Cava & Hotel Mastinell

Sleeping inside a cava winery

Cava & Hotel Mastinell is in the Mastinell cava winery, on the road to Sant Martí Sarroca, half a kilometre from Vilafranca del Penedès. The building imitates a set of cava bottles in a rima stack, piled up as in the cellar, and its trencadís roof is a tribute to Gaudí. It is a five-star hotel and its rooms, designed with cava and wine in mind, look onto the vines or the winery; the MasTinell Suite is inside two giant cava bottles, and there is one small room, the Merlot, for solo travellers.

Why it is a wine hotel

Because the cellar is underneath. The standard tour, with two cavas, a wine and a cheese tapa, costs €32 per person, every day at 10:00 in English and at 12:00 in Spanish; the premium, with five products and Iberian ham, costs €42, at 16:00 on arranged days. Both must be booked in advance. The restaurant, En Rima, cooks local produce with its own cavas and wines, and serves its gastronomic menu on Friday and Saturday nights and the eve of public holidays. From reception you can arrange one-hour horse rides among the vines around the hotel, hot-air balloon flights, visits to other wineries and electric bike hire.

Without a car

It is easy to get here by train: lines R4 and R2 of Rodalies reach Vilafranca del Penedès, and the hotel is about ten minutes' walk from the town centre. That way, the tasting and dinner don't call for a road trip. Barcelona is 45 minutes by car and the airport 40.

Practical information

Check-in from 15:00 and check-out until 12:00; reception open 24 hours, free left-luggage and private parking with an electric-car charger. Breakfast is served à la carte from 7:30 to 11:30. Animals are not allowed.