Ribera del Duero

Overview

Spain's premier wine region alongside Rioja. Some of Spain's most premium wines are produced here. The area is so popular with tourists that even on a weekday at noon, winery reservations are fully booked. Visitors come from all over the world solely to taste wine.

What struck us most on this trip was that Ribera del Duero is essentially Denizli-Cal in Turkey. Our main goal was actually to examine this similarity, but we never imagined it would be this exact. It's literally the answer to the question: "What would Cal look like if Turkey weren't a Muslim country, or if Islam didn't prohibit wine?" The difference is that while Cal's wine route is just getting started, maybe 10 wineries total, modest annual tourist numbers, Ribera del Duero has 300 wineries receiving over 300,000 visitors a year. An enormous revenue source for the region.

Turkey probably utilizes at most 10% of its tourism potential. There are so many lessons to learn from countries like Italy and Spain, which share our soil composition and history.