[A version of this article appeared in Decanter, February 2008]

On the magnificent, much-maligned Costa Brava, seaside town populations shrink back from their grotesquely swollen summer dimensions and regain a distinctly Catalan identity. Appealing resorts perched on sandy coves start to feel – once again – like little fishing ports and you’ll have the pick of hotel rooms at off-season rates.

Inland, the locals gratefully reclaim their golden-brown medieval hilltop towns, overrun in the high season by busloads of steaming tourists. Here you can hunker down in beautifully converted masías (farmhouses), with roaring log fires to keep out the tramuntana, and distant snow-capped mountain views.

            Tables at favourite restaurants in this intensely food-focused region are a pushover in winter (though if you’ve set your heart on El Bulli, forget it: Ferran Adrià’s world-famous restaurant on the Bay of Roses is closed from October to April). Your lunch companions will be Catalans and Spaniards, tucking joyously into their midday meal, with the occasional French party lured across the border by the quality and excellent value of the region’s food and wines.

Catalunya’s wineries - whether massive operations of international renown or newly established, small-scale wine-growers - are happy to welcome visitors in these slow months. Out in the leafless vineyards, whether in Penedès in the south or in the northern enclave of Empordà-Costa Brava (two of Catalunya’s most rewarding wine regions to explore), all is quiet in the depths of winter. The main sound you’ll hear is the gentle snip-snip of the pruning shears.

The pruning season heralds one central fixture in Catalunya’s gastronomic calendar: la calçotada, a classic mid-winter feast involving fierce fires made from vine clippings, over which huge quantities of specially cultivated green onions known as calçots are grilled to a frazzle. They’re served up with a dangerously delicious sauce based on toasted, ground almonds, hazelnuts, tomatoes, olive oil and loads of garlic.

At the heart of the feast is the calçot, which looks like a cross between a spring onion and a leek. The onions start out life in the usual way, but at summer’s end, the tops are sliced off and the bulbs set in the earth again, not too deep and barely covered with soil. (‘They need to hear the church bells ring’, according to local lore.) Soon they begin to sprout. As the shoots continue to grow, they're repeatedly earthed up with a protective ‘boot’ of soil (calçar means ‘to get booted up’, hence calçots). From each sawn-off onion you get a prolific bunch of thin-stemmed, pale green, tender shoots, which are ready to eat by year’s end.

        You can feast on calçots throughout Catalunya any time from January till Easter but the biggest and best-known festival is in Valls, a small and otherwise undistinguished town north of Tarragona that’s famous for its Festa de la Calçotada, staged every year on the last weekend in January. The streets and squares are thronged with shiny, happy, onion-hungry people, wrapped up against the winter cold.        
        There’s plenty of oom-papa music, drumming, processions, floats – and the obligatory and ultra-Catalan castells when three, sometimes four layers of young men hoist themselves up onto one another’s shoulders to form a human tower, crowned, once the basic structure is firmly in place, by a young child who clambers nimbly up to the top to rapturous applause from the onlookers.

In one square you’ll find a few trestle tables with prize-winning calçots, proudly displayed just like at the village produce show. On the other side, groups of women in traditional costume patiently pound toasted nuts, roasted tomatoes, garlic and olive oil to a smooth reddish-orange paste for the famous salsa per calçots, which they proffer for sampling on little crusts of bread.

In an adjoining square, a bonfire of vine clippings (a mixture of old, dry wood and new, green prunings for the best fire) is built over a patch of sand. Once alight, the clippings quickly reach a fearsome temperature. From the sidelines a four-legged rectangular grill arrangement resembling a metal bed frame emerges, completely covered with the trimmed green onions, neatly laid in rows. The grill is set down over the furnace, accompanied by a great hissing and clouds of smoke.

In a few minutes the calçots are done on one side. The grill is lifted off, the onions quickly turned, returned to the fire and left to complete the cooking. The butcher's shop on the square does a roaring trade in butifarra sausages and lamb cutlets, to be grilled over the fire by seasoned festlers once the onions are done.

You can tuck into your calçots on the street, but most people adjourn to one of the many restaurants in and around Valls – look for a sign outside the door advertising a Menú Calçotada. Better still, book ahead to be sure of getting a table. Once installed you’re equipped with a capacious bib and a pair of surgical gloves – a calçotada is a gloriously messy business – though both bibs and gloves are regarded as a bit poncey by seasoned calçotada-goers. A riotous pile of blackened, frazzled calçots appears, cradled in a curved roof tile, which keeps them warm.

You grip the tops, strip off the blackened bits, dunk the trunks in the salsa per calçots, throw back your head and chomp them down with gusto. To follow there are tender grilled lamb cutlets and butifarras, and often a rich, crackly caramel-topped crema catalana to conclude proceedings.

Wine-tasting and calçot-feasting in Catalunya:

Around Penedès

Taste at:

• Albet i Noya, Can Vendrell de la Codina, 08739 Sant Pau d'Ordal
  Tel. +34 93 899 4812
  albetinoya@albetinoya.cat, www.albetinoya.es

Fully organic, 101-hectare estate (of which 76 are under vines) in the heart of Penedés, owned and run by brothers Josep Maria and Antoni Albet i Noya. The estate produces fine cava, as well as still white and red wines (mono-varietals and blends), using temperature-controlled fermentations, indigenous yeasts and minimal SO². In 1998 they planted an experimental vineyard with ancient, indigenous, pre-phylloxera varieties. Open daily for visits, no need to book.

• Jean León, 08775 Torrelavit

Tel: +34 93 899 5512

visitas@jeanleon.com, www.jeanleon.com

Legendary winery situated between Vilafranca and Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, founded in the 1960s by Spanish expatriate adventurer and Hollywood restaurateur Jean León (real name Ceferino Carrión). The winery now belongs to the Torres group, but the Jean León operation is kept completely separate. Call ahead for a visit, specifiying language and level of wine knowledge. 

• Alemany I Corrio, Melió 78, 08720 Vilafranca del Penedès

Tel. +34 938 922 746, sotlefriec@totpenedes.com

Irene Alemany (from Penedès) and Laurent Corrio (French) met while studying wine in Burgundy and started their own operation here in 1999 with 8 hectares of vineyards planted with Merlot (4ha) and Cabernet Sauvignon (ditto), plus a handful of 60 year-old Carinyena vines. Tiny quantities of highly sought after ‘natural wines’ (no filtering, clarification or SO² ). Top wine is Sot Lefriec, a blend of all three cépages aged 20 months in oak. The (more accessible) kid brother is Pas Curtei, same varieties but less ageing, designed to be drunk younger. Call ahead for an appointment.

• Can Feixes – Huguet, Finca Can Feixes, 8718 Cabrera d’Anoia

Tel. +34 937 718 227

canfeixes@canfeixes.com, www.canfeixes.com

Beautiful 350-ha property (with 75ha under vines) in northern Penedès owned and run by three brothers of the Huguet family, making still whites (a Chardonnay/Macabeo/Parellada/Malvasia blend and a pure Chardonnay), gutsy reds (Tempranillo/Merlot/Cabernet/Petit Verdot and Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon) plus cava. Well worth a visit - call ahead for an appointment, weekdays during office hours, weekends by arrangement.

Eat at:

• Cal Ganxo, Esglesia 13, 43813 Masmolets, Tel. +34 977 605 960, www.restaurantcalganxo.com –  lively, muy típico  restaurant in tiny hamlet just north of Valls, lunch only, classic calçotada menu
• Cal Xim, Plaça Subirats 5, 08739 Sant Pau d’Ordal, Tel. +34 938 993 092, restaurant@calxim.com, www.calxim.com - modern Catalan cuisine with an upmarket rendering of calçots, superb grilled meats and an award-winning wine list - a favourite with the Jean León people and many others

Stay at:

• Hotel Rural Les Vinyes, 43812 Vilardida-Montferri, Tel. +34 977 63 91 93, info@lesvinyes.com, www.lesvinyes.com - between Valls and Penedès, well placed for calçotadas and wine explorations
• Hotel Masía Sumidors, Carretera de Vilafranca Km. 2,4 08810, Sant Pere de Ribes, Tel. +34 938 962 061, info@sumidors.com, www.sumidors.com - rural retreat close to Vilafranca del Penedès

Around Empordà-Costa Brava

Taste at:

·         Oliver Conti, Puignau, 17750 Capmany, Empordà

Tel. +34 972 193 161

oliverconti@oliverconti.com, www.oliverconti.com

Ground-breaking, 15ha estate planted from scratch in 1991 by brothers Xavier and Jordi Oliver Conti producing a white blend based on Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon, a red blend (Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc and Merlot) and a sweet white wine (Gewurztraminer). Unusual planting and training practices (trellising, high poles to maximise sunlight and minimise wild boar damage), fearsome pruning, low yields, long macerations at low temperatures all combine to give what Jordi Conti calls vinos de autor. Red wines spend about 4 months in a combination of new, 1- and 2-year-old barrels – ‘ we like our wines to taste of wine, not wood’. Visits by appointment.

·         Espelt Vinicultors SL, Mas Espelt, 17493 Vilajuiga

Tel. +34 972 531 727

info@espeltviticultors.com, www.cellerespelt.com

Large (200ha) estate founded only in 2000, which typifies the new Empordà-Costa Brava spirit. ‘We’re aiming for a balance between fashion and tradition’, claims dynamic Director Xavier Cepero. The fashion bit is catered for by a handful of white blends (Garnacha Blanca/Macabeo, Sauvignon Blanc/Muscat) and single varietals (Chardonnay) plus some lively reds (Syrah/Carinyena/Marselan, Garnacha tinta/Carinyena, Carinyena/Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha/Merlot). On the traditional front, they’ve kept a couple of rosés and some naturally sweet Muscat-based whites and intriguing blends of Garnacha Tinta and Rosada – wine types that formerly made up the bulk of the region’s output. Colourful, distinctive labels by artist Mariscal. Call ahead for a visit and tasting with Xavier Cepero.

·         Castillo Perelada, Pl. del Carme 1, 17491 Peralada

Tel. +34 972 538 011

visitas@castilloperelada.com, www.castilloperelada.com

Large-scale winery housed in a stunning moated castle with adjoining cloisters, a huge library, wine museum and ancient Carmelite cellars where the top cavas are aged. The estate’s 150ha produces fine cava (the best a blend of Xarel-lo, Chardonnay and Perellada), an extensive range of decently made wines and a handful of prize-winning specialities, notably Ex Ex – denoting Experiencias Excepcionales – whose composition varies from year to year; and Gran Claustro, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Garnacha and Carinyena. Call ahead for an appointment, if possible with winemaker Delfí Sanahuja.

Eat at:

• Mesón del Conde, Pl. Major 4, Sant Martí d’Empúries Tel. +34 972 770 306 – great menu calçotada in winter (and grilled meats and shellfish year round) in pretty medieval village near L’Escala

Stay at:

·         Hostal Empúries, 17130 L’Escala, Tel. +34 972 770207, info@hostalempuries.com, www.hostalempuries.com - long, low, laid-back, 1920s-vintage seaside house, next door to superb Greek and Roman site of Empúries. Stylish food and sexy music in restaurant overlooking small sandy bay