian monastic history, and the small colleiteiros who make its most distinctive wines. Reyes García curates this experience alongside a wider collection of cultural experiences across Spain — all built on the principle that the parts of Spanish life worth traveling for are made accessible through relationships built patiently over years.

Comfortable walking shoes for the vineyards, cellars, and church grounds. A light jacket for the boat — canyon breezes can be cool even in summer. Sun protection in the warmer months. A camera.