DO Monterrei is the smallest of the Galician DOs and the most recent, having been created in 1996. It is an emerging region located in the province of Ourense in the south-east of Galicia, on the border with Portugal. The Atlantic influence here is not as strong and the climate is hotter and more continental than the rest of Galicia, making it possible to produce impressive whites from Treixadura and Godello as well as reds from autochtonous Mencia. Most of the vineyards are located on the slopes lining the River Támega where the soil has a deep red colour with a high clay content. After spending many years working for other wineries in the area around Galicia, Manuel Guerra Justo decided to break away and set up his own adega, “Via Arxentea”, literally translated as “ The Silver Route”, the local name for the important pilgrimage route of El Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela. Manuel Guerra is a “Colleitero” and therefore responsible for the entire production cycle, from the care in the vineyard to the winemaking. He is the first to acknowledge that the secret to achieving purity and varietal expression in his wines is in his vineyard management which he attends to personally and pampers vine by vine as if they were his own children, with the sole objective of achieving maximum quality. Under the consultancy of well known winemaker, Alvaro Bueno, Manuel Guerra Justo owns four hectares around Verin, planted almost equally between Godello and Treixadura and a small batch of Mencia. Vía Arxentea wine are made from estate bottled fruit, harvested by hand and fermented using indigenous yeasts.