The Vineyard in the Ribeira Sacra During the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Landscape, Production and Continuity

Abstract

This study aims to rescue from medieval sources a panoramic perspective during the Late Middle Ages of the winegrowing that developed in the Ribeira Sacra at the hands of monastic institutions and the peasantry linked to them. A line of research within the Agrarian History that, in the last decade, has enjoyed a considerable interest on the part of regionally-based peninsular historiography. The following paragraphs intend to contribute modestly to this line of research directed at giving more prominence to the world of wine and the landscape that its cultivation generated. In order to carry out this task, I have proceeded to examine the written sources originating from seven monasteries located near the banks of the river Sil close to flowing into the Miño. The topics to be addressed are the following: the importance of wine in the Ribeira Sacra during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the great expansion that the vineyard experienced at the expense of the wasteland in the fifteenth century, the physiognomy of the resulting landscape and, lastly, agricultural practices and manorial charges associated with the winemaking.