Day 16, Monday May 14, 2012

Alicia's dog is a German Shepard named Doo Bop. His favourite game was "chase me around the table." We ran into Tarragona first thing in the morning to hit a pharmacy, and then we were set for the day.

Our main excursion was to hit the Costers del Siurana winery, where they produce four wines, including Clos de L'Orac.

Our visit had been arranged by Alicia...we got a tour and a very nice tasting.

Our tour guide was the wine maker, Joana.

Nice touch...they had personalized our tasting place mats.

Mmmm, a complex and delicious red: Miserere. We nursed one of these bottles all the way back to Canada.

The white was fantastic. I generally hate white wine, but this one tasted like a red.

My favourite wine here was their Dolc de L'Obac, a sweet after-dinner red. We got one of these bottles back home too.

Our Catacurian hostesses, Alicia and Marte.

Later in the afternoon, we had an olive oil tasting back at the house. Gerard, a bona fide olive oil taster came in to give us a lesson. Green-colored oil comes from the early harvest in November. Golden-yellow oil comes from the late harvest, in December. Extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil should give you the highest quality experience.

Some of the qualities measured in olive oil are sweetness, bitterness, astringency, fruitiness and spiciness. Generally, we should all be looking for a well-balanced oil that displays all of these characteristics. But as we noted during our trip...this type of oil was very elusive.

Another great day in Priorat.