Monday, September 27, 2010
We title this blog “sorry Randy” as we are sorry that Randy missed this opportunity for the wine tours.
What I have forgotten to mention along the way, is that a few times now as we have been touring people will respond to us in French. We can’t figure out why they think we are French and we know that no one in France would mistake us for French :). So it was funny that our guide for the wine tour today was raised in Burgundy.
It was about a 2 hour drive to the Priorat region. The first stop was a winery called Buil & Gine‘. I am told that we can get this wine at home. We had a wine tour where they showed us the grounds and the wine making facility. We then tasted three wines. I started with the Rose while Troy started with the young red. We then had two older wines. They call them young or old based on how long the wine takes to be sold. The main grapes used in Priorat are Grenache and Carignan and then they tend to add in some cab or merlot and/or syrah in their blends. After we bought a couple wines, we headed to the first small town called Gratallops, and visited a small winery named Devinssi. When we got there, the wine maker had his friend Uri who was from St. Petersburg there to translate. He did an ok job at translating, but we found we knew what he was getting at most of the time. The winery was contained in two very small 13 century buildings. When we went to the second building where they stored the casks, we saw a very old cask marked rancio 1963. We asked what it was and the wine maker said it was wine. Yes we have found wine older than us. He then found a bottle and poured some into it for tasting. (Here is a link that describes rancio http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/wine_oenology_viticulture/437420-vino_rancio.html)
We then tasted their two wines and the rancio which looked and smelled like a port, but had chestnut overtones. We ended up buying three wines plus we got a gift wine. Next we went to lunch one of the items we had was black rice which is a local dish made using the ink of the squid. Yum.
Lastly we were off to Dominic en Porrera which was in the small town of Porrera. We drive into town and meet up with the owner / wine maker who has us get into his car. He then proceeds to drive us on very narrow roads to his vineyard which is on a very steep hill and he proceeds to drive up to the top on a small rocky road! Beautiful views of the vineyard. We then went back down to his tasting room and tasted three different wines which were very tasty. We bought 3 bottles and again got a gift bottle. We then headed back to Barcelona.
On the first night we met a couple from LA. So we hooked up with them for dinner, but didn’t stay out nearly as late.