Introducing Penedès Wine Country

Some of Spain’s finest wines come from the Penedès plains southwest of Barcelona. Most of the grapes grown in Catalonia are native to Spain and include the white macabeo, garnacha and xarel lo (for white wines), and the black garnacha, monastrell and ull de llebre (hare’s eye) red varieties. Foreign varieties (such as chardonnay, riesling, chenin blanc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and pinot noir) are also widespread.

Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, located about a half-hour train ride west of Barcelona, is the capital of cava, a sparking white wine strongly reminiscent of champagne, though less expensive and very popular in the United States, among other countries. Vilafranca del Penedès, 12km further down the track, is an attractive historical town and the heart of the Penedès Denominación de Origen (DO; Denomination of Origin) region, which produces noteworthy light whites and some reasonable reds, though nothing as famous as rioja.

What’s the difference between cava and champagne? Once you’ve tasted both, you may be hard-pressed to tell the difference. In fact, up until the 1980s, cava was known as Catalan champagne, until prevented from calling it such by the French Champagne district, which did not – as some feared – amount to disaster, but has instead allowed the cava trade to grow and develop its own identity, giving its French counterpart a run for its money. ‘Cava’ is Spanish for ‘wine cellar’, but in this part of the country, it has come to mean its contents.