Pincerna, which won a double, Vinícola Valmadrigal, El Sueño de las Alforjas, Ángel Peláez, Cien Cepas and Cooperativa Los Oteros shared the rest of the prizes

The awards ceremony for the best wines on the last day, once again with a high work intensity for the fifteen participating wineries, brought to an end the twenty-third edition of the León Designation of Origin Wine Fair, which was held for three days in the Jardín de los Patos in Valencia de Don Juan, the headquarters of the Regulatory Council. Once again, as has been the case every last weekend of July since the first edition in 2000, with two interruptions due to health requirements, the number of visitors once again exceeded the best expectations with a new record.

The presence of the Nostra Notte dj’s on the long Friday night attracted an even younger public profile than usual on the first day, although it was on the second day when the fair was more crowded, attracted by the quality of the almost eighty wines offered by the wineries: whites, especially of the Albarín variety, and rosés and reds, both young and aged, of Prieto Picudo. In some of the fifteen stands, for the second year, the highly appreciated semi-sweet white wines with low alcohol content and higher sugar content could be enjoyed, after the León Designation of Origin modified its specifications to include them in its list of certified wines.

A lively beauty bar and a workshop to personalise glasses were the two great novelties of this edition of the fair, the demonstration of graffiti art on barrels aroused great interest and the family character of the fair was provided, once again this year, by the Coyanzachef Junior entertainment, in which
children put their ingenuity and culinary art to the test. And the solidarity aspect was once again the protagonist of Alcordanza, the association of relatives and Alzheimer’s patients from Valencia de Don Juan and its region, which is already a regular feature in this type of activities in the León Designation of Origin. The offer
of water, hot dogs, waffles and a small selection of sweets allowed the association to raise funds to contribute to the financing of its important and important social work.

AWARDED WINES

The awards ceremony for the best wines of the fair – sixty-five samples took part, of which twenty, five per category, were classified in a pre-qualifying round for the final – brought the third day to a close. The award-winning wineries and wines were the following in the white category, all of them from the Albarín variety: 1. Pardevalles Carroleón (Pardevalles-Valdevimbre); 2. Pardevalles, from the same winery, and 3. Pincerna (Pincerna-Grajal de Campos). Senoel (Ángel Peláez-Grajal de la Ribera); 2. Pincerna (Pincerna-Grajal de Campos) and 3. Auterolo (Cooperativa Los Oteros-Pajares de los Oteros). In young reds, the podium was occupied by these wines and winemakers: 1. Tal cual (El Sueño de las Alforjas-Valdevimbre); 2. Pardevalles 2024 (Pardevalles-Valdevimbre) and 3. Pardevalles 2023, from the same winery. The best crianza reds, also of the reference variety of the León DO, were: 1. Babia (Bodega Valmadrigal-Castrotierra de Valmadrigal); 2. 100 Cepas (Cien Cepas-Corbillos de los Oteros); and 3. Pardevalles Carroleón, again from the Alonso family winery in Valdevimbre.