Revolutionary Wines: The Wines of Priorat & Penedès Trip

This trip is a journey into the best of Catalan wine visiting two very different regions. Start in the Penedès, home of Spain’s finest sparkling wines. Taste long-aged cavas paired expertly with local cuisine before heading to the nearby Priorat, a mountainous region famous around the world for producing powerful, mineral reds. The Priorat landscape of steep slopes and hilltop villages would be enough to justify a visit, but the wines made here today are varied and fascinating. Discover wines from the different villages and soils of the Priorat, including producers in Gratallops, La Vilella Alta, El Molar, Porrera, and Bellmunt. From classic estates who helped make the Priorat legendary to upstarts bringing new philosophies to old vineyards, you’ll end up with a deep understanding of a small region with a truly varied wine landscape. Dine at the best restaurants in the region, from small traditional eateries to elegant destinations, always accompanied by the finest wines of Priorat.

Read the blog: A Trip to the Heart of Priorat and Penedes

Trip At A Glance

6 Days / 5 nights

Penedès – 1 day | Priorat – 4 days 

Day 1 in Penedès

You’ll head from Barcelona into the Penedès, the home of Catalan sparkling wine. Visit top producer Gramona before enjoying their long-aged cavas paired with a tasting menu of updated Penedès cuisine.

Days 2 - 5 in Priorat

Your exploration of the Priorat will focus on the different villages of the region and the diversity of styles being made today. From wineries like Mas Martinet and Clos Figueras who helped build the Priorat’s fame over the last 30 years to surprising wineries like Costers del Priorat and Mas d’en Gil whose wines have brought new ideas to the region, you’ll taste your way through a region that always holds a new revelation around the corner. You’ll have the chance to dine at the best local restaurants, where the local wines shine in combination with traditional and innovative cuisine alike.

Revolutionary Wines: The Wines of Priorat & Penedès Trip

Day 1 - Cava Country & Arrival in Priorat

  • Transfer from Barcelona to the Penedès wine region

  • Gramona winery visit & wine-pairing lunch

  • Transfer to Priorat wine region

  • Overnight Priorat

Penedès Wine Region

Penedès is a land of rolling hills and the source of Spain’s most famous sparkling wine: Cava. Cava has gotten a reputation as cheap bubbles around the world, but that’s not all there is to the wine here. Quality producers using the Cava brand or new invention Corpinnat are making world-class sparkling wines that age for years before release. Organic and biodynamic viticulture using indigenous grapes is bringing the vineyard back into focus in a region long run by big bottlers. Many producers are even showcasing the local Xarello grape in fine varietal white wines. There is very good cuisine in the Penedes, combining ingredients from the hills and the sea. The winery experiences are first-rate with jeep tours of the vineyards, hilltop wine tastings, long-aged sparkling wines to taste, sparkling-wine pairing meals and more.

Gramona Winery Visit and Wine-pairing Lunch

Gramona is one of the great family-owned houses of the Penedès, with more than a century of experience making long-aged sparkling wines that are among the world’s best. Adherence to tradition and attention to detail are the keys to Gramona’s enduring success. The sparkling wines use indigenous grapes from the best vineyards in the Penedès. Aging on the lees before disgorgement occurs in the enormous caves dug under the cellar in the center of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. The bottles age with cork stoppers and are each disgorged by hand, a nearly lost tradition. It’s no coincidence that the Gramonas describe themselves as “artisans of time”. What has made the sparkling wines of the Penedès great is on full display here.

Yet all the tradition does not stop progress. Gramona were founding members of Corpinnat, the group of top Cava producers who left, disillusioned by the perceived lack of  quality and dilution of tradition. What’s more, Gramona have integrated sustainability and biodynamics into every part of the winery and vineyards with incredible precision and at scale. Biodynamic preparations are produced on site, there’s a farm that includes horses for plowing the vineyards, vehicles for traversing the estate are electric, and much more. All of this is in the service of improving and maintaining truly classic sparkling wines, looking forward to look back.

Visiting Gramona lets you see the past and the future of the Penedès. Learn about the sustainability initiatives that Gramona has taken on before heading into the caves below the cellar to see the racks of bottles aging in silence and darkness. You’ll have the chance to see a bottle disgorged by hand as it has been done at Gramona for generations before heading into the cozy barrel-lined dining room for a hedonistic and illuminating wine-pairing lunch. A multi-course menu awaits, with each dish paired with a sparkling wine from Gramona, fine dining but with roots in the local tradition of drinking Cava with their meals from appetizer to dessert. Every Cava Gramona makes is excellent, but you get to the long-aged gems with years of lees aging paired expertly with local cuisine you’ll want to stay here all day.

Day 2 - The Heart of the Priorat

  • Mas Martinet winery visit

  • Clos Figueras wine-pairing lunch

  • Mas Alta winery visit

  • Overnight Priorat

Priorat

Priorat is the star of Cataluña’s wine lineup. Since a few brave winemakers recuperated old vines here in the 1970s, Priorat’s quality has exploded, along with its reputation. The terrain is dramatic: mountains topped with stone look down on vine-covered terraces and villages built in seemingly impossible spots. This is not an easy place to make wine. You’ll find many small wineries here growing vines on tiny plots, often using organic and biodynamic techniques. This and other innovations have helped Priorat’s trajectory continue upward. There are new regulations based on soil and climate studies with characteristic Catalan precision. International grape varieties have happily been pushed into the back seat by local Garnacha and Cariñena. Producers new and old have sought to make lighter, fresher wines that don’t need years to calm down. The result? Priorat is here to stay as one of the best wine regions in the world.

The Wines of Priorat

The modern history of Priorat can be said to begin with the release of the 1989 vintage from the five founding producers who went to this region in search of wine greatness. What they found were old vines of Garnacha and Cariñena planted on slate soils. Most early Priorat producers added in some international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. New French oak was preferred. Everything came together to produce very powerful wines with enough elegance that critics took notice, awarding points and cementing the reputation of the region.

Today’s Priorats are not the same as they were in the 1980s. International grapes have become less attractive, with many producers reducing or removing them entirely. Cariñena has gone from an afterthought to a key for many producers: some of Priorat’s top wines today are 100% Cariñena. New oak was reduced, larger format barrels came into use, and grapes were picked earlier. All of this means that today’s Priorats are more accessible, fresher, and can often be appreciated in their youth when in the past it might have been mandatory to wait five years or more before considering opening a top bottle. Cariñena has also helped keep alcohol levels down in a region where summer can get very hot and where Garnacha can easily exceed 15%.

New regulations have been put in place, more closely following a Burgundian model than any region in Spain. There are village wines and three tiers of single-vineyard wines, with the top two loosely equivalent to Premier Cru and Grand Cru. Based on historical records and soil studies, the Priorat was divided into twelve villages and hundreds of named vineyard zones. Producers can apply to have their individual vineyards classified to use single vineyard labelling. The new rules ensure that grapes come from a single village, vineyard area, or vineyard. Each increase in classification carries with it other restrictions including limited yields, minimum vine age, and minimum percentages of local grapes. Priorat has also begun to regulate the term old vines (vinyes velles) so that any wines using it come from certified old vine plots that are at least 75 years old. These new regulations constitute the most advanced attempt in Spain to create a Burgundy-inspired hierarchy of quality.

Priorat produces almost exclusively red wines, but Garnacha Blanca-based white Priorats have caused some stir. Nearby Terra Alta may be more famous for this grape, but in the Priorat they are making excellent savory wines that pair very well with food. In some cases there are quite old vines. Look out for whites made from other varieties such as Xarello, Macabeo, or even Pedro Ximénez.

Mas Martinet Winery Visit

Along with peers such as René Barbier and Álvaro Palacios, Josep Lluís Pérez, together with his family, was one of the originators of the modern Priorat style in the 1980s. The family differed from the others pioneers in their lack of prior experience in the wine world, but the Pérez family learned quickly, catapulting Mas Martinet from a tiny experiment to a world-famous estate. Today, with Josep Lluís’s daughter Sara Pérez in charge of winemaking, Mas Martinet continues to innovate, especially by studying the history of the Priorat. Thus demijohns and clay jars are used to age wines, there is a vi ranci, a classic style of fortified wine from Cataluña, and an orange wine. Sara, both here and at her personal winery Venus La Universal, is always looking towards the future of the Priorat while maintaining what has made it one of the world’s finest wines.

Clos Figueras Wine-Pairing Lunch

After watching and helping elevate the Priorat from his position as a top wine négociant in Bordeaux, Christopher Cannan decided to start a winery of his own in Gratallops, the heart of the Priorat. With the advice of his friend René Barbier he acquired some excellent vineyards near Gratallops and began making red and white Priorats in a small winery. Today, he has added a cozy restaurant where you can enjoy light Catalan cuisine based on products from the region, some grown in the estate’s garden. Since the Clos Figueras vineyards had very old olive trees planted, the winery also makes their own Arbequina olive oil. In the restaurant you can pair the dishes with Clos Figueras wines or choose from a curated selection of wines from Spain and around the world.

Mas Alta Winery Visit

Priorat’s success and fame has attracted wine lovers from all over the world to try their hand at making their own wine here. In the case of Mas Alta, a group of Belgian wine lovers led by fine wine broker Philippe Lambrecht set their sights on the tiny hilltop village of La Vilella Alta, surrounded by terraced vineyards on extreme slopes. They brought in legendary Rhone winemaker Michel Tardieu as a  consultant and set off in 1999 to make great wines in the Priorat. Today, Mas Alta’s red and white wines have ascended to become some of the most highly regarded Priorats. You’ll find reds dominated by Garnacha and Carignena and whites made from Garnacha Blanca, all of which allow you to taste the unique characteristics of the vineyards around La Vilella Alta.

Day 3 - Priorat Excellence

  • Clos de l’Obac winery visit

  • Lunch at Brichs

  • Wine tasting at Mas d’en Bruno

  • Overnight Priorat

Clos de l’Obac Winery Visit

Carles Pastrana and his wife were among the pioneers of the Priorat beginning in the 1970s, drawn by the rich winemaking history, impressive old vines, and stunning landscapes. Once he began bottling wines and formed Clos de l’Obac, the reception was superb. The immensely powerful flagship wine was unlike anything in the fine world. Today there are a few more wines in the range, including an unusual sweet red wine, a white Priorat, and an second red incorporating some Tempranillo. Clos de l’Obac have largely stuck to what made their first wines great: Garnacha and Carignena balanced with some French grapes, old vines, and the concentration to age for many years in the cellars of collectors.

Lunch at Brichs

The newest addition to Falset’s fine dining scene, Brichs brings together traditional Catalan flavors with innovative techniques. Just a few minutes from the old town, Brichs is housed in modern building with enormous windows and an outdoor terrace in front. The dining room inside is comfortable yet spacious, the perfect place to settle in after a day of travel. Whether you order à la carte or opt for the tasting menu, you’ll encounter traditional Priorat dishes like canelons alongside original creations and presentations using the best ingredients from Cataluña and other parts of Spain. The wine list features a range of wines from Priorat and Montsant, including iconic bottles and small-production wines that lend themselves to food pairing. The service is attentive and the staff will help you have a fantastic food and wine experience.

Wine tasting at Mas d’en Bruno

A local wine expert will take you on a journey into the wines of the Priorat. This tiny wine region offers an incredible diversity of styles thanks to creative winemakers and varied terroir. A private tasting will give you a unique chance to try wines that you aren’t likely to encounter elsewhere from the region’s small producers. To accompany your tasting, a selection of gourmet local products will give you a chance to experience Priorat’s pairing potential.

Day 4 - The New Growers

  • Costers del Priorat winery visit

  • Mas d’en Gil winery visit

  • Lunch at Celler de l’Aspic

  • Overnight Priorat

Costers del Priorat Winery Visit

This tiny winery down a Priorat back road is making some of the most surprising and appealing wines in the region. Winemaker José Mas presides over a converted 15th-century monastic house surrounded by forest and vineyards. Inside, winemaking tools range from French oak barrels and foudres to cement eggs and amphorae, all in the service of allowing the richness of the vineyards to shine through.

Costers del Priorat has access to exceptional vineyards planted right on the hillsides, the old vineyard style known as a coster that gives the winery its name. The wines are utterly unique and differ from those made by the stars in nearby Gratallops. For one, Costers produces two exceptional white wines from indigenous grapes like Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo, including an enchanting skin-contact white from old white vines interplanted in red vineyards. Then there are the two fresh, ethereal single-vineyard varietal Cariñenas from old vines that could convince you all on their own of the grape’s significance to the Priorat. The coupage reds carry the house style, light and bright, in a region known for very powerful wines, joyful yet serious bottles that beg to be taken home with you. Don’t miss the rare vi ranci, oxidatively aged and fortified red wine made by blending vintages that date back to 1870. To understand where Priorat began and a path forward from a visionary winemaker, Costers del Priorat is essential.

Mas d’en Gil Winery Visit

Mas d’en Gil is one of the oldest wine estates in the Priorat, with wines from the estate being bottled as early as the 19th century. In 1998, the property was bought by current owners Pere Rovira and his family, who have a long history making wine in the Penedès. The vineyards and winery were restored and Mas d’en Gil began bottling Priorat wines. From the beginning, the family was focused on sustainability and biodiversity on the property. Today, they’ve incorporated organic and biodynamic production and produce olive oil and vinegar from the property. The property has five valleys, yielding vineyards with a variety of soils and exposures. Among the wines of Mas d’en Gil you’ll find sincere, expressive village and single vineyard wines based on old vines and local grape varieties. This is a perfect producer to discover the expression of a lesser known area of the Priorat.

Lunch at Celler de l’Aspic

El Celler de l’Aspic brings traditional Catalan cuisine to new heights combined with  the finest wines of the Priorat and other regions. Chef Toni Bru has been in charge of the kitchen here for nearly two decades, and in that time the restaurant has become and remained the most respected choice in the Priorat. Expect hearty but elegant dishes using local, seasonal ingredients as well as products from the nearby Mediterranean. Celler de l’Aspic is a notable destination for wine enthusiasts. Chef Toni is also deeply involved in wine, selecting bottles for the cellar here and recommending pairings. The wine list is notable for its depth in the Priorat and other Catalan wine regions, including old vintages and rare bottlings, but you’ll also find plenty of exciting things from other parts of Spain, Germany, Burgundy, and beyond. The prices are very reasonable, making this a great place to try wines with your meal.

Day 5 - Porrera’s Unique Terroir

  • Ferrer Bobet winery visit

  • Merum Priorati winery visit

  • Lunch at La Cooperativa

  • Vall Llach winery visit

  • Overnight Priorat

Ferrer Bobet Winery Visit

Ferrer Bobet’s first vintage didn’t hit the market until 2008, but this small winery near Porrera has firmly established itself as one of the Priorat’s elite producers. It is the perfect example of the new wave in Priorat who arrived after the famous names of Gratallops had already made their mark. Wine-loving businessman Ferrer and star winemaker Bobet teamed up to make world-class wines in the Priorat.

Everything about the winery, vineyards, and winemaking at Ferrer Bobet has been meticulously thought through. The modern winery blends into the landscape and allows winemaking to take place by gravity. The tasting room on the top floor overlooks a stunning valley covered in steep terraced vineyards and features walls lined with wine books spanning many decades and languages. From the moment you arrive, the seriousness of the project is palpable. But the careful work in the winery is overshadowed by the importance of Ferrer Bobet’s vineyards. The plots that started it all are intensely sloped vineyards dotted with old vines of Cariñena and Garnacha, but Ferrer Bobet has also invested in planting new vineyards around the winery on terraces, no easy feat in this part of the Priorat. The old and young vines alike benefit from the high elevation and cooling winds that make Porrera a great place to make Priorats that retain freshness to counterbalance their power.

Ferrer Bobet makes three wines that showcase terroir and respectful winemaking. Ferrer Bobet is made from the fruit of the winery’s young vines, but already shows the depth and freshness that characterize the house. It’s the only wine here that features international varieties, albeit in small amounts that allow Cariñena grown on slate to shine through. Vinyes Vellas is a savory, complex wine dominated by Cariñena with a bit of Garnacha, all sourced from very old vines. This “second wine” is already immense, delicious now but with concentration and acidity to age for years. The last wine, Selecció Especial Vinyes Velles, fully immerses the palate in Cariñena and its great potential on the slate soils of Priorat. Vibrant acidity runs through a wine with power and finesse, perfectly balancing Priorat’s characteristic ripeness with the ephemerality of high-altitude wines. Selecció Especial is undoubtedly one of the Priorat’s bright spots, but any of Ferrer Bobet’s wines belong on a wine lover’s table and in their cellar.

Merum Priorati Winery Visit

Merum Priorati was founded to capture the unique characteristics of the vineyards of the extreme slopes and slate soils around the village of Porrera. The village is the definition of heroic viticulture, with vineyards difficult to work even on foot, let alone with machinery. The climate and land cause the vines to struggle immensely, and the resulting wines have marked concentration. The project and the winery are quite new, but the wines have already gained traction. The wines, reds in all cases, use primarily the indigenous Garnacha and Cariñena grapes, and have an elegance to accompany the characteristic Priorat potency. Merum Priorati has both old vines and new vineyards planted in some of the best locations around Porrera, giving them both remarkable wines today and a bright future.

Lunch at La Cooperativa

Located in the village of Porrera, La Cooperativa is a charming little restaurant. The cuisine is seasonal with a strong focus on local products, including produce from the owners’ garden. The preparation is impeccable, and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. The place is popular with local winemakers, and the wine list doesn’t disappoint. You’ll find wines from the producers of Porrera and many of the other villages of the Priorat alongside interesting finds from further afield.

Vall Llach Winery Visit

Iconic Catalan singer Lluis Llach and his friend Enric Costa were inspired by the Priorat and the struggle of the heroic growers of the region, and in the 1990s decided to create Vall Llach. Initially the project was thought of to help out the local growers, but the old vines that they bought around the village of Porrera turned out to be extraordinary. Mas de la Rosa, a stunningly steep vineyard with vines over a century old, today yields a wine of the same name that is recognized as one of the great single vineyard wines of the Priorat. Vall Llach has also embraced the new village classification in the Priorat with their Vi de Vila Porrera. All of the reds here are based on the local grapes Garnacha and Cariñena, eschewing the Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah introduced in the 1980s and instead relying on Cariñena to provide freshness. Vall Llach is a showcase of the power of old vines, local grapes, and the traditions and wisdom of the village of Porrera.

Revolutionary Wines: Priorat & Penedès Trip

Trip Information

Hotel

Priorat - 5 nights

Mas d’en Bruno - Occupying a historic farmhouse in the countryside outside the village of Torroja, Mas d’en Bruno is a full-service luxury addition to Priorat’s hotel landscape. This Relais & Chateaux hotel has everything you need for an enjoyable stay in the Priorat. The rooms are new but maintain the building’s character. You’ll find a fine-dining restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a wine bar with a very complete selection of Priorat and other wines. This is a great place to taste the rare wines of Clos de l’Obac, as the family had a hand in the project. The spa and swimming pool are great places to recuperate while touring the Priorat. The hotel, surrounded by stunning landscapes, is a perfect base for Priorat exploration.

Trip Includes

  • 5 nights hotel, double occupancy

  • breakfast daily in the hotels

  • expert private guides

  • private premium tours and tastings at wineries

  • 5 lunches with wine

  • restaurant reservations and recommendations

  • private transfers to and from the Penedes and Priorat from Barcelona

  • private transport for all wine tours

  • full trip planning

  • in-country trip assistance and on-the-ground support

  • Epicurean Ways expertise

Not Included

  • flights to/from Spain and flights within Spain

  • tips to guides and drivers (optional but appreciated)

  • travel insurance (recommended)

  • extra charges in hotels (minibar, room service, etc)

A note on winery visits, restaurant selections and hotels

All tours, experiences and hotels are subject to availability and will be confirmed upon booking the trip.

You will be accompanied by a driver-guide during your wine touring. Your visits and tastings will be private and with the winemaker, a family member or an expert who knows the winery and the wines well. We work with the wineries to make sure that you taste the best and most representative wines during each visit. It is sometimes possible to arrange extended tastings that include old vintages or rare wines. We have an extensive group of wineries whose owners we know and with whom we work regularly, so we can guarantee high-level visits even if a winery has to be substituted. If you have an interest in visiting a particular producer please let us know.

We include restaurant concierge service as part of your trip. Note that our restaurant suggestions are just that–suggestions. Places we love, places to go back to time after time. We recommend these places after years of experience eating in Spain and Portugal together with frequent research and input from our local partners. We aspire to guide your choices with information on the styles of cuisine and restaurants; the choice on where to eat is yours based on your preferences and desires.

We have included hotel options ranging from 5-star luxury properties to small boutique hotels. Let us know your preferences and we will tailor the hotel choices for you.

Trip Prices

Note that we can customize this trip for you. Add days in your arrival or departure city or in other locations or make changes to the experiences, winery visits, restaurants, or hotels included in the trip. Whatever it is, we’re here to work with you. Once you’re happy with the trip plan and have some idea of your dates we will calculate and send you the price.