In a hat tip to the Basque Country’s culinary prowess, this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards will take place in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao in June.
The Roca brothers of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona celebrate being named the World’s Best Restaurant in 2015
In recent years the ‘Oscars of the food world’ has moved from its London home, taking place in Melbourne last year and New York in 2016.
The Basque Country boasts the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita in the world, many of which regularly appear on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, including Arzak, Asador Extebarri, Mugaritz and Azurmendi.
Jeff Koons’ Flower Dog at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao
Taking place on 19 June, in addition to the awards ceremony will be a ‘chefs’ feast’, exclusively for the chefs who make it onto the list, and a series of talks from some of the world’s top chefs.
Bodegas Beronia Rioja, owned by González Byass will be the exclusive pour at the star-studded event.
“Beronia is one of the best known Riojas in the on-trade in Spain and given that the awards are taking place on the brand’s home turf, we feel that the synergies between Spain, world-famous restaurants and great Beronia wines are ideal for the brand,” said Diego Talavera, international sales director of González Byass.
“Not only does this collaboration give us the opportunity get Beronia into the glasses of the very best chefs and restaurateurs in the world, but it also fits perfectly with our marketing and promotional strategies which ally Beronia to the enjoyment of great wines with good food and good company,” Talavera added.
Beronia’s origins date back to the 1970s, when a group of Basque businessmen used to meet up to enjoy food and wine while they were in Rioja.
Such was their love of wine and gastronomy they decided to make their own wines, for which they bought some land, planted vineyards, and started to build a winery, naming it Beronia.
Eleven Madison Park in New York currently sits in the top spot of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, with Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Modena in second place and El Celler de Can Roca in Girona in third.