Tampesta and El Sueño de las Alforjas in whites and Pardevalles and Vitis Velado in rosés were awarded the highest distinctions in their categories in a talismanic competition for León wineries.

Four wines from wineries belonging to the León Designation of Origin were awarded four gold medals at the eighteenth edition of the International Wine Competition-Awards Vinduero-Vindouro, which is organised annually in the Salamanca town of Trabanca, located in the Arribes del Duero and bordering Portugal. In addition, all of them exceeded 90 points out of 100, the out of 100, the limit for oenological excellence, in a blind tasting carried out by a panel made up of sixty highly renowned and prestigious specialists. The 2022 edition of the The 2022 edition of the most important competition of all those held in both countries was attended by more than a thousand wines representing seventy geographical mentions and protected designations of origin from the wine-growing territories of Spain and Portugal, two countries that are twinned annually at this event.

The award-winning wines and wineries in this case were the Neko 2021 Godello (Bodega Tampesta – Andrés Marcos, from Valdevimbre), in the category of un-oaked whites (90.40 points), and the albarín
Cascabel 2020 (El Sueño de las Alforjas-Valdevimbre), in the range of oaked whites (91.10), as well as the rosés Pardevalles 2021 and Canalla Rosé (Vitis Velado-Castrotierra de Valmadrigal), with 90.81 and 90.80 points respectively, both in the final selection of rosés.

In addition to these extraordinary acknowledgements, two gold medals were awarded to two of these wines from the León Designation of Origin by the jury of En Femenino -only the scores of the women who make up this large general panel of international tasters are considered- which went to Neko 2021 (90.60 points) -a white made from the Godello variety, which is also the main white variety- and Canalla Rosé (91.80).

Vinduero-Vindouro is already a talismanic competition for the Control Board and the wines certified by the León Designation of Origin, which in the 2021 edition received the Arribe de Platino as the best rosé producer -it had already been a finalist in the previous one-, also endorsed so far this year by a long string of awards in major national and international wine competitions. Its rosé wines received two gold medals and three silver medals in the 2019 competition, as well as another two silvers for an albarín and a red; one gold and five silvers in 2010 and, finally, three golds and a silver in 2021, when one of its wines, the Pardevalles from the winery of the same name, was also distinguished as the best rosé of all those entered in the competition.

The results obtained in this and other major international competitions by white, rosé and red wines made from the indigenous grape varieties Albarín and Prieto Picudo demonstrate the enormous potential of the two grape varieties that are an absolute reference for the León Designation of Origin and their significant progress in gaining prestige among international critics.

The success of the Spanish-Portuguese competition lies in the good organisation and the combination of the unquestionable quality of the wines that are presented and the rigour and professionalism of a great team and a list of internationally renowned tasters, as well as the repercussion that the competition guarantees. All this makes the competition one of the top monographic competitions and represents a leap towards internationalisation and a sure bet for the promotion of the participating wines worldwide.

DO León