Minister Mrs Amaia Barredo: “The presentations of the Rioja Alavesa, Txakoli and Cider wineries in Japan have opened a great door to future exports”

• “Equally important: the presence of our wines and high-quality food products generates a growing interest in our gastronomy and our food and cultural offering of the Basque Country”
• Today, Tuesday, the Basque delegation has promoted “Basque Wine-Japan Connection” in Osaka, the third largest city in Japan with 18.6 million inhabitants.

Osaka, 2024 10 29

The Minister of Food, Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Basque Government, Mrs Amaia Barredo, believes that the presentations that 23 Rioja Alavesa, Txakoli and Cider wineries have made yesterday and today in Japan “have opened a great door to future exports of our products to that state and, what is equally important, are generating a growing interest in our gastronomy and our food and cultural offering of the Basque Country”.

Today, Tuesday, the Basque delegation that promotes the wines of Rioja Alavesa, Txakoli from Getaria, Bizkaia and Araba and Cider-Euskal Sagardoa has been the protagonist of the promotional day “Basque Wine-Japan Connection” in Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, after Tokyo and Yokohama, whose metropolitan area has a population of 18.6 million inhabitants.

Together with professionals, specialized press, and chefs such as Yoshitsugu Yamamoto and Ryusuke Nakano, Minister Amaia Barredo has explained the growing commercial, gastronomic, and cultural links between Japan and Euskadi and has participated in a “pairing” of Basque-Japanese products with wines from Rioja Alavesa, Txakoli and Cider-Euskal Sagardoa.

“Together with our almost thirty wineries and producers this morning we presented the Basque wine variety, our Basque Wine strategy, the Basque Japan Sarea and the Ambassadors programme with the corresponding signatures of adhesion to the Ambassador Chefs Programme” highlighted Amaia Barredo.

The Japanese catering, journalist, chef, and today gastronomic group has seen a demonstration of Basque haute cuisine with a preparation of grilled eels in Modena sauce and apple compote; rice with clams and “txangurro donostiarra”; Manaka de Micuit of monkfish liver with figs in cider syrup; shitake stuffed with txistorra with squid ink sauce and fresh tuna marinated in colatura; and ham croquettes accompanied by Txakoli, cider and Rioja Alavesa wines.