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13 febrero 2025

Four routes to discover the best wines of Aragon

Wine can not only be enjoyed in a glass. The Aragonese designations of origin have an interesting offer that brings together tourism, gastronomy, heritage and nature around this product. If you are a wine lover, you will love this proposal.

Aragon has five wine designations of origin. Four of them correspond to wine (Calatayud, Campo de Borja, Cariñena and Somontano) and the other one to Vino de Pago (Aylés). Each of the first four has a route to get to know the landscape, gastronomy, culture and tradition of the areas where grapes are grown and harvested and wine is made. A perfect way to combine tourism and gastronomy that we want you to know. These are the wine routes of Aragon.

Calatayud Wine Route

Calatayud is one of the highest altitude wine-growing areas in Spain, famous for its centuries-old vineyards. But, in addition, the wine route will allow you to know an area of great heritage wealth, headed by its Mudejar art, declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO, or natural areas as emblematic as the Monasterio de Piedra.

Among the activities included in the Calatayud wine route are, of course, visits to many of its wineries and vineyards. In some of them, in addition to participating in tastings, you can even stay for lunch to pair the dishes with the product you have just seen. A unique gastronomic experience.

You can also visit the DOP Calatayud wine museum or become a winemaker for a day by making an exclusive wine, adapted to your taste preferences. Advised by a team of experts, you will choose the flavor you prefer, the bottling and even the label. A wine made to your specifications.

The Calatayud wine route also offers visitors wine therapy experiences. Wine bath treatments, massages, exfoliation or facial treatments so that you can check that the benefits of this drink are not only limited to the table.

In addition, several hotels and restaurants collaborate with this initiative, offering activity packages around the appellation of origin.

Our gastronomic proposal for the area: Casa Escartín.

Recognized by the Michelin Guide for its quality, this family house in Calatayud takes care of the products and flavors of its cuisine to the millimeter. The chef, the owner’s son, is gradually updating his father’s traditional recipes.

Campo de Borja wine route

It is the second appellation of origin of Aragon in terms of surface area, and offers wines with full body and fruity aromas. Its wine route is known as the garnacha route in honor of the most common variety in this wine-growing area, and includes visits to wineries and experiences in nature, such as cycling, horseback riding or hiking to discover the cultural and natural wealth of the region.

Its tourist offer also includes activities such as bird watching, canoeing down the Ebro, dog sledding, ultralight flights to observe the vineyards from a bird’s eye view or astronomy experiences in which to look for Dionysus and Bacchus, gods of wine, in the firmament.

And of course, like the rest of the routes, the Campo de Borja route also offers interesting hospitality experiences, with a wide range of restaurants and accommodation.

Our gastronomic proposal: El Rodi (Fuendejalón).

Here it is possible to evoke the old Grenache vines, the aromas of Moncayo and the flavors of traditional Aragonese cuisine. Known for making Fuendejalón garnacha wine marzipan or garnacha salt, they have recently been awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for the «capacity for innovation in the preparation of dishes and products based on local wine». Not to be missed if we are talking about wines from Aragón.

Cariñena Wine Route

It is the first wine appellation of origin in Aragon, and one of the best known in Spain. Its wine route revolves, logically, around its wines, but also around ceramics, Roman remains, Romanesque, Goya’s paintings and nature.

You can get to know all this heritage with visits to wineries, wine bars, or eating and staying in establishments where this beverage is the protagonist. And if you prefer to experience wine in a different way, we recommend geothermal wine therapy treatments, which combine the benefits of this beverage with the properties of the stones of the area, which are heated and cooled to use the contrast of temperatures.

Many of these activities are also included in the Cariñena Wine Route Bus, which, in addition to the wineries, also stops at emblematic landscapes, museums and interpretation centers.

If you can, try to coincide your visit to the route with the Grape Harvest Festival, which is celebrated at the end of September. You will see how the Fuente de la Mora is transformed into the Fuente del Vino (Fountain of Wine) and the wines of the appellation of origin flow from it to celebrate the beginning of the grape harvest.

Our gastronomic proposal: El Arco, in Paniza.

It is a small place, a village bar, where you will find a product of the highest quality. Its specialty is anchovies, but you can’t miss the truffled eggs or the scrambled wild mushrooms of the area. Some of the best wines of Aragon are in this area, but you will drink them with the best brines.

Somontano Wine Route

Wine is part of the history of Somontano, an area at the foot of the Pyrenees whose character is transferred to the wines produced there. Here you will find culture, heritage and nature; and thanks to the Somontano wine route you can enjoy all of this with a glass of one of its varieties in your hand.

Along with the classic visits to wineries (on foot, by bicycle or on horseback) and a wide range of restaurants and hotels that collaborate with the route, in the Somontano wine route you will find many activities in which the landscape is the protagonist. That is why «tastings with views» are organized, combining landscape and wine to delight all your senses. It is the perfect setting for, for example, a sunset for two set with a bottle of the appellation and a tasting of artisan cheeses and sausages from the area.

In addition, the Vero River Cultural Park or the Sierra de Guara are ideal places to practice adventure sports with one of the companies that collaborate with the wine route.

And to all this offer is added, in summer, the Somontano Wine Festival, four days of wine tourism proposals such as tastings, workshops and concerts that are held in parallel to a gastronomic exhibition where you can taste the products produced in the area.

Our gastronomic proposal: Trasiego Restaurant (Barbastro).

If you visit Somontanto you cannot miss the gastronomic experience in this restaurant. It has a Bib Gourmand distinction, and is perfect if your plan is dedicated to wine. The restaurant is located in the old Hospital de San Julian, built in 1900 with a renovated interior design that recreates the close relationship of this place with Somontano wine.

All the information about the wines of Aragón in Go Aragón.

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