The singer Maria Jaume (Lloret de Vistalegre, 1999) is one of the emerging voices in Catalan music, with a proposal that combines joy and rootedness: songs that draw from popular culture without losing sight of social concerns or giving up the freshness of pop. In her latest album, Sant Domingo forever, released in February, she pays a joyful and honest tribute to her town's main festival.Sant Domingo Forever is an album animated for such internationally turbulent months…

Alba Segarra (la Fuliola, 1992) has a WhatsApp group that she uses to send each other audios with ideas that sometimes seem brilliant to her and others incomprehensible. The warm-up act for Versió RAC1 and stand-up comedian considers herself a workaholic, a way of relating to the world that, she assures, comes from home.

I am at a party dedicated to wine, with all sorts of farmers who have dressed up for the celebration and where the care of the landscape by those who dedicate themselves to it is celebrated.

Toni Aira (Barcelona, 1977) is a journalist, doctor in communication and director of the master's degree in political communication at UPF Barcelona School of Management. One of the country's leading experts in political communication, and author of Mitólogos. El arte de seducir a las masas (Debate, 2025), Aira knows from personal experience why some politicians cover their glass on the second round.

Casa Rufo opened just before Easter and I already hear diners saying "it's delicious", while confirming that "all dishes enter the kitchen clean". Lleonard Cardona Rufo is a self-taught cook; he has learned from his parents, who first worked in a butcher shop and then at Casa Jesús, in Cases d’Alcanar. In the same place, but with a completely renewed concept, he insists on saying that he has opened a wine bar, but that you can also "eat" there. "In the "terreno", we always eat very well, from the garden, from the sea... and when you hear "delicious", you can rest assured", he shares. "My parents were artists. They made breakfasts, a menu for workers, and à la carte, both at midday and at night", he recalls. He has copied their format a bit, without lunches. At Casa Rufo, he offers a hearty breakfast, vermouth, and small plates at night. There is often a queue because, for the moment, he does not take reservations. He is open from Thursday to Sunday.

We interviewed the sommelier and communicator Meritxell Falgueras (Barcelona, 1981) in her native neighborhood, which she has called the Soho of Barcelona in her novels: the Sants neighborhood. We meet at Bodega Bartolí and afterwards we will go to the family shop, Celler de Gelida, where we will meet her brother Ferran and her father, Toni Falgueras. Meritxell has just published the book Women of Wine (Planeta Gastro), in which she has included studies, interviews, and surveys to which she has dedicated four years of her life.

Alberto Gadel (Santa Cristina d'Aro, 2004) became known on TikTok for creating content in Catalan when almost nobody else was. With a provocative touch and a language that jumps from masculine to feminine and from Catalan to Spanish and English, Gadel presented 3Cat's Espai Eufòria with Aina da Silva, and presents the Loft with Gal·la Castellfort. Like many people of his generation, the beginnings of his relationship with wine have a clear name: Vinya del Mar.Let's start here.

The guitarist and singer Xavi de la Iglesia (Barcelona, 1979) has defined the sound of contemporary Catalan song for fourteen years with Blaumut. The group is saying goodbye for an indefinite period with a tour that will end on October 17th at the Sala Apolo in Barcelona. De la Iglesia understands the world of music as a boundless field, where dialogue with other disciplines – among which wine is included – can be nourishing.

Although she has been living in Vilafranca del Penedès for ten years and has established deep ties there, Anna Roig (Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, 1981) does not feel entirely like a Vilafranca native, and that is fine with her. The singer, who was the voice of Anna Roig i L'Ombre de Ton Chien, assures that she will never be what in local slang is known as VTV –Vilafranca from all her life–, because the place from which she knows stories and genealogies is her native Sant Sadurní. A place where she not only discovered her artistic vocation, but where she also participated in the family business.

After a series of twists and turns, and enjoying the beauty of Priorat, both humble and exuberant, I arrive at the Clos de l’Obac winery. Carles Pastrana receives us at the entrance. He is an affable and amusing man. We joke, because by profession he was also a journalist, but life had other plans for him: to be part of the revolution that the region would experience. A region that went from misery to creating some of the most valued wines in the world. To achieve this, the blend was as follows: many years of work and doing things according to his criteria, a pinch of recklessness, and two strokes of luck.

At 82 years old, Albert Boadella (Barcelona, 1943) does not stop working. He has finished a second version, adapted to the new times, ofEl retablo de las maravillas, and the theatrical adaptation of the bookJoven, no me cabree, published in 2022. The founder of Els Joglars has turned all sacred symbols into the object of his irreverence. Including, of course, Ferran Adrià's cuisine.¿Why did he parody El Bulli?

“The first wine list at the restaurant was made by Ester Nin. Everything I know, she has taught me. Drinking and tasting together, asking her many questions, and me being very persistent and her very generous”. Sincere and direct, that’s how sommelier Litus Raga is, who is retiring after twenty years at the helm of the dining room at La Cooperativa restaurant, in Porrera. “I still have an unpaid invoice from the first day; they were a group of very generous winemakers, but they never remembered to pay it”, he shares with a smile. “Working has been a hobby”, he states upfront. And then: “Whoever hasn’t come all these years, I don’t expect them before I say goodbye”. The last service will coincide with the upcoming Fira del Vi de Falset. He has clear ideas and is one of those sommeliers who, by reading gestures and looks, knows what each table needs, attending to the honest and sincere cuisine of Mia Vall Grau. A floral shirt – a choice surely unconscious but matching the tablecloth – and always precise and often sharp words. They serve as his shield to serve: “There are wines that haven’t moved since the beginning, Vall Llach, Cims de Porrera, Clos Mogador... But from classicism, we have opened windows to new ideas and concepts like those of Nin Ortiz and Terroir al Límite, to whites, to brisados, to bubbles. We have been selecting projects that dialogue with La Cooperativa’s cuisine, with civets, fricandós and roasts. From body, structure, and over-extraction, we have moved to wanting lightness. I think the DOQ Priorat wineries have approached Mia’s stews”, he shares without complexes.

It doesn't seem so long ago when it was common to consider Priorat wines as low-grade, only serving to give alcohol content and body to other wines or, in the best of cases, for bulk consumption. A historically widespread idea outside our regions, although even here there were those who defended it as a fighting wine. But, in reality, the good reputation of Priorat wines is not relatively recent. In fact, the possibilities for retail sales, as well as exports of this generic designation, were already part of the business concerns of a good handful of entrepreneurs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Officially registering the designation, especially for the retail market, would become the obsession of some producers and marketers of the time.

Fran Tudela (la Vila Joiosa, 1996) became known on social networks by imitating English teachers and Valencian mothers. Today, with almost 200,000 followers on Instagram, Cabrafotuda –as he is known– has become one of the reference content creators in the Catalan language, and has made Valencian popular culture his territory: parties, traditions, grandma's cooking and, above all, the diversity of a language that changes its name for each thing from one town to another. Drinks are no exception.There is a very close relationship between Valencian popular culture and drink.

Sílvia Bel (Barcelona, 1970) believes in authenticity and naturalness, and practices them. The actress, who has graced the major theaters of the Catalan scene and is currently known for her role as Marta in Com si fos ahir, alternates maximum expressiveness –gestural and linguistic– with introspective silence. Bel understands the arts as a space for sincere expression, far from affectations and hypocrisies; and it is also in this way that she speaks of gastronomy and wine.They made a Ribera del Duero for his daughter, Ainara Elejalde. How does Sílvia Bel imagine the wine?

From the tendency to adopt the English word, even though the Catalan one already exists to designate the same thing, not even a drink as traditional as wine escapes it. In Catalonia, the production of white wines fermented with the skins –and sometimes with the grape stalks– has returned with force, which can present a striking orangey hue. This is how whites used to be made in past times and in Catalan they are called "vins brisats" (brisated wines), because during their production "brisa" has been used, which is the residue left after using the whole grape during production. However, even here they are often identified as orange or orange wines."An English word seems to be more common", asserts Marc Picanyol, author of the book Amb pells. Guia dels vins brisats de Catalunya (Cossetània, 2025). Accustomed to moving around Barcelona, Picanyol sees how orange proliferates among the wine bars –another expression that may be making inroads instead of wine bars–, both perhaps a result of the increase in the number of expats that the Catalan capital hosts, but he does not resign himself to this trend. He has written the book to publicize the increasingly extensive Catalan heritage of brisats –among the main references for these wines are Georgia, Slovenia, and northern Italy–, but also to "normalize" the word brisats. In his opinion, there is no doubt that it is much prettier than orange: "To me, vi brisat sounds a thousand times more attractive than hearing orange wine".When defining what a "brisat" is, there is no consensus. It may even be that a "brisat" and an orange" are not always the same. Picanyol details that the concept of orange wine likely arose to identify orange-colored wines, but over time it has become more open and at least in Europe it is now used more generally for wines made with white grapes that ferment with their skins. In the book, he has included all those Catalan wines that have fermented with skins for at least three days, although some would find it essential that it also be done with the stems or for a longer period. Be that as it may, Picanyol has named the book Amb pells" because "it is the only point where everyone agrees" and with it he aims to promote still minority wines. "Outside of us, of those of us involved in the world of wine, people don't know what they are," he states.Even so, in recent years Catalan "brisats" have multiplied. The book is a very exhaustive work that incorporates 137 wineries that produce them, but Picanyol has already located about thirty more that do not appear yet. Wineries have produced new ones and do not always communicate that they make them: there are many "brisats" in which it is not stated anywhere that they are, and hence the relevance that there is now a hitherto unprecedented guide that collects the majority of them. Often they are produced by small wineries, they are of low production and are included within the so-called natural wines, so they may not have added sulfites: they are wines to which it is appropriate to be natural, because fermenting with the skins and the stems can help protect the wine from oxidation.

It is difficult to think of happiness in Catalonia without this name coming to mind. Tortell Poltrona (Barcelona, 1955) has just returned from Ukraine. In the words that the Rokada association has dedicated to Clowns Without Borders for his stay, there is a precise synthesis of a lifetime dedicated to the happiness of others: the gratitude for offering children not only laughter, but "the reminder that joy is still possible". Tortell Poltrona —or rather, Jaume Mateu— says he is getting old. But this does not inhibit his desire to keep traveling, nor does it prevent him from moving forward before he can ask the first question.The clown is like wine. Did you know that?

The writer Najat El Hachmi (Beni Sidel, 1979) responds gracefully to the proposal of this interview: "You invite me to weddings." The winner of, among others, the Ramon Llull, City of Barcelona, ​​and Christmas prizes, who has just published a new edition of The Body Hunter (Ediciones 62, 2026), not only relates to the world through the embellishing filter of literature: it also does so through taste.

For work reasons, I live and share meals with a group of young people in their twenties and thirties. I've cooked with young people before, of course, but the meals were always prepared or paid for by me. This is different—we eat with a few scrapes from work—because I can observe their culinary habits and customs.

A good harvest after three years of drought and an expansion in the number of wineries boosted Corpinnat's sales in 2025. The collective brand of sparkling wines from the Penedès region grew by 27%. compared to the previous year...to €34.13 million.