About Penedès and Catalonia
Catalonia is a country with a population of nearly 8 million inhabitants located in the Mediterranean Western Europe. The native language is Catalan and its capital city is Barcelona.
Since a long time ago Catalonia has always been a trading place and an economic dynamic territory, starting its industrialisation process in the XIX century. Due to this process, the country has been accompanied by modernity and development, being the creative ground for important cultural, social, artistic and gastronomic movements and trends. Some Catalans universally recognised are Antoni Gaudi (architect), Pau Casals (musician), Joan Miró (painter), Salvador Dalí (painter), Facundo Bacardi (entrepreneur), Vincent Ferrer (missionary), Pep Guardiola (FCB coach), Montserrat Caballé ( Soprano), Ferran Adrià (chef), Pau Gasol (NBA player) Rafael Nadal (tennis player)
Catalonia enjoyed for 700 years of sovereignty being currently divided into three states: Spain, France and Andorra. Recently, a political, economical and social movement has emerged to urge the creation of the Catalan State.
Penedès is a natural and historical region of Catalonia. It is located in the south of the Principality of Catalonia between the pre-coastal mountain range (Serralada Pre-litoral) and the Mediterranean sea. The comarcal division of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1936 and 1987, divided Penedès into three administrative comarques: Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and Garraf, and their capitals are Vilafranca del Penedès, el VendrellVilanova i la Geltrú.
From the historical point of view, Penedès was since the start of the ninth century a border region inside the county of Barcelona, which had its center in the former military town Olèrdola, fortified again because of the Christian advance in the 929. Olèrdola lost its defensive significance and the capital in the second half of the twelfth century and then Vilafranca became the capital. During the thirteenth century formed the Vegueria of Vilafranca including all Penedès and most of Anoia as the sots-vegueria of Igualada.
The provincial division of the 1833 divide the region between the provinces of Barcelona, which includes Alt Penedès and Garraf, and the province of Tarragona, which includes Baix Penedès.
Penedès is a wine making region included in a denominació d'Origen (DO) for wines in Catalonia. Penedès DO includes all Penedès region and municipallities of four other comarques: Anoia, Alt Camp, Baix LlobregatTarragonès. The area is framed by the coastal hills of the Garraf and the higher inland mountains which skirt the Central Depression. Long considered one of the country's best wine-producing regions after the Rioja, it is also one of the most ancient viticultural areas in Europe. Perhaps better-known for its Cavasparkling wine which has had its own Denominació d'Origen since 1991) white grape varieties predominate, although the region also produces some highly-regarded, oak-aged reds (Wikipedia) and production.
