Wine Tour to Priorat and Penedès
Wednesday 14th-Saturday 17th May 2025 – a few places available
Tuesday 10th-Friday 13th June 2025 – good availability
Wednesday 15th-Saturday 18th October 2025 – fully booked
4 days/3 nights based in Altafulla. £1,399pp £100 single supplement
Price excludes travel to/from our Meeting/Departure Points
Early booking discount available
- Visits to top estates, meeting owners and winemakers, and tasting fabulous wines.
- Our visits will cover key Catalan regions of Priorat, Penedès and Terra Alta.
- Based in Altafulla, a pretty seaside town.
- We will enjoy rugged scenery, wonderful viticultural landscapes and winery architecture.
- At least six visits over three days.
- Comprehensive tastings at every visit, and five tasting lunches or dinners
Tour dates 2025
Wednesday 14th-Saturday 17th May – a few places available
Tuesday 10th-Friday 13th June – good availablilty
Wednesday 15th-Saturday 18th October – fully booked
Outline Itinerary
Day 1
Our tour commences in the morning at our Meeting Point, Barcelona Airport. Our coach will meet the mid morning arriving flight from London and take us directly to the Penedès region. There we will have lunch and enjoy a visit and tasting with a top Cava producer prior to our journey to Altafulla, where we will settle into our hotel.
Evening at leisure.
Day 2
A full day focusing on Priorat, one of only the very few regions globally making world class wine from Grenache/Garnacha. We will visit two leading wineries and discover how the terroirs of this unique region contributes to its wonderful wines. There will be comprehensive tastings at each visit, and we will enjoy a superb lunch cooked al fresco.
Evening at leisure.
Day 3
A second day focusing on the exciting region of Terra Alta, allowing us to delve deeper into the high quality red and white wines made from grapes grown on steep slopes under intense sunshine, but with the cooling influence of sea breezes and altitude. A light tapas lunch will be taken, leaving us prepared for our final night dinner at a top restaurant in Altafulla.
Day 4
As we are coordinating with evening flights home, our final day will include a visit to another winery in Penedès, where we will be able to explore both sparkling and still wines and experience the very high quality of the region. A leisurely final lunch will allow us plenty of time for our coach to get us to the airport.
Note: the Itinerary may be changed at Tim Syrad Wine Tours discretion so as to facilitate the smooth running of the tour and to accommodate great opportunities for visits or tastings that may become available.
Key Tour Information
* The Key Tour Information specifies what you should expect from the tour, no matter how far ahead you book.
As additional information is published on the website, it will be advised to clients who have reserved a place. The daily itinerary will be finalised in the weeks leading up to the Start Date.
Pricing
- £1,399 per person based on 2 people sharing a double/twin room.
- £100 supplement for single occupancy of a double room,
- £100 discount for bookings made before 1st January 2025, and paid for 12 weeks before departure.
Price includes
- 4 days (including arrival and departure days)/3 nights bed and breakfast in good quality 4 star hotel in Altafulla.
- Coach for all activities in the itinerary.
- Two full days, two part days of visits and tastings.
- At least six visits/tastings, covering Priorat, Penedès and other major Catalan wine producing regions.
- Four lunches/dinners with local wines.
- All local taxes and service charges.
- The services of Tim Syrad as your Wine Tour Manager and Wine Guide.
It is a condition of my accepting a booking that you will take out appropriate travel insurance – please see our Terms and Conditions Section 8.
Terms and Conditions are available here or on request.
Please note travel to destination is not included in the price. Many of my clients prefer to extend their holiday before or after my tours, so I let people make their own travel arrangements.
* End of Key Tour Information
Travel to/from the Tour
Our Meeting and Departure Points are Barcelona Airport. I will arrange a coach to coincide with the following flights.
Tour 1 – 14th-17th May 2025
Outbound (Wednesday 14th May)
British Airways from London Heathrow to Barcelona. Flight 0484 departs LHR 0855 arrives BCN 1205
Return (Saturday 17th May)
British Airways from Barcelona to London. Heathrow. Flight 0487 departs BCN 1950 arrives LHR 2110
Tour 2 – 10th-13th June 2025
Outbound (Tuesday 10th June)
British Airways from London Heathrow to Barcelona. Flight 0476 departs LHR 0750 arrives BCN 1100
Return (Friday 13th June)
British Airways from Barcelona to London. Heathrow. Flight 0483 departs BCN 2030 arrives LHR 2150
Tour 3 – 15th-18th October 2025
Outbound (Wednesday 15th October)
British Airways from London Heathrow to Barcelona. Flight 0484 departs LHR 0855 arrives BCN 1205
Return (Saturday 18th October)
British Airways from Barcelona to London. Heathrow. Flight 0487 departs BCN 1950 arrives LHR 2110
How to Book this Tour
Please contact me by phone or email, or use the enquiry form on the Contact page on the website to check availability. When I confirm a place is available, please complete the booking form to reserve your place.
Once I have confirmed a tour is proceeding I advise clients to arrange flights and confirm travel arrangements to me. Please do not arrange flights before I have confirmed your place and that the tour is proceeding.
Full payment must be made 12 weeks before the tour starts, invoices will be sent out 14 weeks before the tour starts. Two weeks before the tour starts you will need to provide your insurance details (name of insurer, policy number, 24 hour emergency telephone numbers), outbound/inbound travel arrangements and any dietary requirements.
More about my Wine Tour to Catalunya
Catalunya has a long history of top quality wine making, and is a wonderful place to visit, for its spectacular scenery, fabulous food and warm Catalan hospitality. Long established companies such as Miguel Torres vie with young energetic producers to make top quality wines, in a wide variety of styles, most at unbelievably affordable prices! From top quality method traditional sparkling wines (not all produced under the Cava DO), to fresh aromatic whites, to highly gastronomic red and white wines, there is a wide palate of styles to explore – and a local gastronomic scene that complements these wines perfectly.
Where we are staying
Altafulla is a municipality in the Tarragona region. It has a beautifully intact old quarter crowned by the castle of Altafulla, and a wonderful stretch along the beach with plenty of bars and restaurants.
Vine Growing and Wine Making
Recent droughts have been a challenge to the region, with the result that there is increasing focus on quality over quantity. Investment has followed the accelerating reputation for quality, so we will see both modern and historic wineries, each with their own distinctive story to tell.
Priorat is one of the greatest red wines in the world, and we will explore how the Garnacha and Cariñena grape varieties grown on precipitous slopes in extremely arid conditions yield very low levels of high quality concentrated juice, and how these are treated in the cellar to produce magnificent wines, many released after several years maturation. In the vineyards, the famous Llicorella soils of Priorat (vertically aligned slates) allow vine roots to search deep for water, while altitude gives the vines a chance to rest as temperatures drop at night.
In Penedès we will have a chance to discover how a number of wine makers have departed from the Cava DO to form their own specific associations that give them greater discretion in how they make their wines, and are producing sparkling wines of fabulous complexity – and how the Cava DO itself has had to ‘catch up’ and is creating its own ‘terroir driven’ sub categories.
Wine regions
While wine has been made in Priorat since the Cathusian monks who established the Cartuja (Charerhouse) of Scala Dei, modern winemaking ‘s history is relatively recent. It was only in the 1990s that a small group of passionate grape growers and winemakers led by René Barbier collaborated to invest in specific vineyards, and rescue old vines and plant new ones, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot. They also introduced modern winemaking techniques that allowed far greater expression of fruit character, and maturation in new oak which allowed the wines’ evolution to be expressed. Garnacha and Cariñena (known locally as Samsó) remain the major varieties, and there is increasing exploration of individual terroirs within the region, twelve official sub zones and single vineyard wines.
Penedès, while very much the home of Cava, is also a top region for making still wines. Across the three regions of Penedès Marítim, Central and Superior, different terroirs enable different styles to be made, from full bodied reds made from Monastrell (Mourvèdre) to aromatic whites made from Riesling and Gewurztraminer.
There are 11 DOs (appellations) in Catalunya, including Cava. In three days we cannot cover all the diversity of the region, but our visit to Terra Alta will show how winemaking is progressing and innovating. Emerging as a producer of top quality wines, the region is developing a reputation for some stunning fresh whites and reds, and a pioneer of sustainable wine growing.
Gastronomy
Catalunya benefits from proximity to the sea, a Mediterranean climate, rugged mountains where livestock graze naturally and plains where pretty much any crop can be grown. Its cuisine is based on freshly cooked local ingredients and whether as a plate of simple tapas, or a five course tasting menu, we will enjoy superb dishes.
More about Tim Syrad Wine Tours
Since 1997 I have escorted over 140 groups of people on wine tours, visiting more than 40 wine regions in Europe and the New World. My clients keep coming back year after year because in addition to tastings and visits we really do meet the people who make the wine and tend the vines.
I pride myself in offering tours that are informative, imaginative and enjoyable. I keep group sizes manageable so that we spend our time appreciating our visits, not getting on and off the bus or queuing for the loos! I personally escort all of my tours, and I ensure as much as possible of the money my clients pay is spent on great food and wine, and good hotels. I believe you can combine appreciating fabulous wine with relaxation and laughter, which is why so many of my clients come on tour with me every year. More than 100 people have come on at least 10 of my tours.
There is a friendly and welcoming atmosphere on every tour from the start, and I am proud that many friendships have been made between the people who come on tour with me.
Check out the FAQ page for more specific information about my tours, or contact me directly if you would like to discuss any aspect of my tours.
For more information about me, my next tours, and previous tours I have run, and to find out what my clients say (some of whom have been coming on tour with me since 2001) please explore the website.
Get in touch
For more information, or to book a place, please contact me
By phone (020 7060 4529)
Or email (tim@timsyradwinetours.com)
Or use the online enquiry form on the Contact page