Cantabria Wine and Culinary Travel: Where the World's Most Beautiful Place Meets an Extraordinary Table
- Jodi Howe
- Apr 7
- 6 min read
The peaks just got their crown — and the wine, the food, and the sea have been waiting all along
When Time Out named the Picos de Europa the most beautiful place in the world in March 2026, travelers who already knew this corner of northern Spain simply nodded. The rest of the world suddenly wanted to know where, exactly, these peaks had been hiding.
They haven't been hiding. They've been right there — rising dramatically from the Cantabrian Sea, straddling the regions of Asturias, Cantabria, and Castile and León, their highest summit, Torre de Cerredo, topping out at 2,650 metres.
Cantabria wine and culinary travel offers a profound way to experience this newly anointed landscape — not just as a vista to admire, but as a place that expresses itself through what it grows, pours, and puts on the table.
Beauty That You Can Taste
There's something quietly extraordinary about a landscape that earns a global superlative and still remains largely undiscovered by the travelers who would love it most. Cantabria sits on Spain's northern coast, tucked between the Basque Country and Asturias, its capital Santander a city of 180,000 people with a harbor that belongs to the official list of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World.
Santander itself rewards a day of unhurried exploration — its seafront promenade, old-town streets lined with bars, sweeping beaches, and gracious architecture connected to both Spanish royalty and the Botín banking family make it one of the most quietly beautiful cities in Spain.
Within a single day beyond the city, you can stand above the gorge at the Hermida Pass with limestone peaks pressing close on either side, taste a wine with unmistakable saline notes grown on Jurassic fossil-rich soils overlooking the sea, and end the evening with anchovies from Santoña alongside a glass that carries the cool breath of the mountains.
The cultural range is equally striking: Iglesia Rupestre Romanesque cave churches carved from stone in Valderredible, Gaudí's El Capricho in the village of Comillas, contemporary art museums in Santander including the Centro Botín designed by Renzo Piano, and the cave paintings that have made Cantabria the most significant prehistoric cave region in Europe.
This is the promise of Cantabria wine and culinary travel: landscapes of extraordinary beauty accompanied by food and wine that feel like expressions of that same beauty in edible form.
Wines From the Sea and the Mountains
Cantabria's wines are produced by small, artisan makers who are quietly building something exceptional. Two distinct geographies create two distinct wine identities.
Along the coast and low valleys, producers work under the IGP Vino de la Costa de Cantabria designation. These are fresh, light whites — aromatic and floral with saline nuances drawn from maritime influence — made from Albariño, Godello, Riesling, Treixadura, and Gewürztraminer, among other varieties.
The appellation encompasses a growing number of artisan producers, each interpreting the maritime terroir in their own way. Bodega Bahía de Santander, perched on a hilltop with views across Santander's bay, is a particularly compelling example — the winemaker crafts wines that carry the character of the Cantabrian Sea directly into the glass.
In the mountain interior, the Liébana valley — nestled within the Picos de Europa National Park — produces medium-bodied reds from Mencía, Garnacha, and Tempranillo under the IGP Vino de la Tierra de Liébana. The valley is home to a number of dedicated producers.
At Bodegas Orulisa, winemaker Isabel tends vineyards on steep hillsides with views to the peaks, following traditions her grandmother began. At Bodegas Sierra del Oso, terraced vines cling to the hillsides just after the dramatic Hermida gorge, one of the most striking approaches to any winery in Spain.
Further south, in Valderredible — the warmest and sunniest corner of Cantabria — Bodegas Camesía produces structured Tempranillo reds with real aging potential. It's also the only winery in the region growing Verdejo, a detail that tells you something about the spirit of discovery that animates Cantabrian winemaking.
A Table That Reflects the Land
The food here has always deserved more international attention. Cantabria's cocido montañés — a warming stew of white beans, vegetables, and cured pork — speaks to the mountain character of the interior. Cocido lebaniego, the valley-specific version from Liébana, adds chickpeas and a generous pile of local meats.
From the sea comes some of the finest preserved fish in the world. The anchovies of Santoña, salt-cured and packed in olive oil, are considered a benchmark by chefs across Spain. A visit to a traditional cannery to understand the process — the careful hand-filleting, the months of curing — adds a dimension that makes every anchovy you eat afterward feel different.
The dining landscape extends well beyond the traditional. Cantabria holds several Michelin-starred restaurants, including a three-star restaurant just fifteen minutes from downtown Santander — a detail that surprises many visitors and shouldn't.
Accommodation across the region matches this ambition, with quality options ranging from boutique properties in the capital to rural estates and mountain posadas that place you directly inside the landscapes you've come to experience.
Then there are the sobaos — the buttery sponge cakes of the Valles Pasiegos — and the orujo, the grape-marc spirit produced in mountain villages of Liébana, aged and flavored in ways that range from herbal to honeyed. Cantabria's cider has also earned global recognition: a local producer took first prize at the World Cider Awards in 2025.
The artisan cheesemakers deserve their own afternoon. In Bejes, a tiny mountain village, Quesería Río Corvera still ages wheels in natural caves — a practice unchanged for generations. The cheese that emerges, tasted at the source with a glass of local red, is worth a detour of any distance.
Experiences That Open This Place
We've established relationships with two exceptional partners who make Cantabria wine and culinary travel possible at a level that's genuinely immersive.
Rafael López-Alonso Abaitua, a fifth-generation vintner with a Master's in Oenology from Madrid's Polytechnic University and thirteen years guiding wine travel through Cantabria, leads the wine experiences through Wine Two Trip.
Diana Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz, a professional chef, certified sommelier, and official tour guide trained at both the Basque Culinary Center and Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, curates the gastronomic experiences through Cantabrian Kitchen. Diana also leads private city tours and pinchos tours through Santander — a particularly good way to understand the city's character through its food culture before heading into the wider region.
Together, they make Cantabria legible in ways that a self-guided trip simply cannot.
Consider beginning with the bay. A private boat tour departs from downtown Santander and crosses to the village of Somo, from where private transport continues to Bodega Bahía de Santander for a vineyard tour and tasting. You return to Santander by boat as the light softens — a half-day that contains worlds.
The mountain experiences open something different: the sheer drama of the Picos de Europa National Park, the intimate scale of family wineries where winemakers pour directly from their own barrels, and the revelation of what a mountain climate does to a glass of red wine.
In Western Cantabria, a stop at La Flor de Limón — a small producer of extraordinary lemon-based preserves and liqueurs in the village of Novales — adds an element of surprise that is entirely, unmistakably Cantabrian.
For those drawn to combining landscape and wine at the most elemental level, a horseback ride through the Valles Pasiegos followed by a tasting at Bodegas Viña Carmina pairs physical beauty and sensory pleasure in a way that lingers long after the journey ends.
Cantabria Wine and Culinary Travel: The Moment to Go
The Picos de Europa's new title won't stay quiet. International travelers are already taking note, and the region's infrastructure of small producers, artisan food makers, and exceptional landscapes is ready — but will not stay unhurried indefinitely.
Cantabria is accessible via Santander Airport or Bilbao Airport, both within easy reach of the key wine-producing areas. Spring and early summer bring blooming landscapes; autumn carries the energy of harvest; winter, in the mountain valleys, offers a depth of atmosphere that rewards the journey.
We design Cantabrian experiences that honor the pace this place deserves — pairing the right wineries with the right meals, the right guides with the right moments, so that what you encounter feels earned rather than packaged.
The peaks are waiting. The wine is poured. The table is set.
