The cool thing about Barcelona is that you can find world class wine areas just a short taxi ride from the city centre. North of Barcelona is the little village of Alella, just about 18 kilometres by car, or around 20 minutes depending on traffic.

Alella is a small town surrounded by unspoilt nature and standing on the hills surrounding the town you can see down towards the Mediterranean Sea. The tranquility of the area, and the closeness to Barcelona attracted many wealthy families who built their second homes here, and there are plenty of manor houses and villas in both historic and modern styles around town.

Alella and the Maresme region has a long history of wine making and it was with great pride that the region was one of the first in Catalonia to obtain the prestigious qualification of protected area as Denomination of Origin Alella. It has 8 wineries, and 6 of those are organic, and they produce some of the best wines.

We have visited one of the wineries, the Alta Alella. It is the closes winery to Barcelona, located in a national park, and it is family run and fully organic. The wines they produce are some of the best we have tasted. Their cava wines are sublime, and they add no sulphites to their wines. We would highly recommend a tour and tasting, it is so cool to see the cellars, vineyard and the tasting takes place in their very chic glass house built into the hill. If you are a small group, you can also rent an exclusive tasting and lunch and the vineyard.

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The city centre of Alella bustles with small cosy restaurants in a small plaza, and of course lots of wine shops and wine bars who serve the local produce. A great day trip from Barcelona city centre.

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