This festival began to be celebrated in 1953 by a group of wine connoisseurs from the legal sector led by Bernardino Quintanilla and Érnesto Zárate. They challenged each other to find the best wine of the vintage, and that competition led to an annual contest in the political and artistic worlds, with participants like Manuel Fraga, Álvaro Cunqueiro and Ramón Cabanillas. Throughout the years, many politicians, like Charles de Gaulle, and artists, like Julio Iglesias, Juanes or Alejandro Sanz, went to Cambados for the festival. The most important event of the festivities was the appointment of King Felipe VI of Spain as a Knight of the Serene Chapter of Albariño, the association dedicated to Albariño wine. The festival kept growing all through the seventies and was promoted with national sets of stamps and envelopes. Some sporting events were also added, like the Albariño Cycling Trophy. It was declared a Festival of Tourist Interest in 1977 for its 25th anniversary, and in 1990 it was awarded international status. The regulatory committee of the Denomination of Origin Rías Baixas was established in 1988, which organises the festival every year in collaboration with the Council.