World’s Best Vineyards has unveiled the very best wine tourism destinations across the globe in a ceremony that took place on 20 September at Schloss Johannisberg, Rheingau, Germany. The countdown of the Top 50 vineyards was announced in a hybrid event combining a real-life ceremony and digital live film to showcase the world’s best and most unique vineyards.
Argentina’s Zuccardi Valle de Uco topped the list, making it a hat trick of celebrations for the Andean winery. The stunning Bodegas de los Herederos del Marques de Riscal in Spain’s Rioja region took second place, and was closely followed by Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux, France. The 2021 Top 50 vineyards represent 16 countries and includes first-time entrants onto the list from Lebanon and Russia.
The World’s Best Vineyards list aims to highlight the sheer diversity across both established and emerging wine tourism destinations and the list is voted by the Academy of 600 global wine and travel experts. This year saw 10 new destinations in the Top 50 with Karam Wines in Lebanon becoming the highest new entry and reaching number 14 in the list. There are two new Russian entries from the Krasnodar region with Sikory Winery famous for its rocky clay soil entering the list for the first time at number 20 and the Lefkadia Valley hitting number 23.
Karam Wines, Lebanon, won the 2021 Asia Continent Winner and the highest new entry In the opening speech of the ceremony, Andrew Reed, Managing Director Wine and Exhibitions at William Reed, highlighted that, ‘Wine tourism is hugely important to the global economy and local economies, creating jobs directly at the wineries but also encouraging visitors to the area and the associated revenue which that generates. This is more important than ever with the recent global situation, and we know that by shining the light on wine tourism as we do with the World’s Best
Vineyards the message gets out to more people to come and discover the uniqueness of wine and where it is made.’
Steffen Schindler, this year’s partner from Wines of Germany commented ‘We’d like to thank the organisers and the masterminds behind these awards for raising awareness of wine tourism worldwide and in Germany, of course. Wine tourism has become a very important economic pillar for many of our wine estates, and we know that the most loyal customers are those that have come to our estates and our wine regions in person.’