EUWINA Media Study Trip to Greece and DO La Mancha (Spain)

In September, a selected group of trade media representatives travelled to DO La Mancha and Greece to learn firsthand the characteristics, PDO/PGI and main grapes produced in those areas.

The trip started in Spain with a presentation of DO La Mancha area in the offices of the Consejo Regulador followed by a cooking demonstration. During the following days, the group went to different wineries across the whole area and visited not only their facilities, but also the vineyard.

After DO La Mancha, the group travelled to Greece to visit some key wine production areas in the country and visited different wineries.  At night, the group had dinner with the representatives of the wineries they visited that day, to chat more casually.

The wineries visited the following wineries:

DO LA MANCHA

1.Cooperativa Manjavacas

2.Bodegas Centro Españolas

3.Virgen de las Viñas Bodega y Almazara

4.Bodega El Vinculo

GREECE

1.Domaine Costa Lazaridi

2.Ktima Avantis

3.Samos Cooperative

4.Zitsa Winery

Know our 3 beneficiaries!

D.O.La Mancha is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) for wines, with over 190,000 hectares planted to vines, and it is the largest continuous vine-growing area in the world. It is located in the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain. La Mancha has a vast wine-growing tradition, which, added to a series of characteristic geological, geographical and climatic elements that define it, make it an ideal territory to produce excellent grapes and subsequently give life to great wines, with very peculiar nuances. La Mancha wines are today among the most exquisite and prestigious in the world, they are tasted throughout Spain and also exported to the five continents, turning Castilla-La Mancha into the leading Autonomous Region of Spain in terms of wine exports in volume.

The Unione Consorzi Vini Veneti–U.VI.VE. was set up thirty years ago involving almost all the region’s Consorzi di Tutela (wine protection consortia). A far-sighted decision that has produced results over time. The U.VI.VE.’s main role is to represent Veneto’s DOC wine sector. Through the consortia, it coordinates the crucial monitoring and control activities of the production and marketing of Veneto DOC and DOCG wines, also with the aim of combating fraud and abuse affecting designations of origin and consortium brands. This protection ranges from guarantees for traceability to winemaking using traditional methods. Strict controls cover every single step of the entire wine-production chain, from the vineyard to the shop shelf.

National Interprofessional Organization of Vine and Wine of Greece. Greece has arguably one of the longest wine histories in the world as wine has always been an integral part of Greek culture since antiquity. Greece might not be the first country to produce wine, but what can be attributed to Ancient Greece is the development of a culture encompassing all aspects of wine: vine growing, production, legislation, trading, and, of course, the art of consuming wine. Despite their huge heritage, the Wines of Greece can promote themselves solely by virtue of their present attributes and not past glories. In the last three decades, a wind of change has been blowing through Greek wine production, turning a relatively traditional agricultural sector into a cutting-edge entity in today’s wine world. Greek producers have invested heavily in people, education, know-how, and technology, starting a steep learning curve.