Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (Sant Boi de Llobregat, 1965) is an economist and university professor and has been, for more than a decade, one of the regular faces of Catalan politics: Member of the European Parliament (2009-2019), Member of Parliament, Minister of Business with Torra and councilor in Barcelona with Trias. Panelist on Betevé and 3Cat, independent director of Aena and son of a mother from Pla d'Urgell and a father from Ribagorça, he has made high-altitude wines from Pallars a personal mission.

The wine made by Eva Vega and her father, José Antonio Vega, from Vilanova de Prades (Conca de Barberà) has already received different gold medals at the Brussels World Competition, but this year their Viern 2015 has even obtained the Revelation Wine of Spain Award, which the same jury only grants to 14 wines out of the 6,700 presented. This wine, which is one of the many produced by the Vega Aixalà winery, fed by a 10.5-hectare vineyard, will go on sale in the coming days.

“Art, architecture, and agriculture have many common enthusiasts and nourish each other. That's why we want to be a world-class cultural destination”. Christian Bourdais and Eva Albarrán are owners of contemporary art galleries in Madrid and Maó, but they have added a third one outdoors in Queretes, in Matarranya. “The only solution to the crisis facing the wine world is to integrate interests,” warns Bourdais. That's why they are betting on Venta d’Aubert, an enological project that celebrates forty years today and which, in its beginnings, was driven by Álvaro Palacios and Josep Lluís Pérez, references in Priorat. The first owners were Swiss. Upon reaching their eighties, they are looking for a successor. Preserving the spirit of the place was non-negotiable, and so four years ago they handed over the management to the gallerists Bourdais and Albarrán. From the beginning, there has been the idea that the winery should be a collective and living project, dialoguing with the natural heritage of Matarranya and the Ports of Tortosa-Beseit, “without the arrogance of ownership,” insists Christian Bourdais. And he adds: “I don't understand why this landscape is not more recognized. If they had it two hours from London or Paris, it would be the most expensive place in the world. Here, on the other hand, it is part of the depopulated Spain, but the most relevant thing is that it is authentic”.

The actor Pep Plaza (Mataró, 1972) has shown his face (literally) and lent his voice to many of the biggest names in Catalan and Spanish culture, politics, and sports. The man who has been Pedro Sánchez and Pep Guardiola, Joan Pera and Albert Om, is also the protagonist of El substitut, a show he premiered at the Teatre Borràs in 2023 and continues to perform this summer in various locations. But Plaza has not only dedicated himself to the stage; his work as an insurance salesman also led him, unexpectedly, to wine, a world he already knew from childhood.

I call my friend Jordi Crusellas, who grows grapes for the Artés cooperative, in Bages, when I hear that his area has caught fire. He answers me, distraught, from the tractor, and immediately sends me a video of the flames licking his picapoll vineyard. The vineyard acted as a firebreak. And so it happened with the Empordà fires a few years ago, too: the vineyards (Garbet, from Peralada, Anna Espelt's...) were natural firebreaks. "I was stunned," he explains to me later, with a little more calm, "by how the flames jumped over the vineyard and continued on the other side. Thanks to the vineyard, the fire was not so virulent and aggressive".

Victor von Schwarz (his surname in German means "black"; Sabadell, 1988) is the artistic name of the fashion designer who has dressed some of the most popular artists on the music scene, such as Aitana, Lola Índigo or Rosalía, and who is part of the Shein X program. The designer has matured an androgynous style —influenced by his time in Taiwan—, with a constant presence of pink and "cute aesthetics, which was reflected in the pink jersey-top that Rosalía wore in the music video for Milionària. For wine, Von Schwarz is true to his brand: when he can choose, he chooses black.

Júlia Colom (Valldemossa, 1997) went in search of the melodies that were sung in the villages of Mallorca. From that search emerged Sempre dijous (Joan Porcel, 2020), award for best national documentary at the In-Edit Festival, and the foundation for the albums Miramar (2023) and Paradís (2025), best album of the year according to the critics of Enderrock.

A spicy wine made in California awakened her mind and made her dive into her culinary memory linked to the garden since childhood. Back then she lived between Terrassa and Bagà. “It was very chemical, it had spicy sensations, but without a trace of pepper. We planted four varieties of chili pepper and dared to make one.” Isa Serra is the director of Vall Llach, but her connection with Priorat has been forged through l’Horta Colomer, a space for biodynamic crops in the heart of Porrera, where white carignan vines coexist with vegetables, spices, fruit trees, and geese.

On July 4th, Celler Masroig will kick off the first edition of Les Sorts d'Estiu, a new proposal that aims to vindicate the value of summer nights in Priorat through wine, gastronomy, and live music. The initiative is born with the intention of offering an experience open to all audiences, capable of uniting tradition and celebration in a privileged environment with wine and cava at the center of it all. An invitation to take a break and share quality time in one of the most emblematic wine landscapes in the country.

With wine, the theory is clear: the hotter it gets, the more sugars the grapes can accumulate. Given that during fermentation these sugars will end up being transformed into alcohol, if it has been a year of great heatwaves, presumably the alcoholic strength of the wine will also be high. However, very alcoholic wines are not to everyone's taste, and even less so now that the heat is arriving. Faced with this, wineries are devising ways to also offer wines that significantly reduce alcohol, regardless of whether the vineyard has had to endure very high temperatures. Several Catalan wineries are already making wines or drinks that can be assimilated to wine, almost all of them white, ranging between 6% and 9.5% alcohol. They are an intermediate point between Mediterranean wines, with an alcohol content that can reach 15%-16%, and de-alcoholized wines, which become 0.0 if all the alcohol is removed. The aim is to respond to the trend of drinking less without giving up aroma and taste, which can diminish greatly in the processes to transform them into 0.0, and at the same time offer lower-alcohol wines without so much technological intervention.

Pol López (Barcelona, 1984) has been Hamlet, Vladimir, Alceste and Raskolnikov. He also played Ivan in Suro (Mikel Gurea, 2022), a role that earned him the Gaudí for best male protagonist in 2023. And the endearing Os in La furgo (Eloy Calvo, 2025). He now has two fronts open: Mal de coraçon, at the Villarroel until June 21 – a play with which the Company Solitària says goodbye to the stage – and La desconocida (Gabe Ibáñez), which has just premiered on Netflix, in which López plays a Gaditan agent alongside Candela Peña.

The Denomination of Origin (DO) Cava faces decisive hours for its future after eight years of Javier Pagés' presidency. This Thursday, June 11, the twelve members who form the plenary of the Regulatory Council, the body representing the different agents in the sector, will meet at the Vilafranca del Penedès headquarters to elect who will be the maximum leader – as well as the vice-president – of the DO that exports the most from Spain, but which at the same time is not going through its best moment.

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.