"Barcelona must act as the capital of a rich and diverse wine-growing territory"

Catalonia has been producing wine for more than 2,700 years. Since then, the Catalan territory has become a land dominated by vineyards and a wide variety of wineries from which this product, considered the preferred drink of the Gods, is even marketed internationally. A production and tradition with a millennial character that, however, has been evolving and professionalizing over the decades. In fact, in recent years, vineyards and wineries have managed to reinvent themselves to offer national and international visitors experiences that connect high-quality wines with the landscape, gastronomy, and heritage and that, in addition, attract new audiences, through activities such as yoga among vineyards or musical vermouths.

"Contrary to general conception, it was not the Greeks or the Romans who introduced wine and amphorae to Catalonia. Wine was introduced as an exotic product by the Phoenicians, coming from the first Phoenician colony in Gádir (Cadiz)," clarified sociologist and enotourism expert Lluís Tolosa at the session Enotourism near Barcelona, many experiences to discover, organized by The New Barcelona Tabla within the Moments Estel·lars cycle.

Tolosa, who has studied the history of this drink in Catalan lands in his book Origen de la vinya i el vi a Catalunya. Una perspectiva arqueològica i sociològica together with Dani López, specified that the first press to extract grape juice and turn it into wine took place in 700 BC in Avinyonet del Penedès. Two millennia later, Penedès, that first region where the tradition of wine and vineyards began, continues to play a prominent role in the Catalan wine scene, concentrating 152 of the 435 visitable wineries that currently exist in Catalonia.

But this is not the only region that cultivates grapes and produces wine. According to the study Wine Travel Observer, promoted by the Escola d'Enoturisme de Catalunya, Catalonia has 1,090 businesses linked to enotourism in more than twelve denominations of origin. Among these establishments, 435 visitable wineries, 470 restaurants, 102 tourist establishments, 60 travel agencies, and 23 service companies stand out. The province of Barcelona concentrates almost half of these wineries open to tourism, with a total of 182.

"Catalunya has a wonderful variety of wines: from the xarel·lo of Penedès to the picapoll or the mandó —a recently recovered variety— of the DO Pla de Bages, passing through the trepat of Conca de Barberà", exemplified the writer and presenter of the Catalunya Ràdio program Tast Vertical, in which she explores wineries, DOs and surprising proposals to bring the public closer to this existing richness.

"A variety and richness that manages to leave sommeliers and professionals from the sector all over the world speechless", said Moliner in a session moderated by journalist and UPF-BSM professor Toni Aira, and organized with the collaboration of the Diputació de Barcelona, Casa Seat, Barcelona Global and Must Media Group. The Barcelona regions concentrate three own designations of origin: in addition to the extensive DO Penedès —with more than 24,000 hectares—, the DO Bages and the DO Alella also stand out, which, despite their smaller dimensions, excel in their intensity and maturity within the sector.

Despite having this millenary tradition, wineries have not only managed to survive the passage of time, even managing to export and shine internationally, but, in addition, for a few decades now, they have also opened up to national and international tourism. "The wine sector is a growing sector that is increasingly professionalized", said the director of the Escola d'Enoturisme de Catalunya, Gerard Domingo. A professionalization that, since 2014, they have accompanied and promoted through training and courses from this center located in Vilafranca del Penedès.

"A few decades ago the sector was dominated by farmers who, in addition to cultivating their land, also produced their wines. But, for a few years now, these producers have also taken another step and have opened up to tourism", said Domingo. Thus, wineries and vineyards offer innovative experiences that not only seduce visitors through the palate, but also manage to pair the experience with history, culture, heritage and respect for the landscape and local producers.

Complete experiences like that of Oller del Mas, in the DO Pla de Bages, which has managed to become the most visited winery in all of Catalonia, with an offer that combines wine with golf and cabins in the middle of nature. Experiences especially rich in moments like those of the harvest, which extends from the end of August until the beginning of October. Since the beginning of time, grape harvesting has been associated with a certain ritualism and even today, when the process has already been almost completely mechanized, it is a reason for celebration and festivity in all the denominations of origin in the province of Barcelona.

A new dimension of the wine sector, into which, in reality, wineries are only just beginning to immerse themselves. In fact, the oldest Catalan wine tourism route, the DO Penedès route, has barely celebrated 20 years since its creation. Thus, "wineries still have a way to go and continue professionalizing themselves," says Domingo, since, for example, of the 435 visitable wineries, only 20% have a reservation manager integrated into their website.

A new tourist attraction

"Barcelona would have to start looking within its own territory and identify with its more rural part," claimed the director of the Escola d'Enoturisme de Catalunya. "Inland tourism, through wineries that connect wine with landscape and history, can also be an opportunity to spread out and reduce the tourist overcrowding suffered by the Catalan capital," defended Domingo.

At a time of debate about the tourist model of the Catalan capital, writer Empar Moliner has defended that "the wine tourist is a type of tourist with a greater degree of involvement and respect for the territory, a tourist who not only visits, but also rents bicycles or binoculars, buys books and oil and, in short, gets involved in the environment." Thus, activities in vineyards and wineries can not only serve as complementary experiences during a visit to Barcelona, which manages to distribute tourism to other territories, but can even become an attraction for national and international visitors. Even today, 50% of visitors to wineries are Catalans, which is why these establishments can still do more to attract an international tourist who is on the rise.

As an example of good practice, sociologist Lluís Tolosa, who has published 25 books on wine and wine tourism, cited the example of China, which in recent years has been converting a large amount of land into vineyards, with the aim of becoming the country with the largest number of vineyards and wineries in the coming years. "In Europe, vineyards are being destroyed while in China they are being built and reproduced throughout the territory, because the country is betting on wine as an economic sector with great potential," said the sociologist.

"A powerful sector in the eyes of China because, on the one hand, it manages to multiply the price of the initial product, grapes, by more than ten, by transforming it into wine. And because, in addition, it manages to connect all economic sectors: primary, secondary and tertiary, in addition to reminding that the vineyard serves as a firebreak against forest fires," the sociologist defended. And he added: "it is time for Catalonia, with Barcelona as its capital and the city that represents us internationally, to begin to value this sector not only as powerful but almost as essential," Tolosa affirmed. The expert has also advocated for the construction of the Catalan Wine House, a preliminary project to build a recreational and cultural center for wine and enotourism in Catalonia, in the style of the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux.

A vindication of Catalonia's own designations of origin in which restoration must also play an essential role, so that bars and restaurants begin to have a greater variety and increasingly recommend local products and beverages. In a year in which Catalonia is asserting itself as a World Region of Gastronomy, the territory has an opportunity to present itself to the world as an international benchmark not only with creative cuisine, but one that does not forget its roots, but also through wines and cavas that manage to seduce palates worldwide.

"The wine sector and enotourism in Catalonia are experiencing an exceptional moment because Barcelona and its regions are beginning to believe in and assert their potential in the international sector," said Empar Moliner, showing hope and assuring that the population has a greater interest in learning about native white, rosé, red, and sparkling wines. With this objective, wineries and vineyards must continue to offer not only increasingly varied proposals —from yoga to musical vermouths—, but also manage to seduce new audiences. Audiences with an increasingly young and female profile, as traditionally these profiles have been relegated from these activities and experiences.

The presenter of Tast Vertical has claimed that, in addition, the products from Barcelona's twelve designations of origin meet the current demands of international consumers, who are asking for "wines with lower alcohol content, more elegant, fine, and ethereal." "All in all, Catalonia has nothing to envy other wine regions in the world and, if it continues to assert its diversity and richness, it can end up occupying the prominent place in the world that it deserves in this field," concluded the writer.