Luna Beberide

The winery is named after its founders: Bernardo Luna set it up in 1987 on the vineyards of his wife, Mercedes Beberide.

What he planted then were varieties from elsewhere — gewürztraminer, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot — and what the house has done since is pull them out to go back to the local ones, mencía and godello. His children, Alejandro and Merche Luna, run it today.

There are 80 hectares of estate vineyard between Cacabelos and Villafranca del Bierzo, from 400 to 900 metres. The winery is in Cacabelos and the reds age in a house in Villafranca.

Paixar began with the 2000 harvest as a joint project with the García family, of Mauro and San Román, and today it is theirs alone. It is six hectares in Dragonte, a hamlet of Corullón.

The mencía vines are over 80 years old, on terraces of decomposed slate facing south above 700 metres and planted 1.20 by 1.20 metres. It ferments destemmed in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts, ages 14 to 16 months in French oak of 225 to 500 litres and is bottled unfiltered.