Wine tourism on the Costa Brava
The ACEVIN Wine Routes of Spain project in the counties of Girona and the Empordà Wine Tourism Guide boost the Costa Brava destination.
MARCH 2014
The Wine Routes of Spain project of the ACEVIN (Spanish Association of Wine Cities) in the counties of Girona and the Empordà Wine Tourism Guide (Guia d’enoturisme de l’Empordà), by Lluís Tolosa, were presented at the headquarters of the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona on 7th February.
The Patronat de Turisme and Girona Provincial Council have boosted the development of wine tourism in the area by joining the Wine Routes of Spain project of the ACEVIN (Spanish Association of Wine Cities) and are collaborating with the DO Empordà Regulatory Council in structuring a solid and specific high quality tourism offer for a market segment interested in wine, agro-food and environmental matters.
The inclusion in the Wine Routes of Spain project will contribute to enabling this wine and cava-producing area, with its own distinct identity and DO seal, to develop the structuring of its wine tourism product and to obtain the Wine Route seal awarded by the ACEVIN once it has been audited and meets the stipulated regulatory requirements: sustainability of the activity, quality control systems, infrastructures, environmental measures, specific offer (wineries, restaurants, accommodation, activities, products, theme-based leisure, businesses, inbound agencies, etc.), among others.
Girona Provincial Council has joined the Wine Routes of Spain scheme (in which local councils and autonomous communities participate) under the leadership and management of the Patronat de Turisme. Obtaining the Wine Routes certification will boost the area in terms of publicity, promotion and marketing since the destination will benefit from the association's annual Action Plan.
Meanwhile, the Empordà Wine Tourism Guide, by Lluís Tolosa, has received the Gourmand award for Spain's Best Wine Tourism Guide. More than 5,000 books from over 100 different countries are judged every year in France's prestigious Gourmand awards, the world's most important awards for cooking, food and wine books.
The Empordà Wine Tourism Guide, 224 pages long, aims to serve as a practical guide for readers and visitors to the area, covering 136 places for enjoying wine tourism. Furthermore, it includes 41 wineries to visit in Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà, a selection of 215 recommended wines, including DO Empordà wines and others from the Girona area, 54 recommended hotels and restaurants that serve Empordà wine and more than forty suggestions for wine-related cultural visits: wine museums, cork stopper factories, wine monasteries and archaeological sites to discover the history of wine, among others.
