The Somontano Wine Route has been chosen as a finalist in the third edition of the International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards in Spain. It has been awarded in the Best Wine Tourism Experience category. With more than three decades of history and great prestige in the United Kingdom. These awards recognize professionals who are part of the path that brings wine to the public.
The Wine Route, thanks to the experience of Family Wine Tourism, will compete with Pagos del Rey Museo del Vino, Martin Códax and Pago de Carraovejas.
For this reason, this innovative family wine tourism experience is of quality. It is for the Somontano Wine Route a way to differentiate itself from other wine tourism proposals. It has allowed it to be the first Wine Route in Spain.
A jury of proven worth to award Somontano
From among the more than 250 participants, the finalists of each of the 16 categories and 2 special prizes have been selected. The person in charge of this has been a jury chaired by Pedro Ballesteros and the Master of Wine.
We can highlight Charles Metcalfe, co-president and founder of International Wine Challenge UK. Also Angela Mount, journalist, writer and wine expert. Or Fernando Mora, Master of Wine; Likewise, Ángel Riesgo, former president of DDB Spain and DDB Latina; and even Joxe Mari Aizega, director of the Basque Culinary Center.
There is also María José Huertas, sommelier at the Terraza del Casino restaurant in Madrid and winner of the IWC Best Wine List 2017. Ferrán Centelles, part of the El Bulli team of sommeliers between 2000 and 2011 and director of the Bullifoundation drinks game; and José Luis Benítez, general director of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV).
In the 2017 edition, the award in the category of best wine tourism experience went to the Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture. In the previous one, the Tasting of the Barrio de la Estación was awarded.
The Family Wine Tourism project
Specifically, the Family Wine Tourism project on the Somontano Wine Route. It was created in 2017 with the aim of fragmenting the tourism product. It offers an experience to parents and a specific one for children. In this way, families share the same experience but each one can enjoy it more and better.
It is not about entertaining, but about involving the child in all phases of their journey. Transmitting at the same time some notions about wine and gastronomic culture.
It was decided to create a children's wine tourism guide as the main axis and around it, articulate other materials and proposals. Thus the Somontano Wine Route creates a complete guide for children. To do this, it relies on the experience of the writer Sandra Araguás and the Illustrator David Guirao. The guide does not skimp on ethnographic information. and scientific. All of it transmitted in a playful and adapted way with a childish approach and language.
Rural accommodation is of vital importance
In this way, the wine tourism guide can be found in all the accommodations on the Somontano Wine Route. It is given to the children upon arrival in the territory as the starting point of their journey.
In addition, in the wineries of the Somontano Wine Route, children can enjoy a visit adapted for them. Thanks to the Wine Tourism Guide and some educational cards, they are helped to understand the wine-making process.
The visit to the winery ends with a must tasting. Along with the guides and files, some activity tablecloths are published, accompanied by some boxes of paintings. This gift is given to children in the restaurants of the Somontano Wine Route.
Tablecloths with educational activities that seek to promote gastronomic culture among children and generate a quality tourist experience for the whole family.
