Jenn had been wanting to do a wine tour in Spain but the tours we tried to book didn’t run on the days we had available.  We managed to find a tour last night and booked it but never got confirmation on the booking.  We had to find the office out of which the tour ran and convince them to honor our booking.  this turned out to be pretty easy and we caught the bus for our tour.

We went to Jean Leon winery first.  They explained how phylloxera destroyed most of Europe’s vineyards in the late 1800s to early 1900s.  To combat this insect, they learned to graft grape vines to hardier root stock.  The winery had a small lot of different grape vines as their canary in the coal mine.

We went to Torres next.  They had a wine and cheese pairing for us.  This was great because I don’t really drink wine, but I am a fan of cheese!  The pairings really did change the flavor of the wine, and it was interesting to compare how the flavors worked with (or against) one another.

After Torres, we went to Freixenet.  This was a huge operation and their tour had projection screens and a tram we rode for much of it.  Quite a production.  Jenn might have been most impressed with their tasting room sign and looked for one in the gift shop.

After the wine tour, we were back in Barcelona.  We got some lunch then picked up the fast train to Madrid.  The train was fast, smooth and quiet.  I really think America could benefit from high speed rail.