History
Our wine-growing tradition
Even though the origin of our wines dates back to the Roman period, the
monasteries of the Middle Ages in Galicia were in charge of its expansion,
above all, in our case, the one of Oia for being located in the subarea
of O Rosal. Here it was where monks of the Cistercian
Order brought their methods of wine growing and soon started to be interested
in the opportunities that the lands of the Baixo Miño offered for
the vineyard. With the grapes, they obtained wine to be presented in their
religious rituals and also to be sold among the noble and middle class families
for a regular consumption. Humble people also drank wine for occasional
celebrations.
Therefore, the abbots of the Monastery of Oia were the ones who introduced
the basis of our enology through their practices and adaptation of varieties.
Hence, century after century, year after year and generation after generation,
wine growing has always been an essential activity in the lives of our folks,
who know better than anyone the great potential given by their privileged
plots and special microclimate, so favourable for such a labour.
Like in other country activities, the ones related to viticulture meant
cooperation among all the neighbours of the little villages of O
Rosal. During the grape harvest, the so-called “parish
groups” gathered together to help, to share and definitively, to set
friendship and companionship ties and to enjoy something that was so of
their own and so deep-rooted.
Rural houses and cellars were undividable and it was such a blending that
it could be difficult to think about them separately. There, winepresses
waited anxiously for pressing the grapes that had been harvested with so
much care while barrels welcomed the first musts.
The work of our parents
and grandparents usually involved significant efforts but the fulfilment
of proving the good results obtained was for them much better.
With this principle in mind and with the wines always elaborated in our
cellars by our families, TORROXAL was born, as the
return and reflection of those reds and whites that were tasted in the houses,
festivities and old taverns of O Rosal.
Only being aware of our culture and customs, we could
know our aims and where we were heading for.
We thought that the best tribute we could pay to our people was to perpetuate
and keep alive what they had maintained for years with the greatest care
and affection and not to forget what has always identified us as people,
by recovering local varieties that were about disappearing and giving them
the prestige and quality they deserve.
Only in this way, by means of a philosophy based on tenacity
and seriousness, we could start this project, full of hopefulness
and longing and which had been kept for so many years in the minds of the
ones that nowadays constitute the team of Torroxal.