| Head to the Hills |
 BOYCOTTING award ceremonies is usually the preserve of prima donna film stars on Oscars’ night – not 11-year-old boys. So it caused quite a stir when young Ramon failed to turn up to collect his trophy at the annual tortilla competition in the Priorat village of Ulldemolins.The gastronomic contest to create the best truita amb suc (a Catalan version of the tortilla or omelette with beans or spinach) is a hotly contested affair that attracts dozens of entries. While relatives scurried off to find the errant youngster, the local radio DJ hosting the presentations did his best to entertain the large crowd gathered in the southern Catalan village. When the embarrassed-looking boy eventually shuffled out into the sunshine to receive his prize from the mayoress, he sheepishly admitted that his absence owed more to the lure of TV than any youthful protest.
Still, as controversies go, Ramon’s was nothing compared to the confession by a runner-up that she had also prepared her daughter’s prize-winning entry. After the delays and good-humoured revelations, the consolation for everyone else was that it was time to tuck into the beautifully presented dishes – and no doubt pass judgement on who really should have been stepping up to the podium. Although lying just 40km inland from Tarragona and the Costa Dorada, the village festivals in Priorat couldn’t be further from the excesses of mass-market Mediterranean resorts such as Salou. Often compared to Tuscany, the area is partitioned from the coast by a mountain range and sits in a basin of rolling countryside covered in terraces of olive groves and vines. Priorat is well known in Catalunya for the quality of its oli (olive oil) – the key to Ulldemolin’s delicious truitas, so it is claimed – and it has also gained a worldwide reputation for its wine. With a tradition of viticulture stretching back to the 12th century, the fruit of Priorat’s slate-scattered soils is a wine high in alcohol and rich in colour. But until recently, most of this full-bodied wine was sold in bulk to improve those from other areas, including France. That all changed, however, with major improvements to the winemaking process taking place in the 1980s. Priorat’s vintages now fetch high prices and are much sought after by aficionados. Some are so highly regarded that they carry the prestigious Denominació d’Origen Qualificada (DOQ) label, denoting their exceptional quality. The only other region in Spain to achieve this high standard is La Rioja. This success has led to extensive new vineyards being planted and old cellars and abandoned farmhouses being renovated to help meet the demand. The resurgence of Priorat’s wines has also brought with it increasing interest from people keen to tour the vineyards and this has boosted visitor numbers to an area that for a long time was ranked as one of the poorest in Spain. Yet if the vineyards are helping bring much-needed investment to Priorat, it still has a long way to go before its sparsely populated hilltop villages and quiet country byways achieve the popularity of Tuscany. This is still a part of Spain that, if not quite undiscovered, remains blissfully off the beaten track. The hot, dry summers and cold winter nights could have something to do with it and those who move to Priorat intending to live off the land have to be a pretty hardy breed. Among the incomers are Martin Kirkby and his family, whose experiences settling into his 10-acre property outside the town of Falset, featured in the Channel Four series No Going Back. But the area also seems to be attracting interest from the rich and famous, with the French actor Gerard Depardieu and Spain’s answer to Bob Dylan, Juan Manuel Serrat, said to have bought property there. For those intending to simply pay Priorat a visit, rather than anything more permanent, it is a tranquil, laid-back place with an abundance of natural beauty. On its western-most edge lies Montsant Natural Park, a mountain range with smooth, boulder-studded cliffs and weather-eroded gorges that peer out over the valley. Scattered around its fringes are small villages, where front doors are still safely left unlocked and keys dangle from the ignitions of tractors parked haphazardly in the narrow streets. These make good bases from which to explore the Serra de Montsant and accommodation is available either in simple hostals or, increasingly, in various tourisme rurals set up in rustic farmhouses, often on the edge of a village. From the village of Margalef, it’s a 3.5km hike up a twisting single-track road lined with cypress trees to the chapel of Sant Salvador. Built into the cliff-face in the 16th century, this well-preserved hermita has a series of cave-like, smoke-blackened rooms linked by rough stone or wooden steps. Back down the valley is another cave, La Cova de Santa Llúcia, which was used in 1938 as a military field hospital during the Battle of the Ebre, the Republican’s last great offensive of the Spanish Civil War. The village of La Vilella Baixa, a jumble of tall terracotta buildings dumped on a spine of rock, sits at the junction of both road and river. Among the steep narrow streets running up from its old arched bridge is the aptly named Carrer que no passa – a lovely passageway that winds past houses with heavy door knockers adorned with bundles of autumn leaves – before reaching an abrupt dead end. From the village, the road climbs up past the impressive new stone-built Buil&Giné winery, where an exhibition of sculptures by Sitges-based artist Lorenzo Quinn, son of Hollywood star Anthony, was held to celebrate its opening. Visits to this and many of Priorat’s other vineyards are now possible, although it is often necessary to contact them in advance. The local tourist information offices in Falset or some of the larger villages have details of the Vineyard Trail and can help with arrangements. Alternatively, most villages have an agrobotiga selling local wines and olive oil, such as the Cooperativa Vinicola del Priorat in the hilltop village of Gratallopps. This is also a good place to sample some of the area’s better restaurants, which offer traditional local fare of conill (rabbit), bistec (steak) or pork dishes to accompany the Priorat wines. Then there are establishments such as the friendly, family-run La Vinateria del Boli in the little village of Escaladei, where the proprietor Lluis Porqueres is happy to offer advice as you sample some of the area’s fine wines. Around the corner, in the Plaça del Priorat, there are a couple of other cellers where you can also buy flagons of gutsy vino de la terra or sweet muscatel poured from giant wooden barrels for a few euros a litre. A short walk away are the ruins of Spain’s first Carthusian monastery, where monks planted Priorat’s first vines back in the 12th century to make wine for religious ceremonies – making the monastery both the source of the area’s name (it comes from the prior who led the monastery) and its viticulture industry. Legend has it that when the monks of the Sant Bru Order first arrived from Grenoble looking for somewhere to build, they came across a shepherd who showed them the site under the cliffs of the Serra Mayor where he had had visions of angels ascending to heaven. Across the valley and just 40 years before work got under way on the monastery, the last Moorish stronghold in Catalunya, the castle at Siurana, fell to Christian forces. Today, the once-impenetrable fortress lies in ruins at the edge of the village but perched atop a narrow ridge with a sheer drop on one side, it’s easy to imagine how difficult it must have been to capture. The high cliffs are now only scaled by climbers who flock to the Prades mountains from around Europe to take advantage of the excellent conditions. From the pretty, cobbled streets of Siurana a path leads past the Romanesque church to a rocky pinnacle with incredible views stretching across the whole of Priorat. This is a great spot to sit with a bottle of local wine and watch the sun setting behind the Montsant mountains – and this being Priorat, there’s a good chance you’ll have the place to yourself. |
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