Catalonia gave the world Pablo Casals, Joan Miro, Antoni Tapies, Salvador Dali, Pedro Almodavar and Antoni Gaudi who each changed the way we see the world. Catalonia gave us delicious foods include pa’amb tomàquet (bread with tomato, oil and garlic),  escalivada (vegetables roasted and then served with olive oil), esqueixada de bacallà (cod fish with onions, tomatoes, vinegar, salt, olives and hard-boiled eggs), arròs negre (rice with squid ink, black and delicious) and of course crema catalana! And Catalonia has given us the great, intense wines of Priorat and the delicious sparkling wines of the Penedes, Cava! 

Our tours start with a glass or two of Cava.  With glasses in hands we travel to the Penedes to visit the Cava cellars and experience the spectacular beauty of the region.  We’ll spend time learning about Cava and tasting the local specialties that pair so well with this delicious sparkling wine (Spain’s “Champagne”).  We’ll spend the evening in Penedes and then, in the morning, travel to the Priorat.

Priorat – The most prestigious and famous still wines of Catalonia are the wines of Priorat.  Highly concentrated and grown on steep slate terraces (like the wines of the Douro and of Collioure) Priorat wines are like none other in Spain. 

We will visit Falset the capital of Priorat, visit the seaside resort of Sitges and, if we are visiting in August, enjoy the music festival. 

Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is the Los Angeles, the Tel Aviv, the Miami, the Rio de Janeiro of Europe.  Brassy, full of life.  Great restaurants and a culture all its own.  We will visit top restaurants, the new port full of new shops and the historic heart of the city.

Porto,  Porto is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage City, and like Bordeaux a major wine port.  Situated at the estuary of the majestic Douro river, Porto is divided into the Portuguese center and the merchant neighbor Vila Nova (new city) de Gaia, the center of the wine trade. We will visit the center of the wine trade with tastings at some of the major Port houses, Dow, Warres, Fonseca, Taylors and others. We will visit the resort seaside of Porto for a lunch at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.  And of course a visit to historic Porto, the great Eiffel bridge, and the best restaurants in town.

The most important Portuguese wine growing regions from north to south are Vinho
Verde from the cool green vineyards bordering the Atlantic Ocean; the magnificent
Douro valley which now produces both the famous sweet wines, Port, and tremendous
dry wines; the Dao and Barraida, up and coming regions in center Portugal; Alentejo and Tejo, two warm regions producing delicious red, white and rose wines with soft tannins and deep flavors and, finally, the island wines from Madeira, among the greatest sweet wines in the world.

The most well-known Portuguese dessert is Pasteis de Nata, yellow egg yolk custard in a flaky pastry. The pastry is directly related to the production of wine because the whites of the eggs are used to clarify the wine (a process called fining which leaves no residue in the wine).
This delicious dessert is delicious with red wine too!