Wine route through Empordà

In the morn­ing:

On gresa soil, in the mid­dle of rolling hills, Vinyes d'Oivar­dots was born. Carme Casacu­berta, an oe­nol­o­gist, and her hus­band An­toni Pena, an in­dus­trial en­gi­neer, both pas­sion­ate about wine and in love with na­ture began the pro­ject, aim­ing to make high qual­ity wines as a true ex­pres­sion of the local con­di­tions. In a unique set­ting, sur­rounded by four hectares of vine­yards, the win­ery was built in 2006 along sim­ple, mod­ern lines de­signed to work with grav­ity flow. Cur­rently, the prop­erty al­ready has seven hectares of vine­yards, four in­side the main es­tate with black Grenache, Syrah and Caber­net Sauvi­gnon, and three with Carig­nan vines be­tween 50 and 100 years old. In 2010, the es­tate in­cor­po­rated white grapes in­clud­ing white Grenache, red Grenache red white, all typ­i­cal of Em­pordà and vines 80 to 110 years old. Their tech­niques fos­ter ample leaf sun ex­po­sure to max­imise pho­to­syn­the­sis and there­fore as­sist the ripen­ing of the grape. The vines are kept aer­ated min­imis­ing the risk of fun­gal dis­eases, al­low­ing the vines to do their work in the most eco­log­i­cal con­di­tions.

The grapes grow in gresa soil, slate, sandy loam and al­lu­vial soils, all per­fectly suited to the par­tic­u­lar grapes they nour­ish. The wines are the re­sult of rig­or­ous work in the vine­yard and a com­bi­na­tion of new tech­nol­ogy with more tra­di­tional meth­ods. Of spe­cial note is the V'dO col­lec­tion with its dis­tinct la­bels de­signed and cre­ated to iden­tify the grape va­ri­ety with its prov­i­dence and in­clud­ing va­ri­eties such as Carig­nan, Syrah, Caber­net Sauvi­gnon, Grenache, White Carig­nan and Lle­doner Roig. Guided tours for in­di­vid­u­als and groups.

www.​olivardots.​com

For lunch

The Casamar Restau­rant took on a new look when Quim Casel­las be­came chef and his sis­ter, Maria, took over the din­ing room. Their ef­forts were re­warded with a Miche­lin star in No­vem­ber 2011. Quim be­longs to a gen­er­a­tion of young chefs who feel a pas­sion for cook­ing that is eas­ily seen in the magic of his work. Casamar brings to­gether Em­pordà, its ter­ri­tory and its prod­ucts, as part of the Cuina d'Em­por­danet col­lec­tive and later the slow food move­ment. Two clas­sic dishes are the tepid leek can­nel­loni with prawns and Parme­san cheese, and the clas­sic apple tatin; there are also Palamos prawns and more elab­o­rate dishes like steak tartare and rice.

Tel: 972 300 104/ www.​hot​elca​sama​r.​net