cava y vino [penedes & tarragona, spain]

My Mom and I got up early to go to the local market across the street. They had some cheap clothes and lots of food - not entirely unlike other outdoor markets I've seen in Spain. After that we got in the car and headed towards our first wine tour. We had a little trouble finding it, but we got there - the Cordoniu Penedes.

Now when I think winery, I think quiant little stone building with some vines and barrels... well, that's not how they do wine in Spain. First of all, I should clarify that Cordoniu produces cava, not wine. Cava is exactly the same as champagne, a sparkling wine, but you cannot technically call champagne "champagne" unless it is made in the Champagne provence of France. As you can see, they're serious about their wine.

The tour started in a fairly large movie theater that gave us a big-screen version of the history and future of the Cordoniu winery (17 generations in the making). We then moved to the on-sight museum, designed by the architect Puig i Cadafalch (a contemporary of Gaudi), and then down to the endless caves of cava, that continued down for several stories. This place is huge. They have an actual shrine to the grape vine. They have multiple satellite wineries throughout the world. During the harvest season, they actually work 24 hours every day to get all of the grapes. It's insane.

A little shell-shocked we moved on to our next wine tour, at the smaller (though still considerably large) Torres winery. This one was a little more what I imagined - a small winding road led up to rolling hills of pruned knots of grape vines and wheat swaying in the breeze. Once again, we watched a full-screen movie. The next part of the tour was rather interesting - a narration of a year in the life of a grape vine to stimulate all 5 senses. It began with the smell of grape vines burning and ended in the scents of freshly smashed grapes. After that we continued to more caves and stainless steel vats of wine. You could have gotten drunk just walking through the place. It was lovely.

Our last leg of the journey brought us to Tarragona. After getting lost several thousand times, we found our way to our hotel. When we got in we were pleasantly surprised - our room had a bedroom and separate living room with two balconies and an enormous bathroom. Maybe for some this would have been just another hotel room, but considering we usually travel on a tight(fisted) budget, it was quite a treat. The views were amazing - one out to the port and new city and the other over the beautiful Mediterranean and Roman ruins. I don't know why there aren't more people living in Tarragona.

That night we went to an amazing gourmet dinner with some very friendly staff. We were truly living in the lap of luxury.