About
In many Spanish cities, a bodega is a corner store or bar with – if you’re lucky – a wine cellar and a small kitchen serving riffs on traditional Spanish foods. Barcelona’s bodegas are all of these things and more: the beating heart of their respective barrio, or neighborhood. There, wine barrels, chalk marked with their content’s region of origin, line the walls. Neighbors come in and fill a jug to take it home, pausing for a drink and a bite to eat and some banter. On this tour, as we travel along Barcelona’s urban wine route, we’ll be among those regulars, eating and drinking our way through some of the city’s most iconic bodegas, wine shops and neighborhood restaurants. We begin in front of one of the city’s most beautiful century-old markets, El Mercat de Sant Antoni, located in the Eixample district. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the key ingredients that define the menu of Barcelona’s iconic bodegas: vibrant vegetables, artisanal charcuterie, pickles and olives, as well as both cured and fresh fish. From there, we’ll explore remnants of the old city walls before heading to one of the most emblematic bodegas in the area for a glass of cava, Catalonia’s celebrated sparkling wine. Next, we’ll make our way into the Raval neighborhood, the southwestern edge of Barcelona’s historic Old City, to visit a selection of traditional bodegas, each with its own personality, yet all sharing a deep-rooted connection to wine, old-school tapas, and their local communities. We’ll taste wines poured straight from the barrel and enjoy a properly served vermouth before walking back to L’Eixample for a curated tasting of some of Catalonia’s most essential wines. Throughout the tour, we’ll enjoy a rich variety of preserved delicacies: cured meats, salted fish, and marinated seafood that reflect the Mediterranean’s ancient methods of preservation – practices still alive and reimagined in today’s bodegas. And of course, we won’t miss out on the other cornerstone of these beloved establishments: slow-cooked, hearty meat stews that speak to the soul of traditional urban cuisine. Along the way, we’ll indulge in a few local sweet and liquid culinary surprises — the kind that round out the bodega experience with just the right contrast. There is plenty of food to call this tour a long, well-lubricated lunch and enough drinks to consider it an extended happy hour. Better yet, we like to call it an invitation into the unique culture of the Barcelona bodega and the barrios that keep this tradition alive.
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