It brings together local action groups, town councils, organisations, wineries, hotel and tourism operators and agri-food producers to set up the association that will apply for certification as an enotourism territory

Four local action groups, town councils, winemakers, tourism and hotel and catering operators, related entities and associations, foundations and agri-food producers took part in the founding assembly, held in Valencia de Don Juan, of the León Wine Route Association and its board of directors, as well as for the approval of its statutes. The Regulatory Council brought together the four local action groups operating in the territory -Poeda, Adescas, Montañas del Teleno and Adri Valladolid Norte-, ten town councils from the south and southeast of the province, thirteen wineries affiliated to the DO León, the president of the Provincial Association of Agri-food Producers, owners of accommodation and restaurants and representatives of the foundations Los Oteros and Rehabitar.

The new association, created under the auspices of the Regulatory Council of the León Designation of Origin as a purely promotional and channelling actor of the project, will immediately apply for the certification of the wine-growing territory of the south of the province and the north of Valladolid as a Wine Route by the Spanish Association of Wine Cities (Acevin). It will also manage its financing and will constitute in a new assembly, once the certification has been achieved, its new governing body, will define the management model and the brand of the tourist product and will establish the annual quotas by strata to be contributed by all the members according to their financing possibilities.

The board of directors of the León Wine Route Association, which is temporarily headed by the president of the Regulatory Council of the León Designation of Origin, Rafael Blanco, includes the four local action groups, the Gordoncillo Town Council as a full member of Acevin since 2010, two hoteliers -restauration and accommodation-, two winemakers, a president of a cooperative representing the three wine societies and the winegrowers and a tour operator and guide who assume the widest possible territorial and sectorial participation.

In addition, the assembly empowered the new board of directors to move forward in the negotiations, already underway, with the recently formed Prieto Picudo Wine Route Association, to unify their projects. In this sense, Rafael Blanco publicly thanked its president, Alberto Magdaleno, Mayor of Mayorga and also vice-president of Adri Valladolid Norte, for the good disposition and harmony reached and appealed to the “social responsibility on the territory and its inhabitants and on its labour and economic development on both sides so that this unification can be achieved”.

Rutas del Vino de España, which groups together those of the whole country, is a project financed and promoted by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism through the Secretary of State for Tourism and a tourist product designed to help travellers discover different territories and attractions. They are located in 36 wine-growing areas that have been working for years under the tutelage of the state administration and Acevin to generate memorable experiences for travellers seeking a new concept of tourism based on the culture of wine. In short, it is a broad and complex tourist offer with a network of business and public-private cooperation that integrates both specific tourist and hotel companies and others whose sectors have traditionally been far from tourism (wineries, wine shops, specialised shops, etc.). It also incorporates the local administrations of the area as managers of a large part of the values and resources of each territory.

DO León