Cava tasting – Villafranca Del Penedes

You can’t go to Barcelona and not fall in love with Cava.

The sparkling wine is the younger, cooler version of Champagne. It’s way more affordable too. And it’s why we built up such a taste for it while living in Barcelona this half of the year.

So, before we left and went home, we decided we’d hit up the famous Villafranca Del Penedès on a bike and Cava winery tour. The region is easily accessible from Barcelona, just an hour or so train ride from Placa Catalunya train station.

With our decision made, we started plotting our Cava adventure.

There were two initial problems facing us here: It’s bloody hot outside, how will we survive cycling in this weather? And will we seriously want to cycle back after sampling a glass or ten of Cava?

Luckily a friend of ours suggested the genius idea of e-bikes. So we booked ourselves two e-bikes from Ecotours Penedès for 30 euros each for the day.

These were a game-changer.

Imagine all of those times you’ve sweated, huffed and puffed when cycling up a hill and wondered how and why people like cycling?

Well wonder no more! E-bikes do the hard work for you. It’s like having the legs of an Olympic cyclist transplanted onto yours.

Honestly, pedalling is for losers.

We met with Thomas at Penedès Eco Tours at 10am sharp as he had a tour group ready to take to a vineyard, which he also kindly invited us on.

Once we were saddled up, we hit the dusty of Catalunya countryside, with Thomas leading the way and talking us through the history of the famous wine and Cava-making region.

Key fact being that Cava is actually a new introduction to the region, and it only really started production in the second half of the last century.

After about an hour of cycling along dirt tracks and vines, we arrived at Giro Del Gorner and we were greeted by the lovely Marta, who showed us around her family run vineyard and discussed the process of Cava-making. (A visit and tasting cost 10 euros per person)

Once the tour had finished, we were given the option of sampling some Cavas grown on the farm. It would have been rude not to, after all of the hard work we’d put in getting here.

The Cavas were incredible – both the young three-year and the older 10-year bottle. They were dry and delightful, with smooth bubbles that trickled down your throat as you drank. This was the good stuff, and way better than the usual Cava that features in the restaurants of Barcelona.

With a substantial amount of glasses drank and an extra bottle of wine given to myself and Jo (thanks Marta!), we also took up the chance to fly my drone over the vineyard, which revealed the real beauty of the vineyard and surrounding areas, with views all the way across to Montserrat.

With Drone batteries depleted, we finished our wine and wobbled/cycled our way back to the bike shop and home to Barcelona, to watch our final sunset on the beach.

What an excellent day trip to end our time in Barcelona.