As consumers discover more and more about the world of wine and wine production, so the interest in wine tourism increases. Indeed, in some parts of the world, such as Australia for example, visits and cellar door sales represent an important part of the business. Of course they are completely geared up for it, and many of the larger wineries offer organised tours, complete with tour guide, plus the obligatory wine shop as you exit! Naturally with this type of organised set up the throughput of visitors (especially during the summer months), makes this oenotourism a very worthwhile operation.

In our part of the wine world our aspirations are much more modest, and certainly not as highly organised. Yes, our denomination offers maps to tourists highlighting the various wine routes around Galicia, but to be honest, that’s about as far as it goes……

Don’t get me wrong, we love to meet our end consumers, but in this instance we have opted not to appear on any of these tourist maps for several different reasons.

Firstly and most importantly, we simply do not have the resources. The job of escorting visitors around our cellar would fall to either Angela or myself  (depending on the language), and over the period of a year we already have an important number of importers, professional wine buyers and journalists visting our Bodega. Obviously these are all by appointment and we can arrange our diaries accordingly, and even possibly refuse if we are not available or out of the country.

In summer, even without appearing on the maps, we still have a huge number of casual visitors knocking on our door (especially when the weather is poor and they cannot go to the beach!) Unfortunately, 99% of the time it is impossible to accomodate these visits, as, if we said yes, we would simply spend a huge part of the summer months making guided tours. And, we don’t have a shop!!

As consumers discover more and more about the world of wine and wine production, so the interest in wine tourism increases. Indeed, in some parts of the world, such as Australia for example, visits and cellar door sales represent an important part of the business. Of course they are completely geared up for it, and many of the larger wineries offer organised tours, complete with tour guide, plus the obligatory wine shop as you exit! Naturally with this type of organised set up the throughput of visitors (especially during the summer months), makes this oenotourism a very worthwhile operation.

In our part of the wine world our aspirations are much more modest, and certainly not as highly organised. Yes, our denomination offers maps to tourists highlighting the various wine routes around Galicia, but to be honest, that’s about as far as it goes……

Don’t get me wrong, we love to meet our end consumers, but in this instance we have opted not to appear on any of these tourist maps for several different reasons.

Firstly and most importantly, we simply do not have the resources. The job of escorting visitors around our cellar would fall to either Angela or myself  (depending on the language), and over the period of a year we already have an important number of importers, professional wine buyers and journalists visting our Bodega. Obviously these are all by appointment and we can arrange our diaries accordingly, and even possibly refuse if we are not available or out of the country.

In summer, even without appearing on the maps, we still have a huge number of casual visitors knocking on our door (especially when the weather is poor and they cannot go to the beach!) Unfortunately, 99% of the time it is impossible to accomodate these visits, as, if we said yes, we would simply spend a huge part of the summer months making guided tours. And, we don’t have a shop!!