Wine Tours from Barcelona | Some options to consider.
Luckily there are a couple of world-class wine regions that can be visited on wine tours from Barcelona, and last month Malka and I visited them again, in the name of research for our clients you understand! The two regions in question are Penedes, famously home to Cava, and Priorat, a beautiful place producing some truly spectacular reds, and which is often overlooked.
Penedes is quite close to Barcelona and therefore makes for an easy day trip and, even taking into account driving out from the often congested metropolis, you will have a full day surrounded by vines and sparkling wines.
Priorat is quite a bit farther away and a day trip is a little more challenging but still viable, however if you have a night or two extra in your trip to spend at a hotel in the Priorat wine region your experience will be even more rewarding and delicious.
Day Trip to Penedes
From the, still unfinished Gaudi masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia to the heart of Penedes takes around 45 minutes if the traffic is not too bad. The focus of most day trips will be exploring the town of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia and its surrounding countryside, which is a real treat for Spanish sparkling lovers as it provides plenty of opportunities to sip at some Cava heavyweights, plus there are some boutique wineries to choose from.
Household names such as Codorniu, Freixenet and Juve & Camps are minutes from each other and you can easily visit the wineries that make the bubbly you often drink at home. Combined with this you can try some smaller, less mainstream Cava that you will never have of heard of, where boutique, family-run places offer less polished facilities but a more intimate experience.
Your day trip could be purely a tasting extravaganza, going round multiple producers and enjoying flights of sparkling wines at each (with nibbles at several places to avoid you falling over). Some tastings are themed, so they might cover different terroir, or vintages, or wine styles, or a quality range, for example. Or at some powerhouses like Freixenet they have tastings of not only their Cava but also other still and sparkling wines from other parts of Europe that form part of the winery group, so you can expand your palate.
Of course you will want to tour a winery, you may decide to pick one or two and ask us to include them, or just let us suggest them for you. Doing more than two tours in one day is not something we usually do, there will inevitably be some repetition, so we generally have a full tour at the first place, a limited look at the second and the third (or more!) will be just a tasting.
Then there is lunch to consider. Many places will have a bread/cheese/charcuterie board with tastings and a couple of those during your day might be enough fuel to keep you going. But some wineries have really nice lunch venues, the famous Codorniu springs to mind. We spent a very pleasant lunchtime there, sipping some Cava and fueling for the afternoon exertions. Lunch always eats into (no pun intended) your wine tour time but we feel that in many places it can form a highlight, and after all, you have to eat!
Day Trip to Priorat
The delightful village of Gratallops, brimming with Priorat wineries, is at least a 2 hour drive each way from the same departure point in Barcelona, more if the traffic is heavy. This makes a day trip when driving the whole way really quite a long day, and when you are tired at the end you get stuck in rush hour traffic. So we suggest letting the train take the strain!
From Barcelona Sants station in the heart of the city to Camp Tarragona takes just 32 minutes on the fast and comfortable AVE train, this saves at least 2 hours driving during your day. So grab the train to start your wine tour from Barcelona, we will meet you at the station and drive you into Priorat, and at the end of your wine exploration day we will day drop you at the station for your fast return to the Metropolis.
Most of the wineries in Priorat are small to medium size and hence meeting owners, winemakers and agronomists is easier than at large, multinationals. You can see us above enjoying just such experiences, and our clients will enjoy the same, as these guys love to tell you about what they do.
Our expert local guides we can offer some winery visits that are well off the beaten track, places you would probably never find on your own. In many of these places you will meet owners who are also winemakers, or whole family affairs, where you get to talk to the “horses mouth” and really get the inside track on what running a winery entails.
Multi-day Trip to Priorat (and maybe Penedes?)
For those who have a little more time for wine tours from Barcelona this is really the best way to see, and taste, the Priorat wine region and you could combine this with Penedes in the same trip if you wish. For example imagine you have two or three nights open to you we could pick you up in Barcelona and drive you out to Penedes to enjoy all things Cava, and then continue towards Priorat to spend the night/s.
Now you are based in Priorat we can really explore the back roads and visit wineries that would normally be overlooked due to lack of time, or miss due to lack of contacts. There are literally dozens of places we can take you, many where the owner will greet you. when you are not touring and tasting there are outdoor activities that we can fit in, or some cultural or historical visits. And of course dont forget the great food and some lovely places to stay. Priorat is one the most beautiful wine regions we know, and luckily we know a lot of them, so if you fancy visiting the place just drop us a line and we can set up some truly memorable wine tours from Barcelona.
