Wineries near Barcelona

Have a free day since I am driving from Huesca early and have a 4pm drop off in Barcelona Castelldefels

Thinking of making some stops along the way. I am sure that folks have been to Frexenet and Bodega Torres, any advice about the following:

Finca Viladellops
Vins Sel Cep
Caves Codorniu
Can Bas

Thanks champagne.gif

Jean Leon

Just looked and we are traveling on a Wednesday and the wine bar might be closed. Worth a stop though, thanks

Did a tour around Catalonia, this was probably the most boring visit we had and the most anonymous modernist wines we tasted. Can’t really recommend myself.

Anyways, if you like good sparkling wine, you should definitely visit some of the best producers in the region, such as:

  • Recaredo
  • Gramona
  • RaventĂłs i Blanc
  • AgustĂ­ TorellĂł Mata

Parés Baltà is a relatively large yet still solid producer making great wines ranging from affordable quaffers to serious, ageworthy flagship wines. They make all kinds of stuff, ie. whites, reds, rosés, sparkling wines, sweet wines.

Alta Alella is probably the best winery close to Barcelona.

Can’t really say visits to the largest producers (Torres, Freixenet, Codorniu) are going to be interesting. Tons of tourist groups are visiting those wineries every day and most likely you won’t get a tour, just a small tasting of the most basic wines. Visits to smaller, more quality-oriented wineries are more likely to yield more interesting results and better wines.

It’s been about a decade but we had a nice long private tour through the vineyard, etc. and tasted a number of library vintages. Obviously individual results may vary

+1. Super lovely people at Pares Balta.

1 Like

Us too, for all those (except for the super long part - for us it was probably the shortest after Torres, and we visited the vineyards, the winery and even had to watch a bit cringey commercial short movie on the life of Jean Leon) and we also tasted some library vintages going back to 1998.

What I did learn was that the JL wines didn’t benefit much from aging. To me, the reds were modern, polished and oaky in their youth, and they were modern, polished, oaky and a bit tired with age.

After +10 winery visits, they left the most lukewarm impression.

1 Like

+1 Alta Alella.

Gramona would be neat, but make sure to book. I had a spare day and just drove on by a couple years ago (just as COVID was getting started) and unable to get in with just rocking up on a weekday.

Just tasted here today, it was a great experience. Staff was excellent and cordial. Thanks for the recommendation.

2 Likes