"The Penedes it's so close to Barcelona that people often forget to come", that's how Santi Valles describes the advantage that puts you at a disadvantage to tourism in the area in which it is located More Palou , a country house owned by his family since 1623 and which today is the link that has brought him back together with his wife and two of his daughters.
“We are forty minutes south of Barcelona and twenty from Sitges. We are in the interior but quite close to the coast, in addition to the fact that we are next to Vilafranca del Penedès and Sant Sadurní, the capital of cava”, he explains. Mary, daughter of Santi and the person in charge of the organizational chart has turned Mas Palou into one of the most demanded rural retreats in the area in recent years. Although she Maria seemed to have no intention of staying still in the place that she saw her grow up. “I have been working abroad for eight years. I went to China, to New York – where he was involved in international development issues, in Unicef and consulting and sustainability companies –, to Madrid to work in an NGO, I lived in South Korea, San Francisco, India... until two years ago I decided to return,” he explains. Since then, her parents have been able to rest (although they never stop still) from the work that laid the foundations of the family business.
In 1996 the couple was a pioneer in the region by converting the farm and the empty houses of their landlords into rural accommodation. Cal Joaquim was the one who opened the season. “I remember that our first guests were some Brazilians with whom we got along so well that we continue to talk and be friends. For me it was very strange to see so many people pass by my pool and share it all with whom at first they were strangers, but then I saw it as something normal. It was my life,” she recalls. After a year, Cal Lluís was reformed and, later, Casa Sant Jaume, part of the main farmhouse. While her father continues to work the estate vineyards , it is Mary who offers tastings (“blind, which is more fun”) as a house sommelier to visitors.
From hotels to restaurants, tourism encompasses infinite worlds.
"My sister Anna and I are doing tests and, as soon as we manage to find something that we like, rest assured that we will elaborate our own wine ”, She advances her of the future projects that they already plan, along with that of bottling your own olive oil , organize artist residencies and ride a rural co-working . Anna is also the one who started the reading club in which they pair a book with a wine reference each time, of small projects whose philosophy is minimal intervention. Although guests can choose not to have any contact with the Vallès family, it is best to do so because how can you miss the delicacies that they cook daily? Adelina, matriarch of the family?
Every morning his bread spread with fig jam and rub shoulders with lemon or vegan chocolate biscuits, while at noon the stews They are her specialty. "The noodle casserole embroiders them, but also the fricando , which is a traditional Catalan dish, monkfish with lobster...”, says María.
For details like this, this year, in which everything indicates that the trip will continue to lean towards nearby destinations, places like Mas Palou have everything to win.
***This report was published in *number 144 of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (Spring 2021) . Subscribe to the printed edition (€18.00, annual subscription, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The April issue of Condé Nast Traveler is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device