Located about 80 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean, it is among Spain’s coolest and moistest wine growing regions. The area’s gravity-defying terraced vineyards were first built by the Romans over 2,000 years ago. After the Romans, the monks settled in, took over wine production, and the area became known as Ribeira Sacra — “Holy River Bank” in Spanish. Formally recognized in 1996, Ribeira Sacra is the only Galician D.O. dedicated primarily to red wine production, specializing in the Mencía grape. Owing to the cultivation technique, the soil, and the micro-climate, the Mencía produced here are lighter, livelier, more aromatic and flavour-intense compared with those from other regions, such as D.O. Bierzo. However, production is very limited and expensive because the difficult terrain makes it impossible to mechanize many aspects of viticulture. Indeed, cultivation is restricted to the river banks by the D.O! Indeed, this mountain viticulture is commonly known as “Heroic Viticulture”.