In October 2006 we visited the Catalonia in north west Spain. Catalonia is a culturally rich and historically interesting region, home to artists such as Picasso and Salvador Dali and the great architect Gaudi. Its wines are some of Spain’s most interesting, Cava is produced here, usually in industrial quantities, and sometimes with the care and attention of a quality Champagne house. Torres is the volume producer, and also strangely enough one of the quality standard bearers.
This trip combined all that is good and great about Catalan wine. We visited and had lunch at the outstanding Agusti Torello estate in San Sadurni di Noya, Cava’s central town. Twenty four hours were spent in Priorat, a rugged volcanic vineyard area, little known to a wider audience until twenty years ago, but now recognised as one of
Europe’s finest sources of richly perfumed red wines.
Priorat is dominated by small, family producers who harvest their own grapes and ferment them in a fashion that has not changed over the centuries. We were lucky enough to be in the vineyards at the time of harvest and follow the grapes off the hills and into the presses.
The last day was spent with Torres. A tourist attraction it may be, but the wines remain as impressive as ever and it provided a contrast that put the whole trip in context.
As with all Vine Routes trips, we broke the skin and saw places and met people that most tourists never manage to and along the way we tasted some fantastic wines and ate wonderfully authentic, Catalan food

Jon Scorse

"Great fun, and a trip I would love to do again. Watching the families bringing in their grapes from the vineyards was a real treat. A perfect time of year to visit Catalonia"

"An excellently organised trip with a diverse group of interesting people. It was fantastic to leave the normal tourist routes behind and see the ‘Real Spain’"