Penedès: cava and a table among the vines.

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia is the cava town: in and around the town there are dozens of cavas, the underground cellars where the wine undergoes its second fermentation in the bottle. This plan is to understand it and taste it unhurried. You start at the town's interpretation centre, go down to a cava to see the riddling racks and bottles in rima, taste, and finish with a long lunch looking at the vines. If you go by train, nobody has to give up a glass.

The day, hour by hour

10:00 · Departure. The Rodalies R4 train reaches Sant Sadurní in about 50 minutes; by car it is as long again on the AP-7. The station is in the centre, a few minutes' walk from everything.

11:00 · Cava Centre. It is in the Fassina de Can Guineu, a former distillery on Carrer de l'Hospital. The visit is guided and audiovisual: where the bubbles come from, why the stopper is cork, how the town came out of the phylloxera plague, and a final tasting to tell types and ageing apart. On Sundays there are sessions at 11:00 and 12:30, capacity is limited and it is wise to book. It costs €6 per person and on the first Sunday of each month it is free, although that day it does not include the tasting.

12:15 · Cava visit with tasting. The town council offers combined visits from the Cava Centre to several of the town's wineries, among them Blancher, Canals i Munné, Freixenet, Jaume Giró i Giró, Joan Segura Pascual, Montesquius and Vilarnau. Choose one that opens on Sunday at that time and book in advance: almost all work by appointment. The visit usually lasts between an hour and an hour and a half: the vineyard or the production room, the descent into the cellar, the rima of bottles in half-light and the tasting.

14:00 · Lunch among the vines. Castelo de Pedregosa is on the outskirts of the town, at kilometre 10.5 of the BP-2151 road, a few minutes by car or taxi from the centre. It is a family winery built 26 metres underground, excavated in the stone, with the vines of the Ribalta estate around it. Its restaurant, Umbra, cooks seasonal, local produce: the fish arrives every day from the Vilanova fish market, the meat is organic and the bread comes from the town bakery. It has a menu and set menus, and you book online from the winery's website.

16:30 · Return. Taxi or car to the station or the motorway. Home around half past five.

What to order

In a winery with a table the logical thing is to drink what is made there: ask about the house sparkling wines, made with xarel·lo and macabeu from its own vines, and let them advise which glass goes with each dish. If you prefer something lighter than a full lunch, the terrace of La Carmeta, in the same winery, serves tapas and small plates. Order grape juice for the children and for the driver. Before leaving, call in at the winery shop and take home whatever you liked best in the tasting.

How to organise the bookings

Book three things, in this order: lunch, the cava visit and the Cava Centre session. On harvest and spring Sundays the wineries with tables fill up: book days ahead. If you only manage a visit at the end of the morning, skip the Cava Centre and come back another Sunday: the cava is what you cannot miss.

With children and with a dog

With children it works if you let them look: the Cava Centre is audiovisual and participatory, and under-16s go in with an adult. In the cavas you go down into cool galleries, so bring a jacket. Dogs are not allowed in the Cava Centre, except assistance dogs, nor in most cavas.