Penedes Cava Cellars

Cava was first made in the Penedes in the 1870s, when producers applied the Champagne method of second fermentation in the bottle to local grapes, principally Macabeu, Xarel-lo and Parellada, and Sant Sadurni d'Anoia became the centre; around ninety-five per cent of Spanish cava comes from the area. The large houses have cellars dug several storeys down, some with tens of kilometres of galleries holding millions of bottles at constant temperature, visited by small train or on foot. Codorniu's cellars are set beneath a Modernist winery by Puig i Cadafalch; Freixenet's are alongside the station. Smaller family producers across the Penedes offer more personal visits, and Vilafranca has a wine museum.

What you actually see

• The underground galleries - kilometres of cellars holding millions of bottles.
• The Modernist wineries - buildings by Puig i Cadafalch and contemporaries.
• The traditional method - second fermentation and riddling explained.
• The small producers - family cellars across the Penedes countryside.

When to go

April to June and September to October; harvest runs from late August into September. Tours must be booked, and the large houses run set times while small producers need arrangement.

Honest expectations

Tours at the big houses are industrial in scale and heavily commercial, ending in a shop. The cellars are cool and require a jacket. Reaching the smaller producers needs a car and a driver who does not taste.

Nearby

Vilafranca del Penedes and its wine museum are close; Sitges lies south on the coast.