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Buy Wine from Guímaro
In the rugged relief of the Ribeira Sacra, where the vineyards cling to impossible slopes over the river Sil, a name emerges that has redefined Galician wine from authenticity and rootedness: Guímaro. It is not just a winery, but a living testimony of how a family can transform tradition into a form of resistance. The name - Guímaro, which in Galician means "rebel" or "insubmissive" - is not a casual choice. It speaks of a way of understanding wine: without ornamentation, without make-up, without concessions to fashion or complacency. Just old vines, impossible slopes and a fierce will to remain faithful to a territory.
Pedro Rodríguez - Inheritance, territory and a look at the past
Pedro Rodríguez Pérez, alma mater of the project, belongs to the new generation of Galician winegrowers who have decided to look back in order to move forward. The son and grandson of winegrowers, Pedro took over a family tradition that in the 1990s seemed doomed to oblivion. In an area where many people uprooted vines or sold the grapes to cooperatives, he decided to continue cultivating the family plots, small, steep, worked by hand, as if each one were a secret garden. Instead of industrialising, he opted for a viticulture of minimal intervention, inspired by Burgundy in terms of parceling and respect for the terroir, but profoundly Galician in its spirit.
A key figure in the development of the project has been the renowned Bierzo oenologist Raúl Pérez, with whom Pedro has maintained a close friendship and a fluid collaboration from the very beginning. Raúl not only brought an external perspective that was deeply respectful of the vineyard, but also encouraged Guímaro to explore new ways of winemaking, reinforcing the commitment to fermentation with stems, long ageing and microvinification by parcels. Their bond is not only technical, but also emotional: both share a radically honest vision of wine, far removed from artifice and focused on the pure expression of the landscape.
Autochthonous grape varieties and hundred-year-old vines
Guímaro works mainly with the Mencía variety, but does not limit himself to it. There is Godello, Treixadura, Doña Blanca, Brancellao, Caiño, Sousón... a whole constellation of autochthonous grape varieties that Pedro and his family have been rediscovering and recovering, often in centenary vines that barely produce a few hundred kilos per year. They are varieties that have not been selected for their productivity or ease of cultivation, but for their profound adaptation to the environment: slate soils, north-south orientation, altitudes between 300 and 500 metres, and a severe Atlantic climate, where rain and fog are regular companions.
Aesthetics without artifice - The wine is born in the vineyard
The winery has no postcard aesthetics, and that is part of its charm. Here there is no marble or polished steel, but stainless steel tanks and a few old barrels where the wine is vinified with hardly any intervention. No added yeasts, no aggressive filtering, no oenological make-up. Guímaro wine is made in the vineyard, not in the laboratory. Fermentation is spontaneous, with stemming in many cases, and ageing is adapted to the character of each plot. There are no fixed rules. Just listening, observation and patience.
Speaking estates - Meixeman, Capeliños and Pombeiras
One of the keys to their philosophy is to work by parcels. Finca Meixeman, for example, is the family's original plot, where a signature wine was first made. It is south-facing and goblet-planted on decomposed slate soils, with vines over 70 years old. This gives rise to a tense, vibrant Mencía, with an almost electric minerality. Then there is Capeliños, an even steeper, almost inaccessible hillside, where the vines were saved from abandonment vine by vine. In cool years it gives a wine that verges on the texture of a wild Pinot Noir. O Pombeiras, which combines higher altitude and poorer soils, resulting in firm tannins, marked structure and an acidity that cuts through the wine like a bolt of lightning.
Pure coherence in market times
In recent years, Guímaro has been embraced by some of the world's most demanding distributors - cult importers such as José Pastor in the US or Neal Rosenthal in Europe - but the style has not changed one iota. Far from becoming complacent or complacent, Pedro and his team have gone even deeper in the quest for purity. They have even begun to bottle wines from experimental plots that bear no commercial name, only coordinates or internal references, as if they were field notes shared with the world.
No clock, no hurry, with intention
One of the most commented anecdotes among those who have visited the winery is the fact that there is no clock in the process. The harvests are decided by walking the vineyards, tasting the grapes, smelling the air. Bottling comes when the wine asks for it, not when the market demands it. It is an almost anachronistic attitude, but profoundly coherent. As if time in Guímaro were measured by the moon and not by the fiscal calendar.
Wines that do not seek to impress, but to move
Guímaro has shown that you don't need noise to make history. All it takes is a mountain, some old vines and a family that refuses to be domesticated. The result is wines that do not seek to impress, but to move. Wines that know where they come from, and that are in no hurry to get anywhere. Like the river Sil, which flows down the valley, slow, silent and tenacious.
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Buy Wine from Guímaro
In the rugged relief of the Ribeira Sacra, where the vineyards cling to impossible slopes over the river Sil, a name emerges that has redefined Galician wine from authenticity and rootedness: Guímaro. It is not just a winery, but a living testimony of how a family can transform tradition into a form of resistance. The name - Guímaro, which in Galician means "rebel" or "insubmissive" - is not a casual choice. It speaks of a way of understanding wine: without ornamentation, without make-up, without concessions to fashion or complacency. Just old vines, impossible slopes and a fierce will to remain faithful to a territory.
Pedro Rodríguez - Inheritance, territory and a look at the past
Pedro Rodríguez Pérez, alma mater of the project, belongs to the new generation of Galician winegrowers who have decided to look back in order to move forward. The son and grandson of winegrowers, Pedro took over a family tradition that in the 1990s seemed doomed to oblivion. In an area where many people uprooted vines or sold the grapes to cooperatives, he decided to continue cultivating the family plots, small, steep, worked by hand, as if each one were a secret garden. Instead of industrialising, he opted for a viticulture of minimal intervention, inspired by Burgundy in terms of parceling and respect for the terroir, but profoundly Galician in its spirit.
A key figure in the development of the project has been the renowned Bierzo oenologist Raúl Pérez, with whom Pedro has maintained a close friendship and a fluid collaboration from the very beginning. Raúl not only brought an external perspective that was deeply respectful of the vineyard, but also encouraged Guímaro to explore new ways of winemaking, reinforcing the commitment to fermentation with stems, long ageing and microvinification by parcels. Their bond is not only technical, but also emotional: both share a radically honest vision of wine, far removed from artifice and focused on the pure expression of the landscape.
Autochthonous grape varieties and hundred-year-old vines
Guímaro works mainly with the Mencía variety, but does not limit himself to it. There is Godello, Treixadura, Doña Blanca, Brancellao, Caiño, Sousón... a whole constellation of autochthonous grape varieties that Pedro and his family have been rediscovering and recovering, often in centenary vines that barely produce a few hundred kilos per year. They are varieties that have not been selected for their productivity or ease of cultivation, but for their profound adaptation to the environment: slate soils, north-south orientation, altitudes between 300 and 500 metres, and a severe Atlantic climate, where rain and fog are regular companions.
Aesthetics without artifice - The wine is born in the vineyard
The winery has no postcard aesthetics, and that is part of its charm. Here there is no marble or polished steel, but stainless steel tanks and a few old barrels where the wine is vinified with hardly any intervention. No added yeasts, no aggressive filtering, no oenological make-up. Guímaro wine is made in the vineyard, not in the laboratory. Fermentation is spontaneous, with stemming in many cases, and ageing is adapted to the character of each plot. There are no fixed rules. Just listening, observation and patience.
Speaking estates - Meixeman, Capeliños and Pombeiras
One of the keys to their philosophy is to work by parcels. Finca Meixeman, for example, is the family's original plot, where a signature wine was first made. It is south-facing and goblet-planted on decomposed slate soils, with vines over 70 years old. This gives rise to a tense, vibrant Mencía, with an almost electric minerality. Then there is Capeliños, an even steeper, almost inaccessible hillside, where the vines were saved from abandonment vine by vine. In cool years it gives a wine that verges on the texture of a wild Pinot Noir. O Pombeiras, which combines higher altitude and poorer soils, resulting in firm tannins, marked structure and an acidity that cuts through the wine like a bolt of lightning.
Pure coherence in market times
In recent years, Guímaro has been embraced by some of the world's most demanding distributors - cult importers such as José Pastor in the US or Neal Rosenthal in Europe - but the style has not changed one iota. Far from becoming complacent or complacent, Pedro and his team have gone even deeper in the quest for purity. They have even begun to bottle wines from experimental plots that bear no commercial name, only coordinates or internal references, as if they were field notes shared with the world.
No clock, no hurry, with intention
One of the most commented anecdotes among those who have visited the winery is the fact that there is no clock in the process. The harvests are decided by walking the vineyards, tasting the grapes, smelling the air. Bottling comes when the wine asks for it, not when the market demands it. It is an almost anachronistic attitude, but profoundly coherent. As if time in Guímaro were measured by the moon and not by the fiscal calendar.
Wines that do not seek to impress, but to move
Guímaro has shown that you don't need noise to make history. All it takes is a mountain, some old vines and a family that refuses to be domesticated. The result is wines that do not seek to impress, but to move. Wines that know where they come from, and that are in no hurry to get anywhere. Like the river Sil, which flows down the valley, slow, silent and tenacious.