The oenologist and agricultural engineer, Juan Antonio Leza, at the head of the GÓMEZ CRUZADO winery participated in the round table discussion "3 Keys to Wine Tourism: Challenges, Reality and Profitability" at the 14th Seminar on Quality in the Rioja Alta town of Uruñuela. Leza advocated for wine tourism to be considered a complementary business, separate from the winery itself, with its own business plan and well-equipped by a professional staff and the necessary means, and with ample opening hours that meet travelers’ needs
Vintner and oenologist Juan Antonio Leza, at the helm of GÓMEZ CRUZADO, spoke in the classrooms of the Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences at the BASQUE CULINARY CENTER (BCC) in San Sebastian – an institution of international acclaim – about the revitalization of GÓMEZ CRUZADO, the century-old winery in Haro’s Barrio de la Estación. He promotes a model of wine that embodies a way of life and advocates for constructing a narrative around wine. All this to reclaim wine’s cultural value, connection with the land and role as an expression of people’s lives, transmitted with integrity in the value chain, and surpassing "the simple defining of organoleptic characteristics".
Master of Wine and British journalist TIM ATKIN has returned to Rioja to publish his "deliberately controversial" fourth annual report on the region. Atkin tasted a total of 1,100 wines from 234 wineries to create this report which awards GÓMEZ CRUZADO wines MONTES OBARENES 2015 96 points, and both CERRO LAS CUEVAS 2015 and PANCRUDO 2016 95 points, thereby situating these wines among Rioja's best “wines of the year”. The Master of Wine has also honored this century-old winery in Haro’s Barrio de la Estación by deeming it second growth according the Bordeaux classification. This classification is based on criteria regarding quality and recognizes the progress of GÓMEZ CRUZADO under the leadership of David González and Juan Antonio Leza in recent years.
Gómez Cruzado will once again host the internationally renowned wine education courses of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Vintage Class, the authorized provider of WSET courses in Spain, returns to Haro to offer the Intermediate Level course and the Advanced Level course in English and Spanish in January, February, March, May and June of 2019. Dutch Master of Wine (MW) Frank Smulders and Diego Bonnel, who holds the WSET Diploma, will teach the Advanced Level 3 course in English and Spanish, respectively.
