Given Catalonia’s long coastline and its abundant seafood, you might expect the region’s wineries to focus on white wines. In fact, it is Catalonia’s red wines that are traveling abroad and earning international acclaim, but the region’s white wines partner beautifully with the local cooking. If you are dining in a Barcelona restaurant on some of the pristinely fresh clams, scallops, monkfish, crayfish, squid or hake on abundant display at La Boquería market, you will be drinking white.
White grapes
For a wine-loving visitor, these white wines offer the chance to sample unusual indigenous varieties like Xarel-lo (also known as Pansà Blanca), Parellada and Macabeo. Garnacha Blanca is another important white grape here, often blended with Macabeo. Catalan winemakers remain devoted to these well-adapted grapes, while also planting international varieties like Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. For Catalonia’s white wines as well as its red, it is a time of great energy, experimentation and excitement.

White wines are made in all of Catalonia’s DO (denominación de origen) zones, but here are three DOs to watch for if you’re a white wine fan:

Penedès: This large and prominent DO has vineyards at a range of elevations. The coastal sites produce everyday whites; the mid-elevation vines produce grapes for cava; while the high-elevation properties (some of them at almost 3,000 feet) are being used for cool-climate varieties like Chardonnay and Riesling.

Conca de Barberà: Miguel Torres, the dynamic Catalan vintner, has helped raise the profile of this DO with his Milmanda barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Two-thirds of the Conca de Barberà vineyards are planted to white grapes such as Parellada and Macabeo, in addition to Chardonnay.

Allela: This seaside DO has sandy soils and produces light, fresh, ready-to-drink wines from Pansà Blanca (Xarel-lo) and Garnacha Blanca. At the highest elevations, growers are planting experimental plots of international varieties such as Chardonnay.

Josep Roca is the esteemed sommelier and owner of Cellar de Can Roca, the two-Michelin-star restaurant in Girona. He is a big fan of the region’s white wines, and he highlights some favorites in this brief video. (Flash video, 6:12)

Catalonia’s wide range of microclimates makes many varieties possible here. The same grape that produces a fresh, easy-drinking white wine when planted near the coast may yield a full-bodied, structured white with aging potential when grown in the mountains. A few Catalan winemakers are also experimenting with barrel fermentation and barrel aging to give some of their whites a rounder texture and more ageability.

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