We’re heading to Barcelona in a few weeks and I anticipate stopping into various bars to enjoy a glass of cava (or two) in the afternoons/evenings. Any suggestions on bars to visit ? And if I have a choice, specific cava recommendations would be appreciated.
Hey Bob, awesome experience coming your way! Great place.
Best to search the travel forum, lots of good stuff there.
The Cava region is less than an hour’s drive from Barcelona. Definitely worth a trip if you have the time.
Cheers,
Hal
I think Gramona makes some of the best Cava. No idea where to find it in Barcelona, and I doubt their upper tier bottlings would be available BTG, but I’d take a shot at anything from them.
I’d say El Xampanyet near the Museo Picasso is a must stop…also a very cool, old school tapas spot.
I’ll second Kevin H’s reco on El Xampanyet. It was one of the highlights of my trip and a cool spot for sure.
Great recs. Ill be there for my honeymoon in september!
We are looking at a day trip to cava. Not to steal the thread, but what suggestions might everyone have for cava houses to visit?
Cava is not a region, but most of it tends to be made in Penedes. Just something to keep in mind.
Be careful of the marc de Cava (Cava grappa, essentially). There is a lot floating around there. I love it, but be careful.
We like Nadal Cava and enjoyed a visit (by appointment only) through their historic cellar. It is about 40 minutes from Barcelona,located in the Penedes region, close to the town of Vilafranca del Penedes.
Any suggestions for a visit that can be made via a train from Barcelona? Our daughter will be in Barcelona next week (20 yo who loves bubbles)
I always enjoyed Montsarra Cava from Penedés. I know that it is a Broadbent export for USA, and that it’s cellars are in a former monastery.
Nothing fancy, but I once described it as a “Sumo ballerina”.
For me Recaredo is the top producer.
Lots of cool places along the main city center streets to have a glass.
A place that’s been on my list for a while but haven’t quite made it yet is Bar Brutal (natural wine bar, if that’s not your thing maybe skip it).
The best glass of cava was as part of a night tour at Casa Mila, one of the Gaudi buildings. Looks like they still do the night tour but have some projections type show now (I went a couple years ago). Amazing being up there with some bubbles. Linky
Do you prefer Recaredo’s top wines to Gramona’s long-aged bottlings?
Bar Mut just off the Diagonal on Calle Pau Claris in city center. Some of the best tapas in town. Great list drinking Krug and Salon off the list last week. But for cava Gramona is the ticket.
To be honest I am more well-versed with Recaredo’s wines but based on the cuvées (mid level and down) I have had from the two Recaredo is the producer I prefer, both for the quality and style of the wines. They just seem to nail the bone dry, rich and developed style at good price points.
As far as a Cava recommendation goes, I would highly recommend anything from Mas Tinell. Their high end Cuvee Cristina is my favorite Cava and rarely goes above 25 Euros. The entire range is superb. It doesn’t get a lot of attention globally and goes under the radar a bit as it doesn’t have a high priced cuvee, but this is really, really good stuff. Any decent wine shop in Barcelona should have most of the range. For a wine bar, Cava is going to normally be hit or miss by the glass just as Champagne is in most places (even in France and Champagne)
Thanks to everyone for the input. Looks like we’ll have lots of options.
Bob
I am recently back from my honeymoon in Barcelona. There’s Cava all over of course. Bar Brutal has many on their list (not published online) and the place has a focus on small production natural wines if that is of any interest: http://barbrutal.com/
Other wine bars to perhaps check out are Viblioteca (http://www.viblioteca.com/esp/index.html) and l’Anima del Vi (http://www.lanimadelvi.com/).
Hope this helps. Barcelona is a wonderful place and we had a lovely time there. There are also day tours to local wine regions if that is of any interest.