Priorat Wine Tour from Barcelona: 3 Wineries & Lunch

4.93

(127 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“You’ll never remember all these grape names,” our guide Marta grinned as we bounced along the road out of Barcelona. She was right — I still can’t pronounce “Garnatxa Peluda” properly. The drive into Priorat is kind of hypnotic, with those terraced vineyards stacked up the hillsides like green patchwork. We stopped first at Celler Pasanau in La Morera de Montsant — it smelled like wet stone and wild herbs outside, then cool and earthy inside the cellar. The winemaker (I think his name was Jordi?) showed us how they still do most things by hand. I tried swirling my glass like he did but just ended up sloshing wine on my shoe. Worth it.

The next stop was this tiny place tucked behind a row of olive trees — I’d never have found it alone. Marta explained how Priorat’s grapes get picked by hand because machines can’t handle the steep slopes. You could see why: the land’s so rocky you almost expect to trip over fossils. At Clos Figueras, Christopher (the owner) told stories about old vines and how they don’t use chemicals here — he poured us a red that tasted like blackberries and something smoky. Lunch was three courses, all local stuff; I still think about that tomato salad with olive oil that tasted almost grassy. Everyone at the table started talking louder after the second glass.

We finished at Celler Devinssi in Gratallops, where we actually sat out among the vines for our tasting (weather played nice for once). There was this quiet moment when everyone just looked around at the hills — nobody said anything for a bit, which doesn’t happen often with our group. It’s hard to explain but you feel sort of small out there, in a good way. On the drive back to Barcelona I kept thinking about Jordi’s hands stained purple from harvest season — makes you appreciate every bottle more than before.