The sun has barely risen. The first rays filter through the fog, caressing the steep hills of the Ribeira Sacraand there are already several neighbours who come to the farms to start the harvest. They are mostly families with more parents and grandparents than children or grandchildren working in the vineyards. A fact that has been going on for years and with no sign of changing. As elsewhere in Galicia, especially in the interior, the general aging of the population makes its impact, even more so in this eminently physical work, whose difficulty is multiplied in the case of the Ribeira Sacra, where the slopes on which the grapes grow reach up to 88 degrees in the Sil Valley and the canyons of the Miño and Sil. A unique landscape where the tradition of this centuries-old practice has earned the grape harvesters of this region the name of heroic winegrowers.
Harvester among the vines of a farm in the parish of Doade, Sober (Lugo)
The passage of decades makes the work easier in some way, because there are still many vineyards which, due to their extreme slope, prevents the use of tractors or machines. But the heroic essence of this work is manifested in the grape pickers who carry the baskets loaded with grapes on their shoulders up the narrow stone steps, using harnesses or boats on the river in the most extreme cases for those who can. But these resources are not within the reach of the majority of family vineyards, with little production for their own consumption, where lack of relief and aging forces us to reconsider or, directly, to abandon the most difficult to access vines, to the misfortune of their owners.
This is what a group of family and friends say at work, in one of the many vineyards that extend around the parish of Doade, in the municipality of Sober (Lugo). A group of six grape harvesters in which the average age does not fall below 65 years years, but in which a life of connection with this land is grateful to the eye but harsh when it comes to hard work, as evidenced by his dedication to the vineyard. “Formerly, The grape harvest was a celebration in which the whole town participated.“We helped each other, but now it has become a business,” says Ramiro. This is not the case when the group travels to the different vineyards of each member to have wine that they consume themselves, with a lot of effort and sweat, but with frequent jokes and jokes that make it more bearable. “You have to laugh, because there are also moments to cry,” says Estrella.
Diego, the youngest of the group, carrying the grapes to the top of the hill
Long gone are the days when there were no dirt roads, as there are today, and the donkeys brought the wooden chests where the grapes were then walked on. “It was truly heroic,” comments one of the harvesters, while Ramiro also points out that the young people in each group ran races with the chests carried on their shoulders. Their work and the vineyard have not changed since they harvested the grapes when they were young, but the passage of time takes its toll, “it’s getting more and more expensive” says Rafael, the owner of the farm. Diego, in his fifties, is now the youngest of the group, responsible for carrying the grapes up the slopes and helping out the older ones, since his children live abroad and have other jobs. He points out that other harvesters have asked him for young people to help them with the harvest, but “there aren’t any.”
Grapes without buyers
One of the problems is the lack of replacement, which many farms blame, agreeing on the lack of incentives for young people to continue this centuries-old tradition, at a time when there is a surplus of grapes from previous campaigns and difficulties in selling wine since the pandemic, many grapes produced in small plantations are not finding a buyer.
“It doesn’t make sense that with what they pay – the producers – you go to a restaurant and they charge you more for wine than for food,” says José Antonio, 71, as he collects mencía from his farm a few meters from Belesar. To the problem of the lack of labor and incentives, he adds that “the best vines remained under the river” after the construction of the dams. Today, catamarans and zodias travel the waters from time to time, tourists attracted by the captivating landscape of the Miño canyons.
José Antonio, 71, on the farm where he has been harvesting since he was a child
But this does not mean a brake on the depopulation of the region. Census data from the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE) show how the population of the 27 municipalities that make up the Ribeira Sacra was reduced by more than half between 1986 and 2022, from 119,916 inhabitants to 68,058. All this without taking into account the progressive aging and low birth rate of the region, which affect all productive areas.
They also show it at Mesón Parrillada a Coba, a restaurant run by a family that also owns vineyards from which they extract grapes for the ‘house wine which they then offer in their premises. The difficulties in finding staff, both in the restaurant and in the vineyards, lead them to ask themselves each year if it is worth harvesting, but for the moment, they continue to dare even if it is “hard work”, they admit.
The rise of wine tourism
In addition to wine production, consumer interest in the production process and everything that surrounds this world has led more and more wineries to commit to integrating wine tourism into their business. Today, more than 40 wineries can be visited in the Ribeira Sacra. According to data from the Tourism Consortium, In 2023, they received 93,000 visitorsmore than double the number of ten years ago – in 2004, they had not reached ten. “It has been found that they not only increase the sale of wine at the counter, but also improve their image and help them build customer loyalty,” explains the director of the Ribeira Sacra Tourism Consortium, Alexandra Seara.
Winemakers at the Regina Viarum winery, where tours and tastings of the wines they produce take place
One of these wineries involved in wine tourism, the most visited in the Ribeira Sacra, is Regina Viarum. In the heart of this emblematic landscape, it offers a tour of its facilities, where you can appreciate the origin of the winemaking tradition from its introduction in Roman times to the present day, with the barrel cellar where the wine is stored. The winery’s wine tourism director, Ángela Santoalla, explains how this the activity “started little by little”with visits that then integrate the tasting of wines and, later, explanations that serve as an introduction to the tasting, to identify the aromas and flavors in a fun way and involving the client. All this from a terrace with a privileged view of the Miño canyons and the vineyards that extend below the facilities, the combination of wine and tourism which resulted in the success of Regina Viarum.
“It has always been a fundamental pillar of the tourist offer to the visitor, but a few years ago the number of wineries open to the public was minimal and many wine tourism tours were based on photographing the vineyards from viewpoints. Today, more than 40 wineries welcome the public and many of them expand the service catalog with twinning, concerts, exhibitions…» adds Seara. A professionalization that allows large wine estates to attract talent and respond to the depopulation of a unique enclave in the world.
