Wine tour to one of Spain’s most dynamic and interesting wine regions
— The capital of Catalonia, Barcelona is a lively city with a huge variety of interesting culture, architecture and gastronomy. The wines from the wine regions around Barcelona are not far behind in notoriety. Here you find the famous cava, the Spanish bubbly. There is also Priorat, remote and rough country but with wines that have reached cult status. And much more. On this tour you will get to know a new generation of ambitious Spanish winemakers in one of Spain’s most original regions.
Tour Highlights
- 4 nights
- Private tastings, approx. 10
- Charming Sitges
- Priorat and Penedès
- Price: [sample programme]
- New generation of winemakers
- Cava
- New Spanish cuisine
- Organic wines
Please Note: This Is A Sample Programme
This is a sample programme, an example. Every wine and food tour that we organise is different and specially adapted for the season and the circumstances. Details in the programme, e.g. which producers we visit, will be different each time.
- This tour is sometimes available on our scheduled wine and food tour programme
- It can be designed specifically for you as a custom made private wine tour.
Next Wine Tour To Catalonia-Priorato-Penedes
- This tour is currently not on our tour schedule. Contact us for information about future dates or to discuss a custom tour.
Catalonia is in north-eastern Spain. During this exciting tour to the vineyards of Catalonia we will be staying in Sitges, near Barcelona, a charming town by the sea, within easy reach from the airport. Sitges is a real gem of a town with its fine sandy beaches, picturesque houses and narrow streets. Here you will enjoy an interesting mix of people and many tapas bars and restaurants. (It is best to avoid starting in Barcelona itself when exploring the wine regions, because of traffic. In addition, Sitges is an absolutely charming seaside town.)
Sitges has always had a big art colony, since the Modernists, modernistas, the Catalan equivalent of the French Art Nouveau, came here in the late 1800s. Even Salvador Dali lived here for some time.
Catalonia has today a big number of DO-regions (denominación de origen). Penedès, near Barcelona, is the biggest. The area went through something of a revolution in the 1980s. The winemakers discovered the quality potential of the region for many different types of wines, reds as well as whites. We will spend two days in the Penedès region and will discover some very interesting producers. Of course, we will also visit a cava producer, the world-famous Spanish sparkling wine.
One day we will go further south to the remote but very scenic mountain area of Priorato, Priorat in Catalan, known for its powerful red wines. Priorat is an ancient wine region. It experienced, just like Penedès, a rebirth in the 1980s and rapidly reached cult status. Today the wines from here are sold sometimes at very high prices, a sign of its reputation and quality.
We enjoy three lunches together. We will see examples of the new Spanish cuisine, and we will learn more about the art of pairing food and wine. In Catalonia there are of course a lot of seafood but also fine charcuterie, dry-cured ham, many specialities based on rice, tomatoes, olive oil and olives, onions, everything related to the Mediterranean cuisine.
It’s easy and fast to get to Sitges by train or bus or taxi from Barcelona’s airport or from central Barcelona. We can also recommend combining this trip with a few extra days to explore the wonderful city of Barcelona.
The tour is led by one of BKWine’s wine and travel expert guides.
Programme — Catalonia and Priorat Wine Tour
Preliminary programme.
Contact BKWine for more details.
Sample programme
This is a sample programme, an example. You can find the wine tours currently on the schedule here, or you can explore a custom designed wine tour by contacting us.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Programme overview
- Day 1, Wednesday — Arrival in Sitges
- Day 2, Thursday — Penedès
- Day 3, Friday — Priorat
- Day 4, Saturday — Penedès
- Day 5, Sunday — Heading back home
Wednesday, day 1 — Arrival in Sitges
Arrival in Barcelona / Sitges at your leisure and check in at our centrally located hotel in Sitges. Sitges is located on the coast just south of Barcelona.
The city has a beautiful beach promenade lined by palm trees and cafés. The Cathedral perches on a cliff high above the beach. The old city centre has plenty of restaurants and tapas bars. Our hotel is just a few minutes’ walk from all this. At this time of the year the temperature in the water is often very pleasant.
Free evening to explore the tapas bars and restaurants. Do not forget that you are in Spain and dinner time is late. It gives you all the more time to explore all the cafés.
Thursday, day 2 — Penedès
After breakfast, our bus will be waiting for us. Today we will visit wineries in Penedès, the area closest to Barcelona.
You can find many different styles of wine in Penedes, from sparkling and aromatic white wines, to really powerful red. The secret is that different grape varieties are planted at very different altitudes depending on the temperatures they thrive in. Famous international grape varieties are planted here as well as the local grapes of excellent quality, such as for instance the cava grapes parellada, macabeo and xarel-lo. We begin with a visit to Mas Comtal, a superb organic winery in the village of Avinyonet del Penedès. This is an innovative estate of 40 hectares divided into many different plots. This gives them a great variety of soil types. The closeness to the sea and the mountains nearby influences the wines and gives complexity.
We then continue to Mas Rodo Vitivinicola in San Joan de Medior. Mas Rodo is a small wine producer (a so-called “boutique winery”) that in recent years has been hailed by many wine critics. We start with a tasting of their excellent wines and then we will be treated to a lunch with local specialities.
The afternoon visit will be with Caves Castell Roig in the village of Subirats. They make a superb 100% xarel-lo that shows the potential of the grape. The owner puts a lot of emphasis on the work in the vineyard so we will start by taking a walk in one of their beautiful vineyards. Maybe we’ll even get to see their almost 100-year-old xarel-lo vines.
Late afternoon we are back in Sitges. Free evening for your own discoveries.
Friday, day 3 — Priorat
Today we head to Priorato, or Pirorat as it is called in Catalan. This wine region is situated in the mountains a fair bit south.
Priorat is a bit hidden away in the mountains in the region of Tarragona, some 80 kilometres from Barcelona. The Priorat wines were long known as heavy and strong in alcohol, dark and rough, made from Garnacha and Cariñena. The name comes from the monastery Priorat de Scala Dei (God’s Ladder). The monastery was built in the 12th century after a shepherd boy said that he had seen an angel descend from heaven on a ladder. The monks are not there any longer but the little village of Scala Dei and a wine of the same name still exist.
Since more than 20 years modern viticulture and technology is applied together with traditional methods. The main grapes are still cariñena and garnacha (grenache) but you can also find cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah, and to a lesser extent tempranillo. The fruit is intense and often very ripe. Priorat is today synonymous with high-quality wines. Some of the world’s most expensive wines now come from these hard-to-work schist slopes. The typical soil is called llicorella. There is a cool sea breeze that moderate the temperature in the vineyards.
We will visit some of the top producers: Mas Igneus, Clos Figuera, Mas Martinet, Mas d’en Gil… We will enjoy lunch in the main town Gratallops, a little village surrounded by vineyards. Clos Figuera has a nice restaurant where we combine the excellent Catalan cuisine with the winery’s own wines.
Early evening, we are back in Sitges. Free evening. If you are not so hungry after our quite substantial lunch, we some of the city’s tapas bars will be the perfect destination.
Saturday, day 4 — Penedès
Today we will again visit the Penedès region. We will get to know some of the best wines and cavas of the region.
We start the day with an interesting visit to Parés Baltà in Pacs del Penedès. It is an old winery, founded already in 1790. The wines are organic and the vines grow at several different altitudes, from 170 meters up to 750 meters. They produce red and white wine as well as high-quality cava. The vineyard has two female winemakers, Maria Elena and Marta, both oenologists and wives of the two owners, the brothers Joan and Josep Cusiné. We will take a walk in the vineyards before it is time for the cellar visit and an interesting wine tasting. We will also have an exciting “cava workshop”. We will stay and have lunch at Parés Baltà. Maybe it will be a variety of tapas, maybe a lovely homemade paëlla. And we should not miss the opportunity to taste their excellent olive oil.
We will spend the afternoon with Gerard Jané Úbeda at his estate Jané Ventura in the town of El Vendrell. This is a family estate in Baix Penedès dating back to 1914. Gerard is an oenologist and fourth generation winemaker. His makes great wines.
Late afternoon we are back in Sitges. Free evening to enjoy the town. Maybe time to take a walk past the beautiful church to the “other” beach, which is a little quieter than the most famous promenade.
Sunday, day 5 — Heading back home
The tour ends after breakfast. Departure.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Go For It!
We’d love to have you with us.
More travel information
Here are some useful pages and guides about this travel destination:
Even more info
We have written a lot about Catalonia and about wine touring in the region, what to do and what to expect.
- Read more about travelling in the Catalonia wine region on our wine travel blog.
- You can also find more information on BKWine Magazine on the wines from Catalonia, our online wine magazine.
- Our YouTube videos on Catalonia.
Here are a few videos from winery visits in Catalonia:
Wine books
We have written more than ten wine books. They have won both national and international wine writing awards.
No other wine tour organiser has a comparable knowledge, competence and experience.
Tour Details — Catalonia-Priorat Wine Tour
Dates: [this is a sample programme]
Price per person: [this is a sample programme]
Single room supplement: [this is a sample programme]
Sample programme
This is a sample programme, an example. You can find the wine tours currently on the schedule here, or you can explore a custom designed wine tour by contacting us.
ADJUST TOUR DETAILS AS NEEDED, LUNCHES DINNERS ETC ETC ETC
Included in the price:
- 4 nights hotel accommodation, double occupancy, including breakfast at four-star hotel in Sitges
- Meals as described in the programme above (*):
- 3 gastronomic multi-course lunches including tasting of different wines at wine estate or local restaurant
- Start and end point: Sitges
- Bus transport during the whole trip
- All vineyard and winery visits
- Private, high quality tastings at wineries, approx. 3 per day
- Most winery visits will be in English, but if needed translation will be done from Spanish to English
- Wine guiding and wine tutoring by an expert BKWine guide
(*) See below for more important information on our meals.
Not included:
- Travel (flights etc) to the destination and back to your home location.
You are responsible for organising your travel to and from Sitges yourself.
If you would like assistance organising your flight tickets etc, please contact us.
From the railway station Barcelona Sants in central Barcelona, or from the airport Barcelona El Prat, you get to Sitges easily either by suburban train, bus or taxi. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes.
We warmly recommend that you plan a few extra days here if you have the time. It is a very interesting place and well worth some regular, non-wine related tourism too. We can assist you with booking additional hotel nights as needed.
For this tour to take place we must have a minimum of 4 participants registered by the “book before” date. Maximum number of tour participants: 10.
Book This Tour
Book before: [this is a sample programme]
Booking is confirmed by paying the booking fee of [sample programme, this varies by trip]. Full payment should be received at the latest [sample programme, usually one month or 60 days, depending on the trip] before the departure date (see our terms and conditions). Details on how to pay will be sent to you when you register.
It is important that you read our travel booking terms and conditions.
We also invite you to read more on why you should travel with BKWine, about customer protection, and about what you can expect from our wine tours in the section below “More on our wine tours”.
You book by contacting Britt Karlsson, BKWine:
- phone: +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70 (+33 is the country code for France)
- Skype: “bkwine”. Call us on skype.
- email: info@bkwine.com, or use the contact form below
“I want to book this tour” or “I want more info”
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More on our wine tours
Why travel with BKWine?
We are Britt and Per Karlsson. We are specialists in wine and food tours and wine tourism, but also experts in wine in general. We are internationally published wine writers and have written ten award-winning wine books.
No other tour operator has a comparable knowledge and experience of wine, wine regions, wine tourism and gourmet travel.
We have organised hundreds of wine and food tours, and this is what we love to do. We take it very seriously – it is not a sideline or a hobby – and what we want more than anything is to share all these wonderful experiences with you.
All our tours are led and managed by guides who have in-depth wine knowledge, and in many cases we lead the tours ourselves.
Read more on why you should choose BKWine for your wine and food tour.
Thousands of happy customers
Over the years, thousands of wine lovers have travelled with us. Many come back to tour again and again with BKWine to new wine regions. Our record-breaking client has been on more than ten BKWine tours. We are happy and proud to have such faithful customers.
Read more on what travellers have said about our tours.
Awards and Mentions
We’re pleased and proud to have received many accolades, including:
- “World’s Top Wine Tours”, Travel+Leisure Magazine, the world’s biggest travel magazine
- “Best wine tasting holidays”, AOL Travel’s list of top wine tours
- “Recommended Wine Tours”, Munskänkarna, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- “World’s Best Wine Book for Professionals” as well as “Best Wine Book of the Year”, Gourmand International awards, and many other book prizes
- Three OIV book awards, International Organisation of Vine and Wine
- “Wine Personality of the Year”, an honour bestowed on Britt Karlsson by Munskänkarna in 2011, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- Inclusion on the Wine Media Power List, by Wine Business International magazine
About the wine producers and wineries we visit
Our aim is for you to experience some of the very best and most interesting aspects of the wine world, in terms of wine and food.
We put great effort into creating outstanding winery visits, and in this way we are quite different to many wine tour organisers. It is not always the most renowned, internationally known estates that offer the best experiences. Organising a wine tour featuring famous names of the wine world is relatively easy: it is merely a question of making lists and ticking boxes. On those kind of “bucket list” wine tours, you rarely meet the winemaker or the owner. You will simply be one of thousands of visitors they receive each year.
We do things differently. With BKWine Tours, you will meet the people behind the label, often the winemakers and/or the owners. Thanks to them, you will have a unique, truly personal experience and an insight into the wine world that no one else can offer. When you travel with BKWine, you are more like a special guest than a tourist.
We have personal connections and unparalleled knowledge thanks to more than 20 years as wine journalists, with 10 wine books published, and as wine tour organisers with more than 30 years’ experience. You can be sure of getting the best wine travel experiences with BKWine Tours.
Read more on the wine producers and wineries we visit.
A true gourmet experience: food and gastronomy
For us, wine and food are intimately linked, and this is a fundamental part of our wine travel philosophy. For this reason, a wine tour with BKWine is always an outstanding culinary experience both for the wine enthusiast and for the gourmet. A BKWine tour is a gastronomic voyage that explores the deep relationship between food and wine.
Read more On Meals: Food and Gastronomy on Our Tours.
Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee, and Terms and Conditions
You can always feel safe when you book your tour with BKWine. BKWine has a bonded bank guarantee that gives full protection according to EU and Swedish law. BKWine is a Swedish limited company and as such is regulated by strict rules.
Read more on Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee. and our Terms and Conditions.
When you book a tour it is important that you read the terms and conditions. BKWine’s booking terms and conditions follow the guidelines developed by the Consumer Protection Agency.
Health, vaccination and allergies
Our tours have no particular health requirements although inevitably we will be walking a certain amount in wine cellars and vineyards. Sensible footwear is a must.
Most of our travel destinations have no particular health guidelines or requirements for vaccinations or medical certificates, but if in doubt, you should always consult a medical professional, vaccination centre or relevant embassy in your country of origin.
We can always accommodate food allergies. However, in order for us to manage such requests you must let us know about any allergies before the tour starts.
Read more in our FAQ and in our Terms and Conditions.
Travel insurance
BKWine does not sell travel insurance. If you want travel insurance, check if your regular home insurance policy includes some kind of travel insurance, or contact your regular insurance company or a travel insurance specialist.
Custom Tours
We also offer custom wine and food tours if you want to travel on different dates, or if you want something different to what we currently offer on our scheduled tours. This tailor-made service can be offered for individuals, companies, professionals, wine tastings clubs etc.
Important information
Our groups are always small. The number of people in the group may vary. The maximum can range from 8 to around 20; check the details in each programme. But our groups are always modest in size. This is important because it guarantees a quality experience and a personal welcome at the wineries we visit.
Read the BKWine Booking Terms and Conditions here. They are important to you!
You are expected to organise your travel independently to the destination for most of our tours, but once you are at the location, we take care of everything.
For more inspiration
Read our wine travel blog. For more, read our online wine magazine the BKWine Magazine with articles from all over the wine world.
And also:
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