Mendoza celebrated its annual 'Best Of Wine Tourism' awards ceremony on October 3 at a gala celebrated in the Hotel Intercontintental. Over 400 members of the wine trade as well as local, regional and national dignitaries attended the event, presided over by by governor of the province of Mendoza Francisco Pérez, Argentine tourism minister Enrique Meyer and the minister of tourism of Mendoza province Javier Espina.
Picture credit: Ministry of Tourism
The jury awarded 24 prizes – gold, silver and bronze in eight categories. The winners of a gold award in seven of the eight categories will compete with the winners from the other Great Wine Capitals Global Network for an international ‘Best Of Wine Tourism’ award at the Annual General Meeting of the network in Napa, California in November.
The gold award winners in each category were:
Architecture, Parks and Gardens: Bodega Los Toneles
bodegalostoneles.com/en/
Art and Culture: Antucura
bodegaantucura.com/index.php
Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences: Park Hyatt Hotel
mendoza.park.hyatt.com
Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices: Bodegas Navarro Correas
ncorreas.com
Wine Tourism Restaurant: Bodega Ruca Malen
bodegarucamalen.com
Wine Tourism Services: Josefina Rosner
josefinarosner.com.ar/en/index.html
Mendoza also recognized the efforts of small wineries to promote wine tourism, giving the gold award to Pulenta Estate.
pulentaestate.com
Governor Pérez remarked “Today Mendoza is certainly one of the most popular centers of wine tourism. Argentina is the second most popular tourist destination in South America and the province of Mendoza hosted more than 700,000 visitors last year, a priority destination for music and film festivals, sporting, cultural and adventure events. In 2013 we expect more than three million tourists.
Javier Espina commented “For us it’s a special moment to be here today at one of the most important wine events in Mendoza. The importance of wine tourism is demonstrated by the record number of candidates for the ‘Best Of’ awards because we believe that the spirit of Mendoza as a great wine capital is not competing but rather strengthening our area as a wine tourism destination”.
About the Great Wine Capitals Global Network
Founded in 1999, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network is an alliance of ten internationally renowned wine regions – Bordeaux, France; Cape Town|Cape Winelands, South Africa; Christchurch|South Island, New Zealand; Florence, Italy; Mainz|Rheinhessen, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; Porto, Portugal; Bilbao|Rioja, Spain; San Francisco|Napa Valley, USA and Valparaiso|Casablanca Valley, Chile.
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
