Wine route through Andorra (2)

In the morn­ing

The Mas Berenguer win­ery is a small fam­ily firm that con­tin­ues the decades old agri­cul­tural tra­di­tions of “Mas Berenguer”, which has been as­so­ci­ated with Puí d'Olivesa for gen­er­a­tions. Mas Berenguer is lo­cated in a manor house in Puí d'Olivesa in Sant Julià de Lòria, in An­dorra, which has been home to the fam­ily since 902 CE. As the sur­name “Berenguer” was around for seven con­tin­u­ous gen­er­a­tions up to 1714, this was the name cho­sen when the win­ery was opened.

The sur­round­ing land­scape is ma­jes­tic, with im­pos­ing moun­tain peaks and crys­tal-clear water that help give the vine­yards their spe­cial char­ac­ter. The win­ery's fa­cil­i­ties are mod­est in size, but also en­tirely mod­ern and func­tional.

The Celler Mas Berenguer is An­dorra's youngest win­ery, set up in 2011. It is also the most re­cent to join the area's wine tourism cir­cuit. Though its his­tory is short, it is a fully-mod­ern win­ery run with great en­thu­si­asm, work­ing with young vine­yards that pro­duce va­ri­eties such as Pinot Noir, Chardon­nay and Sauvi­gnon Blanc, which are used to make its wines, “Tan­cat Ro­cafort”, Blanc de Blancs, Brut Na­ture Rose and “Cortó Car­lo­magno”.

Guided vis­its, in­di­vid­u­als and groups.

For lunch

The Restau­rant Can Manel first opened its doors in 1979, under the man­age­ment of Manel and Pepita. Orig­i­nally from the Lleida re­gion, the cou­ple have man­aged to com­bine the tra­di­tional cui­sine of Urgell, with its fa­mous snail dishes, for ex­am­ple, with the best local pro­duce, such as the fine game to be found in the local area. The restau­rant's tra­di­tional cui­sine and wel­com­ing, fam­ily at­mos­phere have turned the place into a firm favourite with all sorts of dif­fer­ent din­ers.

Today, the restau­rant is run by Pepita who, as the mis­tress of the house, wel­comes din­ers as if into her own home. The kitchen is under the charge of Car­les Flinch, the el­dest son of the founders, who pro­vides a touch of in­no­va­tion to a wide range of dishes, such as pig's trot­ters stuffed with wild mush­rooms and king prawns or home­made foie gras paté.

The restau­rant's ex­ten­sive wine list has been de­vel­oped over the 30 years of the restau­rant's his­tory and in­cludes wines that date back as far as 1960 as well as in­clud­ing the very best young wines.