Godello and Mencía are the preferential grape varieties endorsed by DO Valdeorras; an appellation that took on the responsibility of restructuring its native vineyard and modernising its cultivation and production techniques in order to produce wines that now enjoy well-deserved prestige; its Godello single-varietal whites in particular.

Valdeorras, a region located in the south-western part of the province of Orense, is a natural gateway to Galicia. It is formed by a deep, luminous, fertile valley through which the Sil River gently flows; lord of a magical landscape of granite and slate, where the true masters are the vine, the chestnut tree and the olive tree.

Valdeorras, crossed from east to west by the ‘vía XVIII’ or ‘Vía Nova’, was a thoroughfare as well as a destination for Roman legions that came to exploit its gold resources. It was the Romans who, aided by the special Mediterranean-Atlantic microclimate, introduced the vine in Valdeorras, a fact confirmed by the inscription found on a stone plaque located on the façade of a private dwelling in front of the church of San Esteban in A Rua Vella. The plaque refers to Lucio Pompeyo Reburro, “the former praetorian guard who became an agricultural labourer, he cultivated his wheat, he bred his livestock, he planted the first vines on the banks of the Sil- Valdeorras- and heard the buzzing of the bees in their hives around him”.

After the Roman period no more news or evidence of vine cultivation was found in the region until the 10th century. A document from that period confirming the existence of vines in Valdeorras is still preserved today. From this century onwards, various pieces of written information still exist that bear witness to vine being grown in the region.