Wine route through D. O. Conca de Barberà

In the morn­ing:

The Vega Aixalà win­ery started in 2003, the prod­uct of the dream of a fam­ily in Vi­lanova de Prades who de­cided to re­build and re­store an old vine­yard be­long­ing to their grand­par­ents. The fam­ily, with the help of the wine­maker Mar­tin Magriñá, de­cided to put every­thing they could into the pro­ject and with their love of the land and of the world of wine, began plant­ing vines. The vine­yards are lo­cated be­tween 800 and 900 me­tres above sea level, in an area of slate in beau­ti­ful coun­try­side be­tween the Prades, Montsant and Llena ranges. Thanks to the al­ti­tude and dry con­ti­nen­tal cli­mate, the wines pro­duced are 100% or­ganic.

For its red wines, the win­ery works with Grenache, Carig­nan, Syrah, Tem­pranillo, Caber­net Sauvi­gnon and Pinot Noir and for the whites, Grenache Blanca and Chardon­nay. The main con­cern of the win­ery is the re­spect and del­i­cate work that goes into every har­vest: the grapes are picked by hand and gath­ered in small boxes, and the ex­tract is pro­duced by grav­ity flow and fer­mented in ce­ment tanks in a process de­signed to use as few tech­no­log­i­cal ap­pli­ca­tions as pos­si­ble.

Vis­i­tors can take a tour of the vine­yards in four-wheel-dri­ves, and then enjoy a final taste of the wines in the cel­lars while get­ting to know a lit­tle of the soul of the win­ery and the peo­ple who are work­ing in this fam­ily at­mos­phere. They can also fin­ish the visit with a typ­i­cal Cata­lan break­fast or snack, while con­tin­u­ing to enjoy the wines. De­pend­ing on the sea­son, there are a va­ri­ety of spe­cial vis­its de­signed for in­di­vid­u­als and groups www.​vegaaixala.​com

For lunch

Right at the en­trance to the old town of Vi­lanova de Prades, the Ca la Montser­rat restau­rant of­fers sim­ple yet typ­i­cal Cata­lan cui­sine of the high­est qual­ity and at very rea­son­able prices. Among the dishes listed are onion soup, home­made can­nel­loni, aubergine stuffed with squid, meat­balls, pigs' trot­ters, grilled rab­bit, and for dessert, home­made cheese­cake among oth­ers. They also offer a daily set menu. It is a quiet and cosy restau­rant with rus­tic touches in an old town-house con­verted into a restau­rant. Ca la Montser­rat of­fers home­made Cata­lan cui­sine with friendly ser­vice and gen­er­ous por­tions. Tel: 977 869 018/ www.​canonge.​cat