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Spanish Winemakers Successfully Petition Against Ribera del Duero Highway Expansion

Wine producers claimed that widening the road would increase pollution, while a wall to be built along it would have hurt business

Jacob Gaffney

Posted: Friday, December 21, 2007

A proposal to expand the N-122, the two-lane road cutting through the heart of the Ribera del Duero wine region, has been put on hold. Wine producers, journalists and local politicians successfully petitioned to stop a plan by the Ministerio de Fomento (Ministry of Public Works) to expand the N-122 from two lanes to four and add an 8-foot-high border wall, at a cost of more than $222 million. The petitioners argued that the expanded road would not only harm their current business, but also adversely impact developing businesses as well as the environment.

The Ribera del Duero, in the northwest of Spain, is home to some of the finest Tempranillo-based wines in Spain, called Tinto Fino, locally. The most prestigious vineyards sit in an area sometimes called the "Golden Mile." For many wineries in this area, such as Vega Sicilia, the N-122 divides their vineyard land, so the producers must regularly drive tractors—and move other equipment—across the road. The proposed wall would have blocked off producers' access to their vineyards on the other side of the road, as the wall would have had openings only at the major towns of Valladolid and Soria, at opposite ends of the valley.

"It's a complicated thing, as the highway goes across rivers and cuts through forests," said Donald Cusimano, general director at Abadia Retuerta, a major supporter of the petition. Cusimano added that the proposed expansion would have cut off the winery from its direct access to the main road. This would be particularly damaging to Abadia Retuerta, he said, as it is in the middle of refurbishing the monastery on the property in order to create a 25-room hotel and restaurant, and possibly a spa, which will open to the public in about two years.

The Spanish government still intends to build one large highway that will cross Spain from Catalonia to Portugal, called the Autovía del Duero (A11), the proposal for which included the N-122 expansion, as it will form part of the new highway. However, the government now intends to outsource its choice of a new route to a yet-to-be-named consultant, which will perform an environmental-impact study and meet with the region's wine producers before drawing up new plans, sometime in the next 16 months. Area wine producers stated that they will push for construction of a new highway on the north bank of the Duero, away from the vineyards on the south side, leaving the N-122 as it is.

"We are anxious to meet the private company that will be responsible for drawing out the new, alternative route," Cusimano said.

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