Rías Baixas Returned to Puerto Rico to Court Its No. 3 Export Market

Puerto Rico served as the final international stop of 2026 for Spain’s Rías Baixas wine appellation, as the group held a promotional event in San Juan on Thursday, November 5, aimed at one of its strongest export markets.

The event brought together nearly 100 wine professionals and opinion leaders, according to the Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin Rías Baixas. Attendees included media representatives, sommeliers, importers, influencers and other wine and food-focused tastemakers. The central activity was a showroom featuring 26 Rías Baixas wineries and more than 60 wine brands from the Atlantic-focused region in northwestern Spain.

The trip underscored the importance of Puerto Rico in the overseas business of Rías Baixas, which is best known for wines made from the Albariño grape. The appellation said Puerto Rico has held the No. 3 position in its international sales ranking for several years and kept that place in the 2025-26 campaign. During that period, sales in the market reached 620,642 liters, with a value of more than 5 million euros. More than 50 wineries from the appellation already have a presence in Puerto Rico.

Rías Baixas Secretary General Ramón Huidobro and Marketing Director Eva Mínguez traveled to the island on October 29, along with representatives of some participating wineries, to support the promotion. The council said the goal was to strengthen awareness of the wines in a market where they are already well regarded and where the denomination ranks among its leading export destinations by sales.

Before the showroom, organizers held a seminar on Rías Baixas wines. Huidobro opened the session, and Alejandro Ferris of the Academia de Sommelier de Puerto Rico led the tasting and presentation. During his introduction, Huidobro highlighted the denomination’s emphasis on native grape varieties, especially Albariño, as well as the region’s winemaking tradition, climate and landscape.

Most of the wines poured during the event came from the 2025 vintage, though participants also sampled bottles from 2024 through 2020. The lineup also included some wines from 2018 and 2016. The council noted that 2016 was the year when the Spanish appellation first visited Puerto Rico to promote its wines and provide training on the region and its production.

The San Juan event capped a year of international outreach for Rías Baixas, which has continued to focus on export markets where its white wines have gained traction with trade buyers and consumers. The Puerto Rico stop combined education and commercial promotion, two areas the appellation has used to build awareness outside Spain, particularly in markets that already import a broad range of its wines.

The latest figures cited by the council suggest that Puerto Rico remains one of the denomination’s most established destinations abroad, both in volume and value, giving the market an important role in the export strategy of a region that has built much of its identity around Albariño and other native varieties.