Catalonia is the second of ten Spanish wine regions on this trip through the Iberian peninsula. Some of the tips were included in the text we sent to GotSaga, but we felt that each region deserved more space than we could give through just one post. If you enjoy the text, feel free to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or using RSS.

Already 2500 years ago, in the 6th century BC, the Phoenicians were growing Mourvedre grapes in the Barcelona area – where it had probably been brought from the Caucasus and Anatolia Regions. In the 6th century, there were Chardonnay grapes growing in this western Spanish region. Much later, the region was the birthplace of the sparkling wine Cava, which is nowadays accompanied by some powerful red wines and dry whites, where most wines are blends.Catalonia includes famous subregions such as Priorat, Penedes and Tarragona. Wines from the region can however simply have Catalunya on the label, basically meaning the wine doesn’t fit with any other DO classification area. Starting off any wine tour, you should definitely go from Barcelona, visit at least one of the multitude of great wine bars such as Monvinic, Ginger, La Viña del Señor or Vinatera del Call. I would love to give more recommendations for things to do or places to visit in Barcelona, but with lomited space comes fewer recommendations – and of course you should have to visit the many amazing places in the city which aren’t wine related as well.

Considering that Catalonia is one of the most dynamic wine regions in the world, it’s difficult to give you the ‘perfect trip’ through the area, but I would certainly recommend the origin of modern Spanish wine making in Penedés, finding out where the Cava production first began, and visiting the great vineyards of the Priorat region. You will probably need a few trips to the region before starting to feel like you covered some ground though, and a good idea is probably to follow the wine world in differing between Priorat, Penedès and Tarragona, and take one subregion at a time.

For a few interesting vineyards, try out Codorníu for the place where the first Spanish sparkling wine was made, Freixenet for the current Cava (sparkling wine) champion or Miguel Torres for the largest wine vat in the world in one of the most sophisticated and advanced vineyards in the region which is close to Barcelona, the Sitges beach resort and the Montserrat monastery.