Like every summer, this August we had the opportunity to organize wine tastings from Cantabria at the Puente Viesgo Spa. As always, a real pleasure.
The origin of this emblematic hotel and spa dates back to the 18th century, when there were already bathhouses surrounding the town's springs.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century that the first golden age took place, with such important visitors as Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, the Marquis of Comillas and Benito Perez Galdós.
After this period, a few years of decline until finally in 1990, the prestigious Cantabrian hotelier Manuel Perez Mazo acquired the property and carried out a comprehensive refurbishment of all the facilities. These years are a magnificent period in which the Spa was also chosen as a place of concentration for the Spanish Football Team before the United States World Cup in 1994.
From then until today, different expansions and renovations have taken place, always improvements with the objective of offering the highest quality facilities and an exquisite treatment to visitors.
The tastings in the summer of 2025 took place every week of August in one of the most charming areas of the Spa: the glass pergola.
We meet around 20 people every day, guests from different parts of Spain. We taste 4 wines each time: Casona Micaela, Yenda Albariño Godello, Ribera del Asón and Lusía. Wines from wineries belonging to the IGP Costa de Cantabria and in this case with a single representation of IGP Tierra de Liébana, the red wine Lusía.
The first part of the meeting included a presentation of Cantabria as a wine region, its history and its promising current situation. Then we went on to taste each of the wines, providing the information we know about them (area, grape varieties, type of production, etc.) and commenting on them in a very dynamic and participatory way.
One of the most interesting things about this type of tasting is getting to know the first impression of Cantabrian wines on the part of practically all the attendees. It is very exciting to see how the reception of our wines is broadly positive by people who have never had contact with this product from our region before. This makes us think that we have a lot to do when it comes to promoting ourselves but even more to win, being very aware of all our potential.
We look forward to organizing these interesting meetings again in the coming summers.
