Abadía da Cova
Ribeira Sacra is one of the most stunning vineyard landscapes in the world…
In the heart of Galicia, in Northwestern Spain, deep canyons and ancient terraced vineyards conceal medieval Romanesque churches and monasteries built by religious orders searching for an isolated place to pray. People have been growing grapes in much the same way here for centuries. The landscape makes farming extremely difficult, as the grade is so steep and the terraces so narrow that mechanization is impossible. All the work in the vineyards, from pruning to harvest, is done by hand.
Abadía da Cova is a family winery located in A Cova, a small village on the banks of the Miño River. The winery is led by siblings Paloma and Adrián Rodríguez Moure and their cousin José Moure, all of whom grew up among the vine-covered slopes where their family has been making wine for over a century. Abadía da Cova takes its name from a monastery, or abadía, that once stood in the village and holds deep family significance as the birthplace of their great-grandmother. For generations, the family has again and again invested emotionally and financially in this secluded region, becoming as much a part of the landscape as its iconic river valleys.
At the turn of the 20th century, Baldomero Moure Pérez left his tiny village on the banks of the Miño…
He was bound for Cuba, during a wave of emigration in which huge numbers of people left rural, interior Galicia in search of a better life. Unlike many emigrants who chose to stay in their adoptive countries, Baldomero eventually returned home with his hard-earned savings to the village of A Cova, where he met his wife Carmen. When she inherited a small plot of land with a vineyard, Baldomero bought several neighboring vineyard plots and began making wine, laying the foundation for a family legacy that endures to this day.
By the time Baldomero’s son, José “Pepe” Moure, took the reins in the 1950s, the family was already selling their wines locally and had developed a reputation as the best distillers of orujo, Galician pomace brandy. Pepe was a visionary—he and his wife Ana officially founded Adegas Moure in 1958, and he was among the first in the region to bottle his wines.
In the 1980s, Pepe’s sons Evaristo and Jose Manuel became the first generation to study at university. Full of new perspectives and determined to expand their worldviews, they traveled widely, visiting vineyards in France and the Mosel in search of winemaking innovations to bring back to their corner of Galicia. They also began the task of modernizing the winery, exchanging concrete fermentation tanks for temperature-controlled stainless steel and focusing on meticulous attention to detail in the vineyard. They named their wine Abadía da Cova. Although the winery is still listed as Adegas Moure on official forms, today nearly everyone refers to it as Abadía da Cova.
The Moure family have always been pioneers…
Whether it was using only the highest quality pomace for their distillates, being the first to introduce barrel-aging to the Ribeira Sacra, or putting their faith in traditional grape varieties like merenzao or brancellao, Abadía da Cova has been an example to follow for generations of growers, winemakers, and distillers in Ribeira Sacra. In 1995, they were instrumental in establishing the Ribeira Sacra Designation of Origin, securing recognition for their ancestral land and its incredibly special wines.
As time went on, more wineries joined the Ribeira Sacra appellation, but—with a few exceptions—the vast majority made young, mencía-based wines to be bottled immediately and shipped off in bulk to Galicia’s bars and restaurants. Unfortunately, this deleterious structure persists to this day, encouraging wineries to produce as much as possible, paying growers very little for their grapes and even leading some to cancel contracts with little notice in years of surplus wine.
In contrast to this model, Abadía da Cova works with a small group of local growers with whom they have developed deep relationships over decades, helping them to transition to organic and sustainable methods of grapegrowing. By continuing to work with these local growers even as they explore the potential of their estate vineyards, Abadía da Cova aims to actively encourage residents to stay in the Ribeira Sacra and create a sustainable model of rural life.
Now, it’s Paloma, Adrián, and José’s turn.
The vision of a young Baldomero has been passed down through this humble and hardworking family, and the fourth generation of Abadía da Cova is determined to honor the past while being pioneers in their own right. They took over in 2006, and began to bring their own vision and talents to the table. As with each preceding generation, they have a foundational commitment to Ribera Sacra, as both a winemaking and cultural region.
They practice organic farming wherever possible within Galicia’s humid climate, using weather stations in the vineyard to track conditions on the ground, and they have also enrolled Abadía da Cova in several international Living Soils projects (learn more here). The trio share responsibilities in the vineyard and winery, each doing many jobs to keep the family business running smoothly. Paloma is in charge of the family’s award-winning wine tourism initiative, which aims to tell visitors the story of Ribeira Sacra’s heroic viticulture and winemaking tradition while impressing on them the need to conserve the surroundings for future generations.
As they say, making great wine requires many hands, a shared passion, and a deep sense of belonging. The Moure family’s goal is simple but ambitious: to continue shaping the story of Ribeira Sacra by crafting the best possible expressions of these incredible vineyards and preserve the land that has supported them for the generations to come.
