Me & The Baby & The Bcn : In Vino Veritas

" Wine is the most civilized thing in the world. "

"In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary."

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Wine Wine Wine..The drink of Gods!
Even the bible says like this :

And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. (Genesis 9:20)

Whatever that husbandman means.. it apparently starts with a vineyard!
Just a bit outside of Barcelona is an area called Penedés, one big Catalan Wineland. Wines and Cava, as Cava is Catalunya!

Codorniu, Freixenet and Torres - I think are the 3 most famous vineyards, and tens of smaller ones .. side by side. Very beautiful landscapes and cozy feeling. Even though these big names are busy vineyards.. it doesnt feel like it. Very peaceful and quiet countryside.

Commute train from Barcelona goes directly in half an hour to this area, and for instance Freixenet has been such a big employer once that the train actually stops at the vineyard, next to Codorniu vineyards but Torres is a bit further away. We had to take a taxi for few kms from station. These all do wine tours, and all function the same way. You send request from their website when you want to go, and they email you back to confirm the date and time. Tours are all about the same an hour to hour and a half. Its huge business and summertimes they are very busy. All of the vineyards, big and small.. they all serve a tasting of your choice after the tour.

I have only been to Torres and the tasting was given to a Finnish group. They ask your nationality and the language you speak when you send the date and time request. At Torres they even have a Finnish girl working there to give these tastings. Our tasting was given by Swedish guy, but I know this girl has worked years at Torres and is possible to book her, if wanted.

The bummer was that because we had put there we are Finnish, they did the tasting only for wines sold in Finland! yes Im serious, they even had a price list of the wines, what they cost in Finland. Bummer because we knew these wines already and of course would have wanted to taste something new :) The tasting area is like a bar and a shop - you can buy bottles there or pay extra to taste something else as well. We had booked a basic tour with 2 glasses to taste.. but when we hit the vineyard, they asked at the cassa that if we want a bigger tasting. 2 glasses we had booked with the tour was something like 6euros.. and they offered us 5 glasses and tour with 11euros.. of course we took it!

The tour itself is this funky minitrain that goes through the vineyard! just sit back and enjoy the ride.., they have headphones where you can all the time listen to the story they tell you. Few languages to choose. About how wine is made, how the production is done nowadays and what grapes they grow.. and also lot about Torres history. The train stops at huge wine cellar, complitely dark and they had big screens where they illustrated some history of wine making and then at the end was like "curtains went down" and we could see behind there was this huge winecellar with barrels and bottles.

The tour stops at the tasting area and Torres shop

For me personally this tasting was a bit of a laugh, Ive worked years as a waitress in a restaurant chain and all the wines they tasted had been in our winelists at some point. So, I did know them quite well :) but all in all.. was the first time I was in Vineyard and was very cool experience and hopefully not the last one! ( next time at Torres I maybe put I am Mexican or something .. ) Wine industry is so big and important in Spanish and Catalan culture,that my son has also been there! yes yes yes.. they made a field trip from School for one day to the Torres Wineyards and he told afterwords that they took the train as well, ran around the grape fields and have been even inside the production places to see how wine is made.

These big names are not the only vineyards at Penedés, there is tens of others as well. many many maaaany trips and tours packages are arranged and sold all over the area. I think the funkiest is a bicycle tour..you rent a bike,you get a map of the vineyards and there you go, from one to another. I would like to see these bikers at the end of the evening after all tastings at different vineyards :)

Prices:
full day 125 euros all inclusive
half day 75 euros all inclusive 10 - 14h

Penedès bike cava food & wine full day tour includes:
bike route from Vilafranca del Penedès - Sant Marti Sarroca / Torrelles de Foix

traditional Catalan lunch
2 winery visits and taste of cavas and wine
1 cultural visit
refreshments
expert guide
21% iva sales tax

+20 euro supplement weekends and public holidays

Options:
Barcelona Transfers + 60 euros
Comprehensive winery visits and tastings + 30 euros
Gourmet à la carte lunch + 30 euros

Also many of these smaller vineyards sell their wines in these small wineshops you can find all over Catalunya ( and all Spain I guess ). In plastic bottles, minimum was 1.5litres.

A bottle of wine begs to be shared;
I have never met a miserly wine lover.
Clifton Paul Fadiman

So life’s year begins and closes;
Days though shortening still can shine;
What though youth gave love and roses,
age still leaves us friends and wine.

Thomas Moore