The Ribeiro reached recognition and fame already in Roman times and through the centuries we have proof of it. Here we leave you some of its most famous mentions.
Strabo and Ribeiro wine
It is not known with certainty when the vine cultivation began in the Ribeiro, nor what is the origin of the peculiar and unique varieties, indigenous to this region. However, thanks to the testimony of the Greek geographer and historian Strabo, it is known that back in the middle of the second century BC, wine was already being made in the Ribeiro. Its fame was such that it was served at the table of the Roman emperors.
Alfonso X and Ribeiro wine
In 1840, Fernando Wolf discovered in the Vatican Apostolic Library, in Rome, a songbook with 1205 songs of medieval Galician-Portuguese poetry, attributed to a hundred different authors. They will call it Cancioneiro Portugues da Vaticana. It contains a song attributed to Alfonso X, O Sabio (1221-1284), which refers to Ribeiro wine, the good wine of Ourense:
“Assi com’eu beveria bon vinho d’Ourens
assi queria bon son de cunctipotens
pera meestre Joan»
Alfonso X praises Ribeiro wine in his canteens.
