Rías Baixas (REE-us BYE-shas) is known all over the world for being the home of Albariño: a crisp, saline, acidic white wine that pairs with everything that comes from the sea.
But it’s not just Albariño, and it’s not just white wine. Rías Baixas has a lot to offer. Ready to learn more? Read on for the ultimate guide to the Rías Baixas wine region.
Green Spain
When most people think of Spain, they picture hot, dry plains and Mediterranean beaches. Galicia couldn’t be more different.
People often compare Galicia to Ireland or Scotland, and with good reason. Craggy coastlines and fog-covered rolling hills are what give Galicia its magic. And on the southwestern coast of Galicia, surrounded by these stunning landscapes, Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas produces some of the finest white wines in Spain.
All the water to supply this greenery has to come from somewhere, and Galicia doesn’t disappoint when it comes to rain. On average, Rías Baixas gets a whopping 1,600 mm of rainfall a year, almost three times the average amount in the rest of Spain. Luckily, it also gets a lot of sunshine, so grapes don’t usually have problems ripening.
A Little Geography
Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas is located in southwestern Galicia, in the provinces of Pontevedra and A Coruña. It’s the largest of Galicia’s five Denominaciones de Origen, with more area under vine than the other four DOs combined. Its 4,642 hectares (11,470 acres) of vineyards are distributed over five subzones.
What are rías, anyway?
Ría means “estuary” in Gallego, the Galician language. Rías are coastal inlets that form from a flooded river valley. The sea rises and eventually comes inland, drowning the valley and leaving a tree-like formation of inlets and coves.
People often compare them to the fjords of Norway, but the difference is that rías don’t form from the path of a glacier. The estuaries formed in river valleys, so the land ends in gentle slopes, not the striking cliffs left behind by retreating blocks of ice.
Galicians, of course, have a more interesting explanation for how the rías came into being. Legend has it that on the seventh day of creation, God rested to enjoy his work in the most beautiful place of all. He laid a hand on Galicia, and his fingers sank into the earth, leaving impressions that were later filled by the sea.
And what makes them baixas?
Galicia has lots of rías—18 of them, in fact.
They’re divided by geography, so the ones on the northern coast are called the Upper Estuaries, or Rías Altas, and the ones to the south are called the Lower Estuaries, or Rías Baixas
Which ones are the Rías Baixas?
The Ría de Arousa is the biggest estuary in Galicia. It’s located between the Barbanza Peninsula in Coruña province and the Salnés Peninsula in Pontevedra province. Here, the Ulla and Umia rivers end their journeys to the ocean.
The islands of Illa de Arousa, Illa Cortegada, and Illa da Toxa sit in the middle of the estuary, and the coastline is home to towns like Vilagarcia de Arousa, Cambados, and O Grove.
To the south is the Ría de Pontevedra, located between the Ría de Vigo and the Ría de Arousa. It stretches inward toward Pontevedra, the city that gives it a name, and towns like Sanxenxo and Combarro dot the coastline. The Ons islands sit at the mouth of the ría, offering it partial protection from the waves coming in off the Atlantic.
The third and final ría bordering the Rías Baixas appellation is the Ría de Vigo. It’s the southernmost estuary and is located between Cape Home to the north and Cape Silleiro to the south.
Here, one of the biggest and highest-quality shellfish industries in the world operates day and night. Driven by winds and currents, upwelling brings water toward the surface where shellfish like mussels, clams, cockles, and oysters gobble up the nutrients from deep in the ocean.
The Subzones
DO Rías Baixas has five non-contiguous subzones: Val do Salnés, Condado do Tea, O Rosal, Soutomaior, and Ribeira do Ulla.
The original three founding Rías Baixas subzones are Val do Salnés, Condado do Tea, and O Rosal. The Ribeira do Ulla and Soutomaior subzones were added more recently.
Val do Salnés is cooler and wetter than the other subzones because of its proximity to the coast and its location to the north of the appellation. It’s also the biggest subzone in terms of production, with three quarters of Rias Baixas’ growers and just over half its vineyards.
Ribeira do Ulla has an equally cool climate, but it’s drier because of its landlocked location. To the south, bordering Portugal along the Miño River, are the Condado do Tea and O Rosal subzones.
The Condado do Tea‘s inland location gives it a warmer and drier microclimate, while O Rosal‘s coastline cools it off.
Last but not least is the smallest subzone, Soutomaior, nestled in between hills on the Ria de Vigo.
The Rivers
The other main players in the Rías Baixas are its rivers. The Ulla, Miño, Tea, and others wind their way across the land, regulating the climate and leaving rich alluvial soils on their banks.
The Miño River is the most important of Galicia’s waterways. Throughout its 310 kilometers, it flows through the Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro, and Rías Baixas appellations. In Rías Baixas, it forms the border between Spain and Portugal, first passing through the Condado do Tea, and then heading through O Rosal to reach the Atlantic. Most of the vineyards on the Galician side of the Miño are planted on south-facing slopes of the river valley.
The flow of the Umia River created the valley known as the Val do Salnés, home to prime vine-growing real estate and most of Rías Baixas’ internationally-renowned producers.
The Ulla River separates the provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra, flows through the Ribeira do Ulla subzone, and empties into the Ría de Arousa.
The Tea River gives the Condado do Tea subzone its name, and flows into the Miño at Fillaboa de Salceda.
The Climate
Its location along the Atlantic coast gives Rías Baixas a unique climate with year-round moderate temperatures, some of the highest rainfall in Galicia, and nearly 2,200 hours of sunlight throughout the year.
The rain in Spain stays mainly in Galicia. The region’s Atlantic climate means Rías Baixas gets a lot of rain, but the ocean also regulates temperatures so they’re never too extreme. In fact, the difference between average summer and winter temperatures is only about 13°C.
In the winter, temperatures along the coast don’t usually drop below 10°C (50°F), but this is the season when Rías Baixas receives the most rainfall: around 600 mm of the annual average of 1,600 mm falls in winter. When summer begins, rain and storms head north to Galicia’s aptly named Costa da Morte, or “Coast of Death” instead. As the rain goes away, average temperatures climb above 20° C (68° F), but they’re never as high as in other regions of Spain with a more continental climate.
However, summer still brings its risks. The sandy soils here don’t retain water very well, so if it doesn’t rain for long periods in the summer, there’s a risk of drought. In the past several years, these hot and dry summers in Galicia and northern Portugal have also seen tragedy strike. In 2017, wildfires ravaged the Condado do Tea subzone, burning vast swaths of land and putting vines in danger, and in 2022 the worst wildfires on record raged through Galicia. These fires and the other effects of a changing climate will be just a few of the factors that growers in Rías Baixas will have to confront in the coming decades.
Rías Baixas Soils
Rías Baixas has mostly granite-based soils, with areas of gneiss, schist, slate, and alluvial deposits.
Like most of Galicia, the bedrock here is mainly granitic. The most common soil in Rías Baixas is a type of decomposed granite known as xabre (SHAH-bray). Granite is a naturally hard rock, but it begins to weather when it’s affected by elements of erosion. In Rías Baixas, heavy rainfall and high humidity in the soil gradually penetrate the rock, wearing it down and decomposing its structure.
As the granite breaks down, it forms a sandy-textured soil that usually extends to a depth of about 20 cm and sits on top of more granite. The decomposed structure of the rock allows vines’ roots to creep into its cracks, reaching depths of a few meters. The sandy, loose textures of the well-draining soil are key for vines to thrive here since the amount of rainfall Rías Baixas receives would make viticulture difficult in more compact soils.
Don’t take it all for granite, though. Soils around the rivers tend to have more gravel, sand, and clay. Ribeira do Ulla has sedimentary rocks like schist, and in O Rosal and Condado do Tea, alluvial deposits from the Miño and other minor rivers are most common. That said, the difference in geological materials doesn’t make for huge differences in the soils. All of them are acidic, nutrient-poor soils with sandy textures.
The Land of the Minifundio
Galicia is characterized by small plots of land known as minifundios—smallholdings that are often no larger than a backyard, with vegetables growing or chickens living beneath the pergolas of vines.
This is because of a quirky inheritance custom in Galicia: rather than the eldest male child getting everything, as was the case in much of Europe, in Galicia property was divided up equally among the living heirs, regardless of gender, so a plot that was tiny to begin with would be divided up many times over the years.
Rías Baixas is no exception, and large, extensive vineyards are rare here. For a region with only 178 wineries and just over 4,000 hectares, Rías Baixas has 4,990 growers who farm a whopping 23,382 different plots between them. O Rosal is the subzone with the largest contiguous vineyards, but in the Val do Salnés plots border on the miniscule.
Many producers have to work out agreements with growers to rent their parcels, and it’s almost impossible to amass large areas of land—even for Vega Sicilia, which spent €20 million on a winery and 22 hectares of vineyards in the Condado do Tea. Land there is cheap compared to the Val do Salnés, where the hottest real estate sells for around €330,000 a hectare.
Rías Baixas: The Wines
Rías Baixas makes three styles of wines: white, red, and sparkling.
White wines from Rías Baixas are usually single-varietal Albariño wines, or made from a blend of Albariño and other varieties like Loureira and Caíño Branco. They have great acidity and fruit flavors. Aromas differ between subzones, but in general you can expect green apple, peach, apricot, and fresh citrus like lime or lemon peel.
Red wines from Rías Baixas are made from traditional Galician varieties like Caíño Tinto or Sousón. They’re also very acidic with lower alcohol levels around 11-12%. They have fresh red fruit aromas with occasional vegetal or herbal notes.
Sparkling wines from Rías Baixas are made from Albariño, and they conserve all the best characteristics of the Albariño grapes that go into them. They combine the usual traditional method autolytic notes of bakery and brioche with a backbone of Albariño fruit and acidity.
Rías Baixas Wines
Winemakers in Rías Baixas can use the following varieties:
White: Albariño, Treixadura, Loureira, Caíño Branco, Torrontés, Godello and Ratiño Gallega.
Reds: Caíño Tinto, Espadeiro, Loureiro Tinto, Sousón, Mencía, Brancellao, Pedral, and Castañal.
Albariño is responsible for the huge growth of Rías Baixas over the last 30 years, but in the middle of the 20th century it was on the verge of extinction.
Luckily, in 1953 a group of wine-lovers had a fateful dinner that would eventually turn into the “Festa do Albariño,” a multi-day festival in Cambados that brought the grape the fame and fortune it deserved. It’s still going strong today!
For more on the rich history of Rías Baixas, check out this deep dive into the wine region’s past.