Gelida Winery: "Would you like to drink a bottle of wine made the year you were born?"

BarcelonaThe Gelida Winery is 130 years old. Toni Falgueras tells me this as soon as I enter. Today I asked him to show me the jewel in the crown of the Gelida Winery in Barcelona (calle Vallespir, 65), a jewel that those of us who go in to buy a bottle of wine in a hurry might not know about. We start with the stairs that go down to the basement, which is located in the middle of the first room of the shop. There are wines from a hundred vintages; they are the wines that people ask for when they want to drink the year they were born, or that they buy as gifts, because perhaps there is no more unusual birthday gift than a wine that is as old as we are.

These wines, then, are one of the dolls of the house, but they are not the only ones, because Toni is lord He is from Scotland, which means he has two palms of land (it was given to him as a gift), and he is a great connoisseur of whisky. It is one of his passions, and to transmit it he has diffusers, like small cologne dispensers, with which he wants to transmit the aromas of all the whiskies he sells. With the aroma you can understand how the distilled drink is made from cereals.

We take a few more steps and enter a second room, divided by doors, where the wines that will take us to Chile, Argentina, Germany or Australia are displayed. "Chile is a paradise because phylloxera has never arrived," he says. In Germany "we can find Rieslings with eight and a half degrees and four grams of sugar, which, mind you, I sell for 9.50 euros a bottle," he continues. In Argentina there are wines made with the Malbeca grape variety. In Australia we find "the wonderful Syrah, and the whites, in New Zealand."

While Toni explains the wines, he also explains what the landscape is like. He likes to travel and visit wineries, because he wants to convey this in the shop. If he is not there, his children, Ferran and Meritxell Falgueras, will take over February, and if not, the written texts will do it, and they are hung with threads next to the section for each country. So much so, that at Celler de Gelida you can read for a long time the documented bibliography of everything that is sold. The text is as important as the bottles that are sold. In fact, from the same window you can see that the letter is essential: large signs, with indications of the names, and always with the prices clearly visible.

A carquinyoli with foie-gras and Sauternes

Now we walk a few meters further, and we go to France. Here it is time to talk about food. "Have you ever eaten a carquinyoli with a piece of foie-gras and a Sauternes in the glass? It is a delight. Look at the Sauternes bottle: it is small, designed so that you can taste it little by little. We also sell carquinyolis, I always like to have one."

With France visited, we go to Lisbon, and we find Portos. "If we all drank a few glasses of Oporto in the morning, we would be in a better mood." Toni Falgueras says this sincerely, because he believes that wines and liquors should be drunk in moderation, and that some revive you, like Oporto wine.

And at this point, we amuse ourselves. "Here we have become spoiled by being served large glasses of the drinks we order, and it shouldn't be like that. In Sweden, drinks are ordered by the centilitre, clearly marked on the glass, and so you order one or two centilitres. On the contrary, here we ask the waiter to be generous, to be strong.

On the great trip around the world that we are making at Celler de Gelida there is time to go through Catalonia. I notice the ratafias: there are so many! Including the one that a president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Quim Torra, gave to a president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, which was Corriols. There are also extra virgin olive oils, and there are totems, such as the oils that are made with the thousand-year-old olive trees of Tortosa.

At Celler de Gelida, of course, there is no shortage of sparkling wines or wines from the twelve denominations of origin Catalans. I stop at the references from Priorat: Porrera and Mas d'en Cazador from Vall Llach; Cerros Galena; Delfín. Also muscatel from Vilafranca del Penedès, and wines made with the Malvasía grape variety from Sitges.

And now another jewel in the crown. Herbal liqueurs, which our country has always drunk at the table as a digestive or as a treat. "I have Chartresse, which was once made in Tarragona, but now it is made in France, and I don't know why, but we have a lot of demand for it; it seems that in France there is none and we do have it," says Falgueras. There are even liqueurs made with elderflower or pear, and anyone who wants can also buy the alcohol to make it at home: "Have you ever tried making cherry or fennel liqueur?" I answer no, because at the moment I am already immersed in the production of limoncello and ratafia.

We enter into the final curiosities: the Catalan sakes, which we have very good. They are made in the Ebro delta and in Tuixent (Alt Urgell). Those from Tuixent are the ones of Liquid Silk, a name that they borrowed from a book written by Antonio Campins in 2008, and which was named precisely Sake, the liquid silk. Tuixent started in 2015 and makes several varieties. "They even label in Japanese," says Falgueras. And now the latest curiosity: the most hidden wines from the Gelida Winery, those that are not for sale or on display, but stored in the warehouse located in front of the shop. They are the ones he displayed in the window in 1978 for the 1st Catalonia Wine Showcase. He made such a well-rounded display that he even left it at the Generalitat de Catalunya. When the wines were returned to him, he thought that he didn't have to put them up for sale, but rather keep them forever as a souvenir. Even today, forty-seven years later, Toni proudly shows him around. "Will they look good in the photo?" he asks. We assure him that they do. The journey has started at home and ends where it should end, with our wines.