The oak tree in the middle of the lawn is 500 years old and for 2-3 years has been resting on a serious slant after a wet season with high winds shifted it. Yet it lives and remains the symbol of Raventos i Blanc wines. But I am getting ahead of the day!
Today was a complete change of scene and focus. It began with the little mysteries of how to find the correct train to get where we were going, and no timetable seemed to have the same times for the R4 train. Reading the symbolic language of public transportation is as layered and nuanced as any language. We managed. The temperature was already climbing.
Once on the train, the landscape around us transformed from urban to industrial to suburban in a very short time. It was about 40 minutes before the first vineyards appeared and we got off at the next stop: Sant Sadurni D'Anoia, the home in the Penedes region of sparkling wines and robust reds, crisp whites.
We were collected by Sylvia and settled in at Raventos i Blanc. We all thoroughly enjoyed the tour with Antonio- first to the vineyard and then seeing each phase of the crushing of the white and the red, the way the fermentation is enhanced, the sediment removed, the storage for aging and then the final corking and labeling.
The buildings are beautifully integrated into the land and the task.
And then we tasted four distinctly different wines. This was a delightful time for sharing with our guide, relishing his enthusiasm as he did ours, and speaking the language of admiration and appreciation - for wine, for the heartfelt traditions behind their production, for families, travel and sharing.
So much delicious wine before lunch! It was a miracle when Juan dropped us off at a wonderful local restaurant, Cal Ticus, where we all chose three courses from the "menu diari" and ate with great fervor and gratitude!
Oh well, what else could we do? We wandered this sweet hot sleepy village - full of small wine makers and dominated by the enormous factory/home of Freixenet just across from the train station.
Getting back to Barcelona at rush hour, Rob and I once again planning our dinner based on what we found on the way home. Pasta with fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, rosemary and pepper with beautiful lettuce and olives will just have to do... But not until we've all put our feet up for a while!
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