Europe’s cultiest wines are being produced in Catalonia

Whether it’s sunburned students on a party plane to Ibiza or in-the-know gastronomes flitting between tapas bars, sunny Spain is a rite of passage. 

And at some point, every sightseer lands in Catalonia.

For most, that means Barcelona: a visit to Park Güell, the Sagrada Família and a night out at one of the best restaurants in the world.

But Catalonia has so much more to offer than the beaches of Barcelona — especially for wine lovers. Just outside the city, clustered around Penedès lie vino spots with pop-star appeal. Artist Dua Lipa recently wrote, “I was lucky enough to spend some time in Catalonia, visiting vineyards and discovering the incredible wines of the region.” She shouted out swishing spots like Clos Lentiscus, Partida Creus, and Emilie Mutombo as a few of her favorites.

But be more intrepid than Ms. Lipa and head further east, up the Costa Brava, until you reach the Cap de Creus, where the Pyrenees spill into the Mediterranean and the surrounding vineyards of Empordà. It’s one of the most dramatic vistas on the planet.

Take it from us, a visit to this lesser-known region is a very hot tip that few outside of the wine industry are talking about.

What the area is famous for is El Celler de Can Roca, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Girona (the capital of this Catalan state about a 45-minute drive from the grapes of Empordà).

“Empordà wines are better than ever,” said sommelier Josep Roca i Fontané of El Celler de Can Roca. “A young, entrepreneurial and talented generation occupy an area full of opportunities, different soils and excellent conditions with the three varieties of carignan and the three varieties of grenache like nowhere else in the world of wine.”

Translation for the noobs: Because it’s the warmest part of France and the coolest part of Spain, Empordà makes complex wine that tastes like nowhere else.

The economic heart of the wine region is Perelada Castle where a 14th-century castle anchors the region’s largest winery and accompanying hotel property. The Perelada grounds feature a wine spa, a golf course, a garden park, a small casino and a Michelin-starred restaurant from El Bulli alums.

The winery is worth visiting for the architecture alone. The stunning, sustainable building was designed over 15 years by Pritzker Prize-winning Catalan firm RCR Architects. With a focus on sustainability, they were the first winery in Europe to achieve LEED-gold certification. Their entry-level wines are great for the price point, but “Finca Espolla” (a mourvèdre and syrah blend from a cool, black slate mountain vineyard) and “Aires Garbet” (100% garnacha) both knock it out of the park.

Perelada is a large operation, but one of the things that makes Empordà so special is that it is home to many small, naturally focused winemakers working old vines that survived Franco’s grapevine purge.

Echoing Roca, John McCarroll, host of the popular wine podcast “Disgorgeous” and self-proclaimed “Catalunya advocate,” rhapsodized about Catalan wine: “Catalunya is my favorite wine region on Earth, and there’s a lot of reasons why. It’s prioritizing indigenous winemaking. It’s very natural. If you’re a winemaker, you’re out there for a reason.”