Actually, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network is an organization gathering cities, major business centers their country, and that are also in the middle or closely linked to internationnally renowned vineyards. The member cities thus share a common cultural and economic asset: the wines. This allows the members to share experience, to learn from each other, to develop their notoriety in terms of tourism, their business, their image on the international scale. Bilbao and Rioja have a lot in common in terms of wine business, like Porto being the shipping port for the Douro wines... And I'm sure you could not argue that Cape Town or Mendoza really are the wine capitals of their country... Catherine Leparmentier, Permanent Sercretary, Great Wine Capitals Global Network