Temetum

A single-vineyard wine above the Miño

Temetum is the Regueira family's wine, made at Adegas Regueira on the slopes above the Miño River in the Ribeira Sacra. The winery is near Portotide, in the municipality of O Saviñao, Lugo. It uses grapes from its own Pedras Altas estate to make one wine intended to express its site, with minimal intervention in the cellar.

Origins

The project began in 2014, when the family found its site in the Ribeira Sacra, a landscape designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and recognized for its cultural importance by the Galician government. In 2015, planning began for a wine-aging cellar. Built in 2017, it reused stone from a ruined local house and preserved the original stones around the doorway. The winery opened on September 5, 2017, during that year's harvest. Winemakers involved in the technical work have included Roberto Regal and, later, Victor Pérez Sieiro.

Pedras Altas vineyard

The wine comes from a single vineyard in the Riberas del Miño subzone of the Ribeira Sacra:

• Area: 2,300 square meters.
• Aspect: Southwest-facing for grape ripening.
• Altitude: 350 meters.
• Soil: Sandy over granite, contributing mineral and saline character.
• Vines: 90% Mencía, 5% Garnacha, and 5% Tempranillo, averaging 40–50 years of age.
• Training: Trellised vines pruned using the single-Guyot system, with ground cover between them.

Steep-slope growing and winemaking

The vineyard reaches gradients of 65%, so the work is done by hand, without herbicides or systemic treatments and with manual clearing. At harvest, bunches are selected and picked individually into 18-kilogram crates, which workers carry along the terraces to the paths. In the cellar, grapes are destemmed and crushed, then macerated and fermented in stainless-steel tanks. The wine spends six months in French oak barrels before bottling with minimal filtration.

The name and the wine

The winery says Temetum recalls a Latin term for exceptionally pure, sacred wine in ancient Rome, reserved for offerings to Jupiter. It presents the finished wine as elegant and lively, with a long finish that reflects its landscape.

Buying

The winery's website has sections for vintages, photographs, purchasing, and a contact form.