TROSSOS DEL PRIORAT
This piece is part of our series on Priorat, one of the great wine regions of Spain. We visited in July 2019.
When planning the trip, Jake (the geography and history master) explained some of what to expect in Priorat.
Patrick didn’t at that time realize its geographical placement in Spain, nor its significance as one of only two DOQ wine regions designations in the country, the other being Rioja, and not in Catalunya (SOON: We write extensively about the Priorat wine region here).
Jake only knew Priorat meant one of my favorite wines of Europe. He knew it was more rural, very historically rich, hot, and mountainous, but that was about it.
Jake booked us a fantastic room at a winery hotel, Trossos Del Priorat —code for a winery that emphasizes hospitality.
Trossos is located in the heart of Priorat just a few moments away from Gratallops, a magical medieval town in the heart of the region. The hotel is small, and magically built into the side of one of the many rolling hills in the area. Our room literally had a vineyard planted on our roof.
This is the view from the public deck. You can see the hotel rooms peeking out among the vines to the right, and you can see vines on the roof as well. Great for energy costs!
Each room had a famous wine quote painted on a wall in the room—ours couldn’t have been more perfect!
And the vineyard views… you can see the local medieval town, Gratallops, on a distant hill. Yep, that’s our hotel room deck (far right), with vines right there in front of us.
The views really showcase the vineyard planting styles of the region, both trillused and head-pruned vines (Priorat farmers say bush vines).
One of the most magical elements were the panoramic night views of the sky!
With a charming private patio offering amazing views of the vineyard covered valley, we knew we were in for an amazing time.
Due to the remoteness of the area, the hotel is designed with much of what you would need right on site.
There is a large lounge with floor to ceiling glass walls offering amazing views, and across from that a fully equipped kitchen and dining area for guests to do their own meal preps. This configuration is conducive to wonderful guest interaction—and also conducive to a gorgeous big breakfast—you know, energy for all our day’s exploring!
Oh, the wonderful people we met on the terrace of the hotel during our four days there.
Outside the lounge is a large communal terrace with lots of comfy seating. Little did we know how much the patio was going to play a part of our three days in Priorat. Once it gets to dusk (around 9:30-10:00 in early July), many of the guests find places to sit and open a bottle of wine—a great way to end a busy day touring the region.
This is when the true fun began.
“Oh, the wonderful people we met.”
Our first night, we grabbed our bottle of what we call Barcelona water (Cava by its well-known name) and headed to the terrace. We passed two couples finishing up a meal, laughing and full of wine country merriment. There was no way we were going to be let alone. The group immediate insisted we join them, so we did.
The group consisted of a well traveled Swedish couple, and an equally well travelled couple from the Basque region of Spain. Our conversations wildly fluctuated from topic to topic. Culture in Spain, culture in Sweden, culture in the US… all of it fast paced and dynamic. Soon it was 2:30 in the morning and although the night sky was vivid with stars and a nearly full moon, we said our good nights.
This happened again the second night of our trip, and then again on the third, each time with different combinations of travelers; we were the only from the U.S. Each night we found our world expanding, learning about each person, where they come from, what they love about Spain and so much more. This is one of the joys of traveling, especially in such remote regions without much nightlife to explore.
Trossos Del Priotat is a highly recommended hotel. They have a sister hotel nearby, it’s much larger, has a pool, and a high-end restaurant. We preferred the more quaint charm of Trossos.
We truly couldn’t think of a flaw in our experience! It was a five star stay!