After a very beautiful wedding at a stunning villa and the multi-day party that surrounded it, it was time to go relax by the ocean. We had booked a nice place beside the beach in Peniscola which is about a 2 hour drive from where we were staying near Sitges. 
We decided to detour inland at the coastal town of Tarragona to experience one of "National Geographic's Drives of a Lifetime"; The Priorat wine region. The route meanders through the heart of the region hitting most of the highlights, and then about 2-3 hours later you rejoin the main roads at Tortosa.Grapes have been grown in this area since the 12th century back when it was a stronghold for the Knights Templer. Throughout the route you will see a few Templer castles and other early remnants from another time.
It is only in the last 20-30 years that Priorat has been reborn and rejuvenated. Even elevating its status of their wines to the highest DOQ (DOCa) rating in Spain. The only other wine region in Spain achieving this distinction is the famed Rioja. I have now driven through both, and they are very different geographically, but both very beautiful and charming in their own way with friendly people and delicious wines.
Garnacha (Grenache) and Cariñena (Carignan) are to 2 main grape varieties grown here creating big, high tannic, high alcohol reds. The local wines we got to try were delicious, so much so, one of them actually bumped one of our Rioja Reserva's from our 4 bottle Canadian import limit.Unlike North America, most of the vineyards that I saw were not vertically trellised but the vines were bush trained and low cropping due to lack of water.
It was definitely a drive of a lifetime and I had a blast navigating the twisted narrow back roads. You drive through amazing little towns all perched high up on hills. Most of the vineyards have to be hand harvested due to the steep slopes, and a lot of the grapes/wines are sold through local Co-ops. In the different co-op shop/tasting rooms you can get the whole gamut of great wines from the local producers. Some of them are only available in that town. The shops vary in size from anywhere from 10 to 100+ different producers.
The villages all on hill tops seemed to be bustling with locals and tourists alike with lot's of local flare, but nowhere to park. This also left the roads empty for me to enjoy, always watching for the mini tractors and vineyard machinery.
The only disappointment from our drive was that the one ferry was "in the shop"; so we were unable to go tour one of the main Knights Templer castles. I thought about trying the old Dukes of Hazzard jump, but the run-in was all wrong. I calculated the possible detours into the GPS, and at 2 hr+ to get to the castle and back we decided instead to b-line it about an hour to the awaiting beach.
For the next 2 days it was sipping Rias Baixas and Verdejo wines on the beach, dipping in the sea, and eating the local famous paella's.
Bonus: our B&B had a specialty Gin & Tonic bar with 15+ Gins, and 8 Tonics from all around the world! My favourite gin turned out to be the Spanish one, Gin Mare.
... and lucky us, Peniscola has a Templar castle and old city for us to go explore, so turned out Dukes of Hazzard was not needed.
I definitely will come back to explore this area one day; as a 2.5hr road trip was just but a taste, and I want the whole damn bottle!
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