Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EATING AND DRINKING
Ateneu Unió
Pl. Joan Güell 5 936 613 111.
The big, old-fashioned bar-restaurant on the
quiet central square is good for sandwiches, tapas and a bargain €9
menú del dia
served on
the sunny
terrassa
.
Daily 6am-11pm.
L'Alt Penedès wine region
L'Alt Penedès
wine region (
altpenedes.net
) lies roughly halfway between Barcelona and
Tarragona. It's the largest Catalan producer of still and sparkling wines, which becomes in-
creasinglyclearthefurtherthetrainheadsintotheregion,withvinesasfarastheeyecansee
onbothsidesofthetrack.Therearetwomaintownstovisit,bothofwhichcaneasilybeseen
in a single day:
Sant Sadurní d'Anoia
, the closer to Barcelona, is the self-styled “Capital
del Cava”, home to around fifty producers of sparkling wine;
Vilafranca del Penedès
, ten
minutes down the line, is the region's administrative capital and produces mostly still wine,
red and white.
If you're serious about
visitingvineyards
it's a trip better done by car, as many of the more
interesting boutique producers lie out in the countryside. Either of the towns' tourist offices
can provide a good map pinpointing all the local vineyards as well as the rural farmhouse
restaurants that are a feature of this region. However, even by train you'll be able to visit a
winery or two, including one of the most famous of Catalan wine names.
CAVA
Cava
is a naturally sparkling wine made using the
méthode champenoise,
the traditional
method for making champagne. The basic
grape
varieties of L'Alt Penedès are
macabeu
,
xarel.lo
and
parellada
, which are fermented to produce a wine base and then mixed with
sugar and yeast before being bottled: a process known as
tiratge
. The bottles are then
sealed hermetically - the
tapat
- and laid flat in cellars - the
criança
- for up to nine
months to ferment for a second time. The wine is later decanted to get rid of the sediment
before being corked.
The cava is then
classified
according to the amount of sugar used in the fermentation:
either Brut (less than 20g a litre) or Sec (20-30g); Semisec (30-50g) or Dolç (more than
50g). This is the first thing to take note of before buying or drinking: Brut and Sec are to
most people's tastes and are excellent with almost any food, or as an aperitif; Semisec and
Dolç are better consumed as dessert wines.
