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Thanks to Catalonia’s privileged geographical location and a 2000-year-old winemaking tradition that started with the Romans, you start this viticulture experience with a hearty brunch with an extensive tasting in the lower Pyrenees mountains, your glasses raised throughout the quaint plazas of the Roman-Medieval old quarter (El Barri Vell) of Girona city and wind-down overlooking the clear waters and pristine beaches of the Mediterranean sea.
Leaving from Barcelona or Girona, the first stop is an austere, small family-owned and operated vineyard and bodega just a few miles from the French border in the Alt Empordà. This late breakfast, early lunch is an impressive tasting of the best of the provincial cheeses, pates, olives, cured meats, and barbequed meats paired with carefully crafted cava (Spanish champagne), elegant whites, and full-bodied reds under the same sun and landscape that inspired local greats like Salvador Dalí.
The second stop of the day is in a neighboring vineyard that ironically has an incredibly different and wonderfully creative cultivation, elaboration, and product line that has, according to the local farmers, defied all odds in that the land was literally left for dead a century ago.
The tasting is followed by either visiting the Dalí Casa-Museu in Figueres or moving directly on to Girona city to cozy into your accommodation and start exploring the Roman/ Medieval city before dinner and local nightlife.
The day starts at your pace after breakfast for a walking tour of the old quarter which gradually and conveniently turns into a gastronomic wine and food tour with stops throughout Girona’s old quarter. Much like our Barcelona Tasting Barcelona tour, we will stop by at least four of the quaint, local venues for select tapas and other hot dishes of Catalan and Spanish specialties with pairings of great local wines while seeing the main plazas, bridges, back alleys, gothic churches, and the roman/medieval walls.
The late afternoon is yours for relaxing, shopping, and strolling along the old quarter’s narrow streets. There are many interesting art exhibits, museums and shops around Girona and all are within easy walking distance of your accommodation in the old quarter. A walk along the river trails in the cooler late afternoon before dinner at one of our favorite hidden gem restaurants with wine pairing is highly recommended.
After breakfast in Girona, we will move toward the sunny Costa Brava beaches stopping at one or two of the medieval villages along the way. The first tasting of the day will take place before lunch at one of the premier wineries in the Baix Empordà county. A short field tour with the resident winemaker gives a great contrast to the Alt Empordà wines you enjoyed on Day 1 and an instant appreciation for the arduous cultivation process that the first Romans endured on these same soils 2000 years ago.
Lunch with wine is served beachfront in one of the quaint fishing villages of the central Costa Brava. You will have time after lunch to enjoy the beach or take a walk to the next town along the pristine coves. We will make a nice last stop at a small family-run winery on the way back to Barcelona for a taste of very different styled wines. You will be back in Barcelona with enough time to relax from your day and get ready for dinner, which we are more than happy to organize for you, or you can carry on the festivities on one of the Spanish Trails food and wine tours such as our very popular Tasting Barcelona tour.