Catalonia is an autonomous region in the far eastern corner of the country. The climate is mild and Mediterranean and it lies on the same latitude as Tuscany as well as benefiting from the shelter of the Pyrenees behind.

An industrious and resourceful people, the Catalans make an immense range of styles from the fine table wines of Penedes, through sparkling wines and the awesome, heavy-weight Prioratos to the unctuous solera-aged dessert wines of Tarragona.

There are also extremely fine Brandy producers. As well as these wonderful and varied traditional styles, there have recently been hugely successful plantings of French varieties in Penedes. This trend has been led by the Torres family, who set out to produce modern wines specifically for the export market as Spain’s answer to the New World competition.