¡Hola!
Today we went on a wine tasting adventure through the region of Priorat in Spain. Our group was able to tour two wineries, a historical monastery, and eat at a local restaurant. Although the coastal city of Tarragona has been beautiful to live in so far, it was a nice change of scenery to travel on winding roads throughout the mountains.
At the first winery, our tour guide gave us samples of Vermouth wine made in this region and explained the process of how wine is created and stored in large stainless steel tanks and wooden barrels. We learned how they create rancid wine (which sounds much better in Spanish) by keeping them in green glass containers on the roof of the cellar, so that they can ferment in the sun. Our guide finished our tour with some more red, white, and rosé wine tasting of their two brands, Ètim and Castell de Falset. This winery was interesting to tour because it was designed by the architect Cèsar Martinell, who was a friend and disciple of the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí.
After this, we visited the monastery of Scala Dei in Priorat, which had been originally constructed in the year 1203! There were parts of the buildings still standing from the 17th century, when monks first began to use this area. This monastery had been abandoned for more than 100 years after some conflict between the Spanish government and the church, but is now being refurbished and is open to visitors to tour. Despite a small rainstorm that we walked through, we enjoyed learning about the history of this location and the intriguing way of life that monks followed there in past centuries.
We ate a delicious lunch at La Plaça, a restaurant near the second winery we toured. We were served more of the traditional Catalan/Mediterranean food that we have been enjoying throughout our stay here, including salads, seafood, meats, pasta, desserts, and of course, café con leche for “los Americanos” who rejected the typical European espresso by itself. We toured the winery here and tasted more different types of wines, and some students bought Spanish wine to take home to America. Overall, it was a fun day of learning about the Priorat region and absorbing more Spanish culture!
¡Buen provecho!
– Andrea Econa