In 1991, Lluís Vives i Solé's grandfather was recognized by President Pujol "for his leading role in technological advancements in the vineyard sector." Today, the Catalan government no longer awards this distinction to those who work the land and protect the landscape. His son, Enric Vives, and his wife, Aïda Conesa, are oenologists, having graduated from the Rovira i Virgili University. Thirty years ago, they decided to establish Cavas Vives Ambròs in Montferri. Together, they maintain the legacy of a farming family with over 500 years of history in the Alt Camp region, and now the sixth generation has joined them. David Vives has set aside his computer career to cultivate vineyards. It's common to see him working on a 1979 John Deere tractor, but also skillfully communicating on Instagram. The cellars are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, and it seems that, nestled near the church and just a few meters from the modernist Sanctuary of Montserrat, they are navigating the crisis looming over the wine industry. They will expand the facilities to store the increasingly longer aging processes for their Cava, as well as the shop to offer better wine tourism services. "At Vives Ambròs, 99% is vineyards, and we sell 90% of our production in the shop," explains Enric Vives. They are a rare elderlyThey don't have distributors. "Word of mouth and the quality-price-pleasure ratio of our wines and cavas work for us," he adds. Specialized critics and international competitions have also been kind to them; 71 gold medals and 40 silver medals.

The Gaià River Valley, one of the last historical frontiers of the Camp de Tarragona region, is one of the areas with the highest concentration of castles per square kilometer in Spain. The river that descends from the Conca de Barberà region—or the Baixa Segarra region, as the locals prefer to call it—to the Tarragonès region offers a veritable string of fortresses that, in their time, served both to watch over and defend a strategic and often disputed territory. The Gaià's rock-fortified castles still mark the landscape today, silent testimonies to a history of frontiers and repopulation.

"El palo de pajar represents the recovery of the Aiguamúrcia Cooperative and the sharing with families and winegrowers the joy of reopening this space we consider a treasure. Let's create a territory," says winemaker and viticulturist Pepe Raventós. Can Sumoi, the natural wine project he has been leading since 2017 in Alt Camp, will restore the heartbeat of wine four decades later to an emblematic building, the work of Cèsar Martinell, a disciple of Gaudí. If all goes as planned, the first harvest to arrive will be in 2026. Until then, the modernist architectural space will undergo a thorough renovation and be adapted to accommodate the winemaking machinery. The façade and exterior skin will be preserved.

Alt Camp is a region to be explored leisurely, with a glass in hand and eyes wide open. The royal monastery of Santes Creus is the Cistercian jewel. In Valls, the Museu Casteller de Catalunya showcases the soul of a unique tradition. Montferri surprises with the Modernism of Jujol in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Montserrat.

The rain that fell this March has caused the rivers to run full like they haven't in a long time and has caused water to flow once again from the streams that had dried up. The news has pleased much of the country, but the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) who fight marijuana trafficking know that this increase in water greatly benefits traffickers who have marijuana plantations hidden in the Catalan mountains. The drought of the last four years has been a great ally of the police, since the greatest difficulty drug traffickers face in planting in the mountains is access to water. And this has, in fact, been the clue that has most helped the Mossos in their pursuit of this drug.