The Great Wine Capitals, a network of cities located in or near leading wine producing regions that shares international best practices to advance standards in wine tourism across the world, announced the 2013 international ‘Best Of Wine Tourism’ award winners at a gala event on November 8 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy. Leading wine and tourism professionals from around the world attended the event.
The international winners were chosen from among 55 nominees, all locally awarded ‘Best Of’ winners. The nine participating cities and wine regions of the GWC gathered a total of 398 applications.
Nine International Awards:
• Art and Culture: France’s Maison des Vins de Cadillac, a leading Bordeaux winery group for its new Vines and Wines Museum, housed in La Closière, an attractive 18th century manor house.
cadillaccotesdebordeaux.com
• Architecture and Landscapes: Wasems Kloster Engelthal, a former Cistercian monastery in Rheinhessen, Germany, dating back eight centuries.
wasem.de
• Architecture and Landscapes: Quinta do Vallado Wine Hotel, one of the oldest estates in the Douro Valley of Portugal, run by the same famiy for almost 400 years.
quintadovallado.com
• Accommodation: Spain’s Hotel-Bodega Finca de los Arandinos, in Rioja. The famous Spanish fashion designer David Delfín created the hotel decoration and the restaurant was voted one of the top 20 hotel restaurants in Spain.
fincadelosarandinos.com/index.php/es
• Accommodation: Italy’s Fattoria Lavacchio, run as an organic operation in Tuscany.
fattorialavacchio.com
• Innovative Experiences: Entre Cielos Luxury Wine Hotel & Spa in the foothills of the Andes Cordillera of Argentina.
entrecielos.com
• Innovative Experiences: The organically farmed Long Meadow Ranch, nestled in the Mayacamas Mountains of the Napa Valley in California.
longmeadowranch.com
• Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices: Renowned Yealands Estate in the Awatere Valley of Marlborough, New Zealand, a carbon-zero winery that has been one of the world leaders in sustainable farming.
yealandsestate.co.nz
• Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices: La Motte Wine Estate in South Africa’s Franschhoek Valley where a sensitive ecosystem of fynbos has been rehabilitated and all farming is organic.
la-motte.com
About the Great Wine Capitals Global Network
Founded in 1999, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network is an alliance of nine internationally renowned wine regions – Bordeaux, France; Cape Town, South Africa; Christchurch-South Island, New Zealand; Florence, Italy; Mainz-Rheinhessen, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; Porto, Portugal; Bilbao-Rioja, Spain and San Francisco-Napa Valley, USA. The Best Of Wine Tourism awards serve as an industry benchmark for excellence and recognize leading wineries and wine-tourism related businesses within each Great Wine Capital that have distinguished themselves in areas such as innovation, service and sustainable practices.
For more information visit greatwinecapitals.com.
Written by Decanter
