As I mentioned in my Barcelona Travel Guide, we booked a private tour to the town of Alella with Adler & Marlow. I had stumbled upon Alella on Instagram while researching wineries near Barcelona and ended up seeing a picture of a winery called Alta Alella. That’s when I started looking into whether or not it would be feasible to visit Alella during our three-day stay in Barcelona. I contacted Adler & Marlow and let them know we were interested in a winery tour (specifically in Alella), because when in Spain, right??
Alella seemed like the perfect getaway from the city to enjoy some relaxation and wine. And it was! If you’re in Barcelona, I’d highly recommend visiting Alella. It’s only a 20-30 minute car ride from the city and is also accessible via train or bus making it extremely easy to get to.
While I can guarantee there are many tour companies that offer experiences and wine tours in Alella, we decided to go with Adler & Marlow because it was a one-on-one tour with multiple layers of experience wrapped together. When I reached out, I really liked what they had planned for us and it seemed like they were very educated on the region. The tour was on the pricier side, but SO worth it. They went above and beyond planning the perfect day for us. We had a blast and learned a ton about the culture, politics, food and drink of the Catalan region. There’s no way we would have been able to become that immersed if we explored the town on our own.
Now, onto our day in Alella. We started our time at the beautiful, serene Boquet d’Alella winery. Boquet d’Alella is located in the hills of Alella inside a family estate from the 14th century. While at the winery, we walked through a tour of how they grow their grapes, and make their wine. We ended it with a nice tasting of red, white and rose wines on the terrace that overlooks the town and vineyards. It was breathtaking and so relaxing,
Following the winery, our tour guide, Danny, took us to a wine bar called La Taberna De La Companyia D’Alella. On one side, there were hundreds of bottles of wine on display for sale from Alella and other local regions, as well as barrels filled with wine. The coolest part was their tasting area where visitors can sample the wine through a Spanish wine pitcher. It takes some practice, but it’s so fun! We both sampled some wine and laughed a lot while trying to get the wine to pour straight into our mouths.
The other side of La Taberna De La Companyia D’Alella is a seating area where guests can order tapas, wine and vermouth. We ordered some fresh anchovies, chips and participated in vermouth hour. It was such a unique experience and really made us feel like we were locals!
We ended our time with Danny at Els Garrofers, a modern restaurant in Alella. We had the most delicious tapas (probably the best we had in Barcelona!) If you’re going to Alella, I would highly recommend visiting this restaurant. We feasted on strawberry gazpacho, fresh fish and decadent dessert. We also enjoyed a couple glasses of wine and ended up trying a glass of wine from the popular winery I initially had my eye on, Alta Alella. It was SO good.
Our time in Alella was the perfect getaway trip while staying in Barcelona. It was peaceful and full of so many hidden gems. We absolutely loved it and our time with Alder & Harlow will always be one of the outstanding memories from our trip.
Marina Makes 