On the fourth day of our trip, we arranged a tour with the ever-reliable Cellar Tours to visit the Priorat region of Spain and taste some wine.
Unlike the regions of Italy we visited, Priorat seems to be a wild frontier with few rules about variety, blending, aging, oak/no oak, etc. One of the most notable things about the region is the slate soil. To call a wine a "Priorat" wine, it must be made from grapes produced in a particular area, and also from vines with a particular yield per hectare. The day we toured Priorat, we were treated to scenes of the actual harvest, which was a treat, because we've generally toured wineries just prior to the start of the harvest.
La Conreria d'Scala Dei
We first visited La Conreria d'Scala Dei and toured the facilities with Jordi Vida, the winemaker and co-owner. Their wines are blends of grenache, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cariñena, syrah, and others. They ferment the various grapes they use together depending on ripeness, and the final blend of their wine changes from year to year. They age their wines in French and American oak - the length in oak depending on the particular wine.
At La Conreria d'Scala Dei, we tasted juice of grenache and syrah at different stages of fermentation out of the giant steel tanks, and then out of the barrels in the cellar.
The views from the estate were absolutely fabulous and the weather was to die for. As if that wasn't enough, as has often happened on our wine tours we made fast friends with Jordi, who clearly loves what he's doing and has big dreams for his winery. We could have spent the whole day on this porch tasting wine :) But Chris noticed that a man was down on the ground waving at us and pointing to his watch - after initially ignoring the man, we suddenly realized he was our driver and we had lingered too long! So it was on to the next vineyard!
We tasted three wines, Iugiter Seleccion (12-18 months in oak, 2 years in the bottle), Iugiter (8-14 months in oak, 1 year in the bottle) and La Conreria (3 months in oak, 4 months in the bottle).
Clos de l'Obac
We next visited Clos de l'Obac. The official name of the winery is Costers del Siurana. Clos de l'Obac, their most famous wine, is made with a blend of five grape varieties, and with grapes from fifty year old Garnacha and Cariñena vines. The winery is located in the pretty wine village of Gratallops, right next to Rene Barbier's Clos Mogador. Clos de l'Obac is run by Carles Pastrana, who is credited with being one of the first in the region, along with Alvaro Palacios, Rene Barbier and Josep Lluis Perez, to realize the enormous potential of Priorat as a wine region.
Each of the wines produced is made from the same blend of grapes every year. At the tasting, where we met Carles Pastrana, we tasted a 2000 and 2002 Clos de l'Obac, a 2005 Miserere, the Kyrie (a white wine) and Dolc de l'Obac (a sweet wine made from overripe grapes and added sugar).
After the tasting, we headed to Restaurant Cellers de Gratallops, a restaurant in Gratallops, which is also run by the winery.
Mas Martinet
Our last visit of the day was to Mas Martinet, owned and run by Josep Lluis Perez, which, as promised, began with a drive up the mountain to view their various vineyards.
You can see Gratallops, the small town in which we had lunch, from near the top of their vineyards.
They ferment their red wines in concrete - super old school.
All of the wines we tasted were single vineyard wines - from three different vineyards they own. They were also the only winery we visited that used irrigation.
Chris wanted to taste more wine.....
Meanwhile, back in Barcelona...... Chris declared "no more tapas", and requested Italian. Rachel googled/trip-advisored Italian in Barcelona, and came upon Da Greco, which everyone deemed "great, authentic Italian." The only negative views were for decor and service, which I can live with. The decor lived up to its reputation (Medieval Times meets your grandmother's garage sale), the service was fantastic and attentive... the food.... was.... AWFUL. There is more "authentic" Italian at Olive Garden! Makayla was not impressed.....
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