Cariñena will compete in October to become the European City of Wine 2025

Cariñena could become a wine icon in Europe. The town will officially present its candidacy to be European City of Wine 2025 on September 7, a decision that will be made next October in Brussels where it will compete with the Valencian city of Requena. This initiative is promoted by Recevin (European Network of Wine Cities), which brings together more than 600 cities from eleven European countries in which wine is the main hallmark.

This entity was created in 2009 and its objectives include defending the wealth of wine-growing regions, strengthening their presence and role within European institutions and creating synergies between these cities and relevant associations such as the Assembly of European Wine Regions (AREV) or the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). In 2024, the title went to the region of Alto Piedmont and Gran Monferrato (Italy) and in 2023 this title went to the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Douro, a region in the Douro area, in northern Portugal.

SUPPORT FROM THE ARAGON GOVERNMENT

To support this candidacy, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, Javier Rincón, and the Minister of the Environment, Manuel Blasco, came to the town on Wednesday. “Support for everything related to the wine sector is something that has already been traditional. The Cariñena Designation of Origin has a multi-year subsidy of around 300,000 euros for 2023 and 2024 and, in addition, there is a line of just over two million for all the designations, lines of promotion of wine in third countries”, Rincón recalled.

For his part, the Minister of the Environment wanted to highlight the courage of Cariñena to “start competing at a European level” and stressed the support of the Executive. “This sector must have the support of the Government not only in the food issue, but also from the tourism point of view. An example of this is wine tourism, which is already part of tourism in Aragon ,” said Blasco.

The Mayor of Cariñena, Sergio Ortiz, has expressed his gratitude for this support. He believes that having the Government of Aragon is “a boost” for the town’s candidacy. “ We are very optimistic because a great deal of work is being done and we are receiving a lot of support from institutions, town councils, federations and associations. We are going to put forward a full programme of events for the presentation of the candidacy in September, which is very important,” Ortiz stressed.

A LAND OF MILLENNIAL TRADITION

An idea that has been highlighted by the president of the Regulatory Council of the Cariñena Designation of Origin, Antonio Ubide. “We are going to try to bring all the activities we can to Cariñena, such as the General Assembly of the sectoral conference of regulatory councils, the general assembly of the Spanish Wine Federation, or that of wine cooperatives, among others.”

“Cariñena has had vineyards and wine for thousands of years, because we have greatly contributed to the development of the sector. We are an area with a thousand-year-old tradition and we have always claimed wine as an instrument of territorial development and of the region, not only as a wine-producing area, but in other aspects,” concluded Ubide.