Winemaker Experience in Catalonia

For people who want to work in the vines and the cellar, side by side with the winemakers who run them. The days follow the vineyard's calendar, from the season's work in the rows to tasting what it becomes in the cellar. Six days working alongside a Penedès winemaking family, from green pruning in the vines to blending and bottling your own wine.

Spain

6 Days

Vilafranca del Penedès -> Sant Sadurní d'Anoia

BACK TO ALL

Day 1

Arrival in Penedès

Settle into a wine estate outside Vilafranca del Penedès, where your group has the place to itself, under an hour from Barcelona. After a first stroll between the vines, dinner is a Catalan classic: botifarra sausages grilled over vine cuttings, pa amb tomàquet, and the estate's own xarel·lo, the white grape the region is built on. From the estate, the jagged outline of Montserrat sits on the horizon, and it looks its best at dusk.

Day 2

Green Pruning

Start early with the vineyard manager and learn green pruning: removing extra shoots so the vine puts its energy into the fruit. It's real work, and the team explains why each cut matters for what ends up in the bottle. Lunch is laid out at the vineyard's edge, and the afternoon stays free. Lunch is simple and generous: bread, local cheese, cured botifarra, and a bottle from the estate opened right there among the vines.

Day 3

Meet the Winemaker

Spend the day in the cellar with the winemaker, tasting wines still in progress straight from tank and barrel, including sumoll, a native red grape the region is bringing back. Lunch is with the winemaker's family, the kind of long Catalan meal where questions about wine turn into stories about the land. Sumoll had almost disappeared from Penedès before a few growers began replanting it, and the winemaker explains why it's worth the effort.

Day 4

Blend Your Own

Work with the winemaking team on a blend of your own, tasting and adjusting until it's right, then bottle and label it to carry home. If the timing works, the evening brings Vilafranca's castellers, the human tower builders the town is famous for, at their weekly practice. Each guest designs their own label, so no two bottles leaving the estate look the same.

Day 5

Cava Country

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is the center of cava production, and a visit shows the traditional method up close: bottles turned by hand in riddling racks, in cellars that run deep underground. Back at the estate, the final dinner is set at a long table among the vines. Cava is made by the same method as Champagne, with its second fermentation in the bottle, and the cellar tour shows each step.

Day 6

Departure

One more turn around the vineyard while the day is still cool, then on to Barcelona, with your own bottle packed for home. The city is close, so there's time for a final coffee outside before leaving.

blue and white painted houses on the cliff

Ready to bring this journey to life?

Our sample itineraries are just the beginning. Every Adler Marlow trip is designed around you, your pace, your passions, your people. Let us tailor something extraordinary among the vines of Penedès.

Start Planning My Journey

blue and white painted houses on the cliff

Ready to bring this journey to life?

Our sample itineraries are just the beginning. Every Adler Marlow trip is designed around you, your pace, your passions, your people. Let us tailor something extraordinary among the vines of Penedès.

Start Planning My Journey

blue and white painted houses on the cliff

Ready to bring this journey to life?

Our sample itineraries are just the beginning. Every Adler Marlow trip is designed around you, your pace, your passions, your people. Let us tailor something extraordinary among the vines of Penedès.

Start Planning My Journey

Explore additional journeys

More for your inspiration

Jewish Heritage: Morocco

Jewish heritage in Morocco with a local historian: the mellah of Fez and the Ibn Danan synagogue, Sefrou's old Jewish quarter, and the mellah of Meknès.

Jewish Heritage: Morocco

Jewish heritage in Morocco with a local historian: the mellah of Fez and the Ibn Danan synagogue, Sefrou's old Jewish quarter, and the mellah of Meknès.

Hands in the Kitchen: Alentejo

Cook through Portugal's Alentejo: wood-fired bread, açorda and migas, acorn-fed black pork, sheep's cheese, cork forests, and wine made in clay talhas.

Hands in the Kitchen: Alentejo

Cook through Portugal's Alentejo: wood-fired bread, açorda and migas, acorn-fed black pork, sheep's cheese, cork forests, and wine made in clay talhas.

Ride Andalusia

Riding in Andalusia: countryside rides from a finca near Jerez, the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, El Rocío, Doñana, and Atlantic beaches.

Ride Andalusia

Riding in Andalusia: countryside rides from a finca near Jerez, the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, El Rocío, Doñana, and Atlantic beaches.

Day 1

Arrival in Penedès

Settle into a wine estate outside Vilafranca del Penedès, where your group has the place to itself, under an hour from Barcelona. After a first stroll between the vines, dinner is a Catalan classic: botifarra sausages grilled over vine cuttings, pa amb tomàquet, and the estate's own xarel·lo, the white grape the region is built on. From the estate, the jagged outline of Montserrat sits on the horizon, and it looks its best at dusk.

Day 2

Green Pruning

Start early with the vineyard manager and learn green pruning: removing extra shoots so the vine puts its energy into the fruit. It's real work, and the team explains why each cut matters for what ends up in the bottle. Lunch is laid out at the vineyard's edge, and the afternoon stays free. Lunch is simple and generous: bread, local cheese, cured botifarra, and a bottle from the estate opened right there among the vines.

Day 3

Meet the Winemaker

Spend the day in the cellar with the winemaker, tasting wines still in progress straight from tank and barrel, including sumoll, a native red grape the region is bringing back. Lunch is with the winemaker's family, the kind of long Catalan meal where questions about wine turn into stories about the land. Sumoll had almost disappeared from Penedès before a few growers began replanting it, and the winemaker explains why it's worth the effort.

Day 4

Blend Your Own

Work with the winemaking team on a blend of your own, tasting and adjusting until it's right, then bottle and label it to carry home. If the timing works, the evening brings Vilafranca's castellers, the human tower builders the town is famous for, at their weekly practice. Each guest designs their own label, so no two bottles leaving the estate look the same.

Day 5

Cava Country

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is the center of cava production, and a visit shows the traditional method up close: bottles turned by hand in riddling racks, in cellars that run deep underground. Back at the estate, the final dinner is set at a long table among the vines. Cava is made by the same method as Champagne, with its second fermentation in the bottle, and the cellar tour shows each step.

Day 6

Departure

One more turn around the vineyard while the day is still cool, then on to Barcelona, with your own bottle packed for home. The city is close, so there's time for a final coffee outside before leaving.

BACK TO ALL