DO Conca de Barberà

DO Conca de Barberà has a native and almost exclusive grape variety: trepat. It is an aromatic red grape with little colour.

The low colour intensity of trepat meant that for many years the most typical wines of Conca de Barberà were rosés.

In recent years more and more red trepat wines have been made, unselfconscious about having less colour because in exchange they are very fresh and elegant.

The Monastery of Poblet, for centuries the seat of religious power in Catalonia, is still surrounded by the vineyards that supplied it with the grapes turned into wine in the cellar hidden beneath the Romanesque cloister.

The coexistence of DO Cava and DO Conca de Barberà in the same territory, and the devotion of much of the vineyard area to producing grapes for the big Penedès cava houses, had for years blurred the local DO's personality. But the determined, unselfconscious commitment over the last two decades to trepat wines has pushed them to the forefront of Catalan wine news, while also raising the quality and prestige of the parellada and macabeo whites and the reds from other varieties.

This great mountain-ringed circle that is Conca de Barberà has a climate with great day-night and summer-winter temperature contrasts, particularly suited to making very high quality wines. This is confirmed by the presence of some of the big Penedès brands, which make top-end wines there. 

The cathedrals of wine

Winemaking has left a historical and architectural mark on Conca de Barberà: the so-called “Cathedrals of Wine”, the great cooperative wineries built in the early 20th century, once the phylloxera plague had been overcome, to revive activity in this county of strong winemaking tradition. They are large Modernista-style buildings resulting from a powerful cooperative movement promoted by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya.

Cèsar Martinell and Pere Domènech were their main architects, combining great formal beauty with impeccably functional avant-garde design. So much so that some are still in operation today. Notable examples are the wineries of the cooperatives of Barberà de la Conca, l'Espluga de Francolí and Rocafort de Queralt, the Sindicat de Viticultors and the Caixa Rural Agrària of Montblanc, the Sindicat Agrícola of Pira and others in neighbouring DOs.