Rías Baixas & Ribeiro: The Beating Heart of White Wine in Galicia

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | MARCH 11, 2025

Typically, when most people think of Spanish wine, they think of red wine. But that doesn’t mean the country can’t produce great whites. Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat have made their names in the realm of reds, with each combining potency and elegance in their own distinctive manner. And yet Spain also boasts a number of regions that focus on white wines, the most famous of which is Galicia. Not only does Galicia produce one of the most distinctive whites in the country, Albariño from Rías Baixas, but it is also home to one of Spain’s oldest winemaking regions, Ribeiro, where the whites take on a delicate richness and grace.

To understand why these two regions focus on white wine production, one must examine the close relationship between Galicia and water, in the form of rain, rivers and sea. Connected by the Miño River, the wine-producing regions of Galicia are defined by water and shorelines.

Rías Baixas sees around 1600 millimeters of rainfall per year. Forests cover ancient granite hills, and the sea competes with the rivers for dominion over the land. At low tide, one can see a fan of five large channels that later merge to become a mass of blue sea, delineated by a strip of extremely white sand. The landscape here is intricately contoured with mountains, bays and islands. Two factors make the production of quality wine possible here: sandy soil and Albariño.

The sand allows rainfall to filter through to the bedrock and then on to the rivers and sea. Albariño is the local star. An indigenous variety, Albariño accounts for 96% of the surface area under vine in Rías Baixas. The variety has a chameleon-like character depending on its ripeness and the winemaking style applied—with or without wood, aging on or off lees—and it is resilient to the Galician climate. The thick skins of the berries protect them from botrytis even in extremely damp conditions. Albariño’s flexible stalks withstand Atlantic gales, and the variety ripens well to 13% alcohol while maintaining vivid acidity. Albariño can offer aromas and flavors that range from pineapple to lime, white peach to orange blossom, linden blossom to fennel, all playing nicely against the variety’s naturally round mouthfeel.

Between the Ría de Pontevedra and the Ría de Arosa stretches a peninsula rich in vineyards and hamlets. This photo captures Albariño vines nestled among houses at sunset over Lanzada Beach, one of the most beautiful and expansive in the peninsula between the Ría de Pontevedra and the Ría de Arosa.

The key to Rías Baixas, and the reason why it’s one of Spain’s fastest-growing DOs in terms of both sales and value, is the delicate balance achieved between these original flavors and the overall consistency of the wines. If it weren’t for the reliability of Albariño and the sandy soils, harvests in the region would most likely vary sharply from one year to another, similar to what happens with the coastal reds, which can be green and acidic one year and overripe and hollow the next. 

Today, a kilogram of Albariño from Rías Baixas fetches €3 in a favorable market and €2 on average—four to six times the price of grapes from other prestigious regions in Spain and twice that of the next most valuable grapes from Galicia. The Albariño wines themselves are also the most expensive whites in Spain. Attracted by this boom, producers from across the country are now investing in Rías Baixas, buying up wineries and properties or developing new wines in partnerships. This makes for a dynamic region, much to the bemusement of longstanding local producers; no one used to give a cent for the wines of Galicia, but now they’re highly sought-after.  

In Ribeiro, the scene isn’t quite as lively, but it’s just as interesting. The differences lie in both the primary grape and the climate. Ribeiro is the homeland of Treixadura, another native variety. In combination with other local varieties such as Loureira, Caíño Blanco and (again) Albariño, Treixadura yields uniquely round and creamy white wines with subtle palates and gentle acidity. As a whole, Ribiero is less consistent than Rías Baixas in terms of both style and quality.

Together, the two regions represent the heart of white wine production in Galicia. Visiting both last summer, I tasted over 300 wines—including a few reds, particularly in Ribeiro—that revealed much about the distinctive local winemaking culture. Where the Albariño of Rías Baixas is the festive, generous face of Galicia, Ribeiro wines tend to have more of an enigmatic character and are more difficult to pin down.

Planted on terraces with granite walls, Emilio Rojo’s vineyard in Leiro, in the Avia Valley, is a spectacle reminiscent of Machu Picchu, both for the perfection of its walls and the lush greenery that surrounds it.

Five Subregions in Rías Baixas