Thinking & Drinking: Barcelona Edition
New wine discoveries, cool spots in the city, and a light show to ponder.
I’m finally getting around to processing my last few weeks in Barcelona, both the wine fair and my time in the city. I’ll start first with Barcelona Wine Week, and its numerous side events.
Though it only started in 2020, BWW already has established itself as Spain’s premier wine trade show. This year, over 25,000 people attended over three days, meeting with over 1,300 wineries. The organizers told us that roughly a third of Spain’s wineries attended the event. Many industry people now combine BWW with Wine Paris and/or La Dive Bouteille as part of the essential winter wine show itinerary.
I have been working on a magazine feature about Catalonia’s sparkling wine scene (aka Cava Drama, more to come on that) and so I tasted a lot of Corpinnat, Cava, and Clàssic Penedès.
I also spent time checking in on new projects from friends of Everyday Drinking, everything from La Furtiva’s exciting new Priorat bottling, Pas de L’ase to new Rioja vintages from Sierra de Toloño, Artuke, MacRoberts & Canals and Carlos Sanchez, to Raul Moreno’s new Natura Medica, which he claims is “the first amaro in Spain.” Let me say to amaro lovers here: Do whatever you can to get your hands on Natura Medica, which channels Barolo Chinato, but is made with tintilla and palomino, steeped in Andalusian herbs, quinine, and wormwood. It’s awesome.
I tasted a wonderful project involving sumoll, the red grape from Catalonia that I’ve raved about before (those who are in my wine club received a sumoll in the first box). La Peça Coll Del Guix is a unique single-vineyard collaboration between Celler Pardas and L’Enclòs de Peralba, two great wineries in Penedès. Each producer released its own interpretation of the same vineyard, with 65-year-old sumoll vines—a veritable “grand cru” of sumoll.
Finally, I made plenty of time to seek out and taste wines made from winemakers, grapes, and denominacións de origen (DO) that were new to me. Below are several winemakers (from all over Spain) who I met and stood out as noteworthy.
What I’ve Been Drinking: 5 New-To-Me Discoveries
1. Julia Casado — D.O. Bullas (Murcia)
In my circle of wine friends, there seemed to be a lot of talk about Bullas, an appellation in the region of Murcia, where monastrell is the main red grape. Julia Casado Marco is a musician-turned-natural-winemaker who makes wine from mountain vineyards in the Sierra de Lavia. I particularly liked her Ninja de las Uvas, a skin-contact 100% macabeo. Yet even more noteworthy is her La Cañada del Jinete, a 100% monastrell that was so bright, fresh, and drinkable and so very different than the heavy, jammy monastrell you usually get from southern Spain. Importers, take note: we need these wines in the U.S.
2. El Hato y El Garabato and Bodega Frontio — D.O. Arribes
Arribes is a small appellation in the Zamora province, in northwest Spain, along the border with Portugal, lying in the Arribes del Duero Natural Park. Relatively obscure Juan García and Bruñal are the two main red grapes here and Doña Blanca is the key white. During BWW, I went to a great tasting at Antihype wine shop (one of my new Barcelona faves) that featured two wineries from Arribes, El Hato y El Garabato and Bodega Frontio. I loved El Hato y El Garabato ‘Outro Cuento’—made with 100-year-old Doña Blanca vines. I also really liked Bodega Frontio ‘Follaco’—a red made with 100% Juan García. Again: importers, distributors, and retailers take note.
3. Iturregi — Getariako Txakolina
Txakoli, from the Basque country, has become synonymous with light, crisp, effervescent whites that are easy-drinking summer sippers. But I was surprised by the complex, next-level txakoli coming from 30-something winemaker Jon Bermúdez. The black label Iturregi bottling is aged in a 2000-liter chestnut cask, and is like no txakoli I’ve tasted, with complex apple and pear notes, fresh and textured, with a long, vibrant saline finish. Note to importers: Iturregi is looking for representation in the U.S.
4. Art Laietà — D.O. Alella
Alella is a tiny appellation, Spain’s smallest, with only eight producers over 200 hectares. It’s only about 15 kilometers from downtown Barcelona. Here, xarel-lo is the key white grape, but it goes by the local name, pansa blanca. Art Laietà is a larger producer, known for both sparkling and still wines. I really liked their mineral-driven Cau d’en Genís Pansa Blanca and their Puput rosé petnat made with mataró, the local name for monastrell.
5. Jiménez-Landi — Sierra de Gredos (D.O. Méntrida)
I’ve written before about how much I like the garnacha-based wines of Sierra de Gredos, the region near Madrid that is gaining more and more popularity both in Spain and in the U.S. I had never tasted Jiménez-Landi until the Vinos Off-The Record event two weeks ago and I was immediately taken by how elegant and complex the reds are, both their 100% garnacha bottlings and their blends with garnacha and syrah. If you already know Gredos wines such as Comando G, 4 Monos, Bernabeleva, and Pegaso, keep your eye out for this up-and-coming winery.
Where I’ve Been Drinking: New and Old in BCN
Last summer, I published a travel guide/essay entitled “On Barcelona: To Share or Gatekeep?” In it, I discussed how conflicted I was about sharing my favorite places in a city that is crushed with overtourism. My solution was to put my top 40 Barcelona recommendations behind a paywall (because most readers aren’t paying for this newsletter, ahem).
Just about everyone who lives in (or spends time in) Barcelona gatekeeps a few places that they don’t want spoiled with tourists. My friend Nika, who’s lived in Barcelona most of her life, almost always takes me to a “new” bar that she’s simply kept secret from me until that moment. Another friend, who I call the Catalan Poet, took me to an anarchist bar in her working-class neighborhood last week, under the stern condition that I take no photos and never share its name on any platform. I generally keep the names of three places—two wine bars in Poble Sec, and one strange club in L'Eixample—to myself. I refuse to be the reason they’re overrun by Americans.
A number of well-known spots, such as L’Anima del Vi and La Vinya del Senyor, do happen to be in the touristy Born neighborhood. But these places manage to be wine meccas that draw an international audience, but are still beloved by locals. Another iconic bar, Caribbean Club, is tucked right behind the Rambla, near the Boqueria market and its throngs of crowds. With its kitschy ship/maritime theme, Caribbean Club is still a can’t-miss spot for cocktail fans. It’s close quarters, but with Juanjo Gonzalez Rubiera behind the bar, you’re in excellent hands.
Two places where I spent some quality time during the past few weeks have been Masa in Poblenou, and Bar Canyí in Sant Antoni. I love both of them so much. Masa gets crowded, but if you slip in slightly before the typical dinner hour (say 8ish. yes, heresy for Spain) you can likely snag a table. I really like Masa’s menu, which has more vegetable-focused dishes than usual, and its wine list is a who’s who of natural producers. Halloumi satay, grilled artichokes, and pumpkin gnocchi paired with Celler Frisach ‘Corb de Sang’ made for a delightful evening after exploring the amazing Llum BCN light show in Poblenou.
Meanwhile Bar Canyí was opened by the team from Michelin-starred Slow & Low, the menu is fire—grilled red shrimp, bomba (potato ball with minced meat), pinchos morunos (skewers), mollete de papada, croquettes and “Russian salad.” And the wine list has lots of great, natural-leaning Catalan wine.
I am excited about two relatively new wine bars, Bar Super and Vertical. Bar Super is from the same team that created Bar Brutal, one of the world’s OG natural-wine bars. Bar Super doesn’t lean as a natty as Bar Brutal and I really appreciate the wine list. Sure, I had an orange wine from La Furtiva Brisat del Arcs, a natty fave in Terra Alta. But I also had Jade Gross ‘Peace, Love, & Garnacha’ from Rioja.
Vertical—a relatively new wine bar that everyone seems to be talking about—is a different story entirely. You can certainly get top local wines—such as the Enric Soler’s amazing, top-end xarel-lo, Espenyalluchs we opened. But Vertical seems to be the place that wine geeks are converging on to open great bottles from all over the world—at prices much less than back home in the States.
My friend and wine writer Fintan Kerr, who lives in Barcelona, generously invited me over to Vertical one evening to drink a 2019 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling GG and a 2016 Burlotto Monvigliero Barolo for happy hour. It’s nice to have nice friends!
Finally, there’s PetNat (also in the touristy Born area yet still keeps its cred). This is one of my spots for later in the evening. It’s all about natural wines, with a super fun vibe. You’ll likely end up making friends, tasting new things, with other patrons or the staff.
They were running a blind tasting gimmick all during Barcelona Wine Week—guess the wine and the glass is free. I’m normally a middling-to-poor blind taster but I gave it a whirl. The cheeky bartender, Charlotte, dealt one from under the deck—a Turkish wine made from a completely obscure white grape called sultaniye. Yeah I wasn’t even close. But the next round, I went double or nothing and told her to pour me a red blind. I guess she thought she was going to fool me with a schioppettino from Friuli. Come on, Charlotte, that was too easy.
What I’ve Been Looking At While Drinking: Llum BCN
As I mentioned above, I was fortunate that my visit coincided with the annual Llum BCN light arts festival that happens in the trendy Poblenou neighborhood (the New York Times included Poblenou in its 52 Places To Go in 2026).
This year was Llum’s 15th edition. Hundreds of people wandered among 12 installations by internationally-renowned artists, as well as 18 installations from the city’s art, design, and architecture students. As you can see in the the video here, it turned the Poblenour into a magical, surreal place.
The whole thing was super cool. But, for me, the most affecting installation was called “@username,” created by architecture students at Barcelona’s La Salle University. They presented a series of translucent anthropomorphic sculptures created with adhesive tape and illuminated from within. Each one depicted a person glued to their phones: a group dining at a table ignoring one another, a doctor on his phone during surgery, a cop taking a selfies as he arrests someone. According to the creators:
The figures, based on the artists’ own bodies, evoke human fragility within a system of surveillance and digital dependency. Each sculpture incorporates controlled LEDs that generate luminous sequences of connection and disconnection, a process that places the viewer within the same circle of technological control. Through everyday and intimate scenes interrupted by mobile phones, the work reflects on how social media reshape human relationships.
It was a not-so-subtle reminder of the need to disconnect from technology and escape from the dopamine cycle. Perhaps with a glass of wine. It’s what my book, On Wine Drinking As Resistance, is all about.
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A top top five there!