Monday 22 April 2019

Wine Country

The village of La Vilella Alta in the wine area of Priorat.
Ready to go!
Juicy grapes - soon to be wine.
So I've only really realised that after Summer I was very busy. July I'd worked in Romania and then August was spent in Bulgaria. Romania was wonderful as always, and this time I saw more than the previous visit in 2016. Bulgaria was a completely new place to explore, and although I only visited 2 cities, Sofia and Plodiv, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and would go back. But even after coming back I had kept myself extremely busy! September marks the start of term for teachers, but between then and Christmas is full of public holidays, giving us some long weekends too! I'd used the beautiful Autumn weather to hike around Ripoll on the 'Rute del Ferro,' and the Costa Brava along the 'Cami de Ronda,' and also make a trip to Montserrat via the Aeri cable car. All of these things are things that locals do, not just tourists, but I wanted to do something very special, something that only happens every year and that is very Catalan. Every September wine makers gather in the of Poboleda, int he heart of the Priorat wine region, to share their wonderful wines with the public. Showcased wines are DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant, most of which you just can't buy anywhere else as they are usually shipped to the US or China and fetch outrageous prices. Priorat is just 1 of 120 wine regions in Spain, but it is very special because of it's DOQ rating, one of only two in the country, alongside the La Rioja region, Spain's most famous. DO for Spanish wines translates to "denominación de origen" which is hard to translate, but means an 'appellation' or specific naming or titles given for an area and it's produce - the extra 'Q' on the end is extra special and is highly regarded as the best areas on Spain for wine. The Priorat area is in the province of Tarragona, south of Barcelona, and a few friends and I headed down to celebrate the wine festival that is held there every year in  September. Myself and 3 friends got in the car and headed off early from Barcelona, excited as ever to be a part of this - and also looking forward to drinking a lot of wine!
Wine country - Priorat wine!
A lovely view from the village of El Lloar.
Wine anyone?
Political wine.
My first experience with the Poboleda wine festival was back in 2016, 2 years previous, and I loved it! It has become a bit of a tradition for me now, my friends had already been going on wine trips for some time and now I was a part of it. We drove down to a small village called El LLoar, a really small, one-horse-town kind of place, with one bar, a church, town hall and a tiny supermarket. There are a few houses, all built in stone as they do in Catalan villages. There is nothing to do in this village, but it has its charm and also has a wonderful of the area from its high vantage point. This quiet little place would be our home base for the weekend, but first, breakfast was needed. You may notice when you come to Spain that people drink alcohol at any time of the day, even at breakfast time before work. I've slowly gotten used to this, walking to work on a Saturday before 10 and I play a game of 'spot the booze,' and I rarely lose. Whether it's a beer or rum in your coffee, they have no problem with it - in a wine region, wine is served along with your pa amb tomaquet and butifarra (bread with rubbed tomatoe and sausage). For a very reasonable price, we sat down and had a large breakfast (and a beer), preparing us for a big day of wine tasting! As we arrived in Poboleda, things had changed a little in 2 years already. My friend Carles told me that when they started coming here, around 5 years ago, there was a free breakfast, served with wine, and not that many people. In 2016 there was still the breakfast 'popular,' but you had to pay for it but it was still a bargain price and good food. This year, the 'food trucks' had moved in. I'm not a big fan of this movement, one that is taking place in Spain right now - every festival, music or cultural, has these vintage trucks, like the very popular 1970s Citroen HY, selling posh versions of everyday food and high prices, just because it's 'cool'  and served out of a van older than you. People here seem to like it, and the food and coffee served is fine, just not the village breakfast I was expecting - there would also be no lunch this year, as there are too many people now, and so the trucks would be taking care of this now too. Everything changes.
Saving his strength for later. 
Wine stomping from the 2016 festival.
Wine my friends?
Wine talk.
After breakfast and dropping our bags off, we headed past the food trucks and into the centre of Pobeleda to get out tickets for the tasting. For €12 we got a wine glass (and cool neck tie to hold it!) and 10 tickets for tasting. We shared these tickets and I got the glass, as they had all bought one in previous years. All excited, we now all had glasses and were ready to get into some wine. We walked around to the various cellars, talking with the owners and growers, chatting about tastes, how the season was going, where they sold to, the new wine they were coming out with... the usual chit chat, but really we wanted to drink their wine. But, when you talk to people, and we did, but also took an interest in what they do for a living, sometimes wine flows freely. Yes, a good day's worth of drinking and not a ticket used for any wine. It helped that I was Australian and spoke Catalan - I talked about wine from my part of the World, compared grape names, told then they had to go there are try some wine. We all got on famously and we all had a fair bit to drink - exactly what you'd expect for a day at a wine festival! We had lunch at the food trucks, deciding on wood-fired pizza and a couple of beers to quench the thirst that wine just can't do. During our tastings we also bought a beers bottles for later, to take back home with us as well as something to have for dinner and lunch tomorrow. Most of these wines are unavailable in stores around the country, only the real scraps are left, as these wines are really doing well internationally and have become very famous. One gentleman was telling us that they ship all of his wine to New York, bottles selling for hundreds of dollars only at a few restaurants in Manhattan. Many also get shipped to China, another place where wine drinking is becoming popular and where more and more people are making enough money to buy such things. One cellar claimed to have sold a bottle for €600. We were drinking this wine! Well, not the one that cost a thousand dollars, but the same growers and grapes. There wasn't just wine to taste either, although there was many varieties of red, white and rose, there was also something they called 'vi ranci,' directly translated as rancid wine. Comparable to a sort of sherry, the taste isn't for everyone, but it is becoming more popular here and we were given a taste of a €40 bottle and very much enjoyed it.
Stone arches.
The cloister courtyard with the well, carved with the 'stairs of God.'
The monastery ruins.
The monastery and the Montsant mountains.
After all this eating and drinking, we thought we'd head out and get some culture as well. We took our car, but don't worry, our designated driver had been sensible and hadn't drunken as much as we had - also, this is country Catalonia during a wine festival, so even the police were tasting wines and not checking anyone today. We drove just down the road to see an abandoned monastery, the La Cartoixa d'Escaladei. This monastery is a 12th Century building, founded and run by the Carthusian order. This beautiful place, protected by the Montsant mountains, was chosen as a pastor had a dream about angels going up to heaven using a ladder lying on a pine tree - this is where the name 'Escaladei' or "escala de Deu (ladder or God)" comes from. The monks lived here, up until the 19th Century, growing crops, cultivating vines and making wine, until they were forcibly removed during the reforms and privatisation of religious land between 1835-7. The building was then left alone, the monk cells, cloister, church and hospital all left to ruin and looting from local peasants. In 1990, the Rius Family, who owned the property, gave it to Catalan government and work was started to keep the beautiful structure from crumbling anymore, and was open in 1998 to visitors. We walked around these ancient cloisters, inside the church, and even through one cell which had been restored to its original state. Each monk got his own cell, or room, which had a kitchen, small bedroom and access to a beautiful courtyard with a garden and running water. I've lived in smaller places and this looked like peaceful bliss, if you wanted to be a monk and never leave the place! The day we came here, there was no entry fee, the woman explaining that today was a special day. Even better! It was quiet and free, no better way to explore ruins, wandering around and trying to imagine how these people lived for 800 years. Not much of the original buildings are left, but what is left is beautiful! Two stone arches greet you as you walk in past the entrance building, follow them and you reach the accommodation building. In the middle are the cloisters and church, a small stone well.,carved with the shield of the monastery, with the ladder of God on it, sits in the centre and beautiful arches ring the open space. A thoroughly nice hour or two was spent here, walking in near silence, only broken occasional comments to each other, expressing our love of the place. All this, tucked away in a little recess away from the river and road, mountains sitting just behind. A very special place.
Surrounded by wine.
Grapes ready for picking.
Beautiful Catalan villages.
Stone villages.
Before leaving the next day, we headed out to have a little bit of a walk to work up an appetite for a big Catalan lunch. We parked the car at the Ermita Mare de Déu de la Consolació de Gratallops (the Hermitage of Our Lady of Consolation of Gratallops), and heading along a path towards La Vilella Alta, one of many little towns in the area, all very beautiful and very Catalan. The walk was easy and always surrounded by grape vines, some within easy reach, and the grapes were sweet and juicy. It didn't take long to get there, but the goal wasn't the town itself, more the walk and enjoyment of the area - the Montsant mountain range always in the background, a beautiful, yet very quiet, Catalan village and green leaves of the vines everywhere. The Priorat wine area is special compared to its Rioja cousin in Spain, due to the fact that none of these grapes can be harvested by machine - it's all done by hand. This is because of the hills, most far too steep for tractors, and so every part of the land is used as possible, grape vines follow the natural curbes of the land, but this restricts production, pushing up the prices of these wines. The town was quiet, apart from the usual Sunday traffic of people buying bread and a few old blocks sitting in the square chatting about whatever old guys chat about. Not much life here, however beautiful. We headed back to the car, walked around the hermitage, then headed for the restaurant. It's very common in Spain and Catalonia to order a 'menu,' or the daily special. This is a starter, main, bread, wine and coffee or dessert afterwards. We had a huge, meaty soup, accompanied with various tapes, including prawns, followed by a large portion of meat for the main. We'd brought our own wines which we'd purchased the previous day, which added a little something to the already great food. Throughout stuff and content, we chilled by the restaurant's pool before heading back to Barcelona. Although things change, not always for the best, some traditions are important to hold on to - this is a tradition of mine now, wine tasting (drinking) in a beautiful wine region of Catalonia, with good, like-minded friends.


Good friends.
The 'hunt' is over and good wine is the 'reward.'
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UncleTravellingMatt. September 2018.

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