Penedes and Sitges - round two!

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I took a daytrip to Penedes, Sitges, and Sant Piere. Penedes is only a forty minute drive from the Barcelona city center. Here we took a tour of the Codorniu cava vineyard, where we learned how cava was made. Cava is essentially champagne but it is technically illegal (in the world of wine laws) to call a substance "champagne" unless it’s from a specific region in France. Hence the name "sparkling wine" for bubblies coming from California. In Spain they call it cava. For something to be cava it must have two requirements; first it must go through a second fermentation process in the bottle (this is where yeast is added with the sugar content, making the bubbles) and second it must age for at least nine months once completed. At this vineyard in particular they required 12 months. The longer it ages, the better it is (obvious I know) but cava cannot age past 5 years or the substances with dissolve and it will begin to taste like vinegar. We tasted a brut natural, which has no sugar content, and then of course, headed to the gift shop! You can be sure I bought some "souvenir" cava to bring home with me! After Penedes (the cava vineyard) we headed to Sitges. Sitges is a beach town very close to Barcelona. It’s a 20 minute train ride from the city center, and therefore in the summer many Barcelonans head to the beaches of Sitges rather than their own because they are much cleaner, friendlier, calmer, warmer, and less crowded. Here we strolled around the town. It was really neat to see it during the day and all calm and cleaned up because the first time I was there was for the madness of the Carnival celebration. It’s a great little town, small and quant, with palm trees lining the streets. It’s very clean and pleasant and the beaches are wonderful! It reminds me of a small beach town in southern California. Here we simply lounged on the beach reading books, sunbathing, and enjoying our homemade bocadillos (baguette sandwiches). Afterwards we took the bus to a small town not far from Sitges where we did a wine tasting. We tried two whites, two cavas, and two reds and learned how to determine which wine it was based on where it hit your tongue, the tanduns, the smells, and the tastes. The Spaniards seemed quite appalled that we drank the entirety of the taster glasses, which were in actuality only about four sips. But hey, we’re not nearly as bad as the Germans and the Irish!

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Photos

Sitges
there was a dirbie race going on the following day