Thanks to a perfect storm of good fortune, and some chutzpah to throw caution to the wind (remember when "pulling the trigger" was much more common and you didn't worry so much about consequences?) I spent a long weekend in Barcelona with my good friend, (who am i kidding, my best friend) Mark Bradt. The following really only captured half the trip, but think you'll get the idea.
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| El Priorat is one of only two regions designated "DOC" in Spain, the other being the Rioja region. The DOC means best teirrier, climate, topography, altitude..whatever, I'm making most of this up, but it is one of only two DOC, sits 90 minutes outside of Barcelona, so after a couple days in the city we rented a car and came here |
It's a bit of a windy road into the region, which is small....about 40 vineyards total, some more boutiques than anything. We were early in the season, but were told by the locals that come summer it is quite a traffic jam.
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| Just in case it got worse, we at least wanted to stop and enjoy the anticipation. We do look like a couple of Southern Californians on a road trip. I dig that. |
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| Upon arrival, we hit the wine center, picked upa map and got some recommendations (they were very careful not to play favorites) and started our afternoon at El Celler de l'Aspic, a recommended restaurant when we said we needed food, as 3 cups of coffee in the morning eventually burns off. This place was great, and w/ their selection we knew we were in the right place. I'd say about 80% of these were from Priorat |
The first winery was disappointing, as Mark's expression and pose suggest on the left. It was more a food / wine store than a winery. We didn't let it bring us down, however, and got on the phone to confirm the next stop was more what we were looking for. It was better, but unfortunately we don't have any shots of that. The last stop, however, was everything we were looking for and more.
Spain is full of little towns resting on hilltops and nestled in valleys, and this was no exception. Cellar Burgos Porta, named after the two founders, is about 3 miles down a muddy, rutted road that looks like the first 5 minutes of a cheap horror flick. Senor Burgos was so excited when we called to confirm they were open, he met us in the little town, escorted us to the bodega, and gave us a tour.
We talked about the fermenation process, the grapes primary to Priorat, what their blends were, and of course what made their wines special
There is something about being in a wine cellar, you just connect with the "old ways" of doing things. Fermentation in bottles has been around for thousands of years. On the right is Mark, me, Burgos and Porta on the right. These two were incredibly gracious and happy to have us drink their wine and talk about their business. Of course, we more than made up for it in purchases. I have 3 bottles in my apt that Mark and I will drink at some point. It was one of those days that started off weird and ended just fantastic. That usually only happens when you're traveling. Which is why I like traveling. Oh, it got better. We left Burgos Porta in search of our hotel near Suiranna, in Priorat. I remember Mark saying when he booked it "This place sounds ok, let's stay here."
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| The view from the front of the hotel. There are 6 rooms, with a great restaurant El Carcaix. Visible in the distance is the spanish town of Siurana with its 700 year old monestary, little cobblestone streets and more fantastic vistas. |
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| This is looking north from the hotel. As you can imagine, the place is very well known for it's rock climbing. Can't see them, but they're there...all kinds of people scaling these walls when we drove down the next day |
Couple more shots. We spent a lot of time just staring at the vista, imagining invading Moors trying to figure how they were going to conquer the spanish hilltop fortresses. I don't get to see mountains like this in MN, and Mark can't see anything in London cause of the fog
Had to throw a couple of these in for further perspective. Pretty sure OSHA would have a problem with this design, but you are free to walk the "staircase" from the hotel down to a platuea where these photos were taken. At first, no chance, but curiousity got the best of us. We were sure to stay as far to the right of the rail on the way down, lest a stumble and then a tumble stright down a 700' rock face.
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| Funny how quickly conquering fear turns into bravado. Mark doing his impression of "Neo" from The Matrix. We each took turns taking pictures here. If you look closely, he is standing on a bridge 10 feet long and no more than 3 feet wide. Fall forward, you tumble about 80 'into a very narrow ravine...fall backward, and it's closer to that 700' again. |
BACK TO BARCELONA!!
We considered stopping in Tarragona on the way out of Priorat, but it was a nice day and we wanted to get as much time in Barcelona as possible. Our hotel had a nice roof deck, and pretty much there was nothing left but drink wine, eat Spanish ham (jamon serrano) and stare at the rooftops. So that's what we did. You can tell we were excited......
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| Traditional bread rubbed with tomato and garlic, check. Jamon serrano, check. 1 bottle consumed, second bottle open, check. Andrew acting like an idiot, check. Mark with silver plate cover on his head.......check. |
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| More fun, post jamon.... |
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We'll finish off with a nice sunset view, looking south at the Parque Olympico and National Art Museum. I feel very lucky to have spent time here and be visited by great friends and family. I'm pretty sure most of them would remember this vista, so this is for you all too.
COULDN'T HELP IT.......WE'LL FINISH WITH THIS ONE
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