If you like amazing landscapes, viticulture and enotourism, and riding bikes, Pedratour has your ideal activity! We combine vineyards and e-bikes into a very complete activity that will delight everyone. Because it has everything: an e-bike route adapted to the group’s level, a visit to a high-altitude vineyard in recovery, a cheese and organic wine tasting… And extraordinary surrounding with view on the Pedraforca! We have programmed an outing on April 18. However, if that date doesn’t suit you, you may book the activity for a day of your choice. The point is you don’t miss it, it’s the perfect family activity!
We start the day in Guardiola de Berguedà going on a route on our electric mountain bikes. There’s 4 of them, so everything stays within the family! We enjoy showing off our e-MTB: they are high-end electric bikes by Orbea, equipped with a 500W Shimano engine, and with the battery integrated in the frame, which gives the bike a very elegant aesthetic. You’ll look great in the pictures, I promise.
The route will depend on your requirements and capabilities, there are a lot to choose from! Via del Nicolau, Riutort, Catllaràs, Puig Lluent… There are countless options, all lovely regardless of their level.
After the cycling route, we’ll drop the bikes and head for the vineyards of La Bauma de les Deveses, in Sant Julià de Cerdanyola, to visit these magnificent high-altitude vineyards in recovery. In the lovely scenery of Sant Julià de Cerdanyola, the Devesa area stands out because of its singularity. There, at an altitude of 1.000 to 1.300 metres, the vineyards of La Bauma de les Deveses climb the hillside right to the summit’s crag. The vineyards grow in small terraces framed by dry-stone walls which were built centuries ago with great effort and technique.
In the Middle Ages, viticulture was important in the Pyrenees, and there’s record of vine growing in Sant Julià. As a matter of fact, it’s known that in the early 12th century Sant Julià paid its tribute to the Urgell bishopric in wine. Thus, this is a very special ancestral farming land which was disappearing since the 18th century and which today is in recovery since 2015, thanks to the commitment of 3 people.
Carles Flaquer and Imma Espel are a couple of biologists from Sant Julià who went into partnership with Joan Rubió, an oenologist from the Penedès region, aiming to return its agricultural use to these lands and to restore the dry-stone structures in them. They plant Mediterranean varieties: they have garnacha and monastrell, and a bit of macabeo. The altitude provides with a great daily thermic oscillation, much greater than the usual in Mediterranean climate, and it conditions seasonality. However, since the area is on calcareous terrain and on a hillside looking south, it has Mediterranean climate features. Joan Rubió defines it as high-altitude “mediterraneity” and, according to experts, it gives wines with great personality.
Their goal is to produce organic high-altitude wine of great quality, by following traditional methods. Everything is done by hand. None of the activities in the vineyard is mechanized, nor can the area be accessed by motor vehicles. The land is worked with the help of a horse. The grapevines are planted, pruned, and looked after one by one and manually. And, of course, the grapes are also harvested by hand. With all this, they intend to produce organic wine with the minimum intervention, as natural as possible.
It’s a nice project, don’t you think? What is doubtlessly beautiful indeed is the landscape they’re recovering. While the Devesa scenery was already marvellous, now the vineyards add to it a lovely bucolic and Mediterranean touch. Sit down in the sun, beside a vine and a dry-stone hut, and listen to this project’s story. It’s charming.
After the walk through the vineyards, which will surely make us get hungry, we’ll have a product tasting. La Bauma de les Deveses doesn’t produce its own wine yet; as a matter of fact, its first production is expected this year 2021. Hence, the wine we’ll taste comes from Vilafranca del Penedès, but it’s produced in the winery were Joan Rubió, founding partner of La Bauma de les Deveses, works. It’s an organic and biodynamic wine, 100% xarel·lo, called Nituix. Quite an odd name, taken from the mare who ploughs the vineyards of La Bauma de les Deveses. You’ll remember it!
Lacking a local wine –for now–, we’ll combine the Nituix wine with Cuirols cheeses from La Nou de Berguedà. Artisan local cheeses, delicious, certainly worth tasting. Thus, we end the morning with a good taste in our mouths.
Join us on this journey through vineyards and e-bikes in Alt Berguedà and discover e-MTB routes and the vineyards of La Bauma de les Deveses.
Unbelievable landscapes, emotive stories, bucolic vineyards, and a gourmet tasting. A fit-for-all activity which will delight you from the beginning to the end.
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