Catalonia - 4
The magic of silence is a version of the music of silence. The magic of silence, as at Marsten Bruno in Priorat, is the ability to walk at a steep incline up from the hotel into vineyards and walk and walk. Girlahead did just that.
After the bubbling bustle of Barcelona, the excitement of its excited youth and fashionista gen-Zs interspersed with tired tourists from Tucson, it’s bliss to arrive, two hours later, in the hilly vineyards around Mas d’en Bruno, the 13th century dwelling that David Stein’s turned into today’s Priorat-region palace (above). Around are 15ha planted with Grenache, Tempranillo, Merlot, Carignan. and the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon in Priorat: they come right up to the periphery of Mas d’en Bruno, which also now has a 200m separate block, single storey but clamber down a spiral wood staircase to a tasting room and boutique. There’s an outside amphitheatre with firepit, a 20m pool, a professional bike room, ensuite with capacity for 20 Colnago V4Rs to be showered, dried and put securely to bed.
Early morning, the sun was already up, but it was not too hot. Girlahead aimed at one tree high above her, and having reached that, went on to another and another, thinking as she walked of Michael Mosley, the brilliant medical television documentary maker, who was hiking in hills by himself without a phone, and fell. And that was the end of him. The paths here are not so much paths as partial flattening down of rocky soil, and you have continuously to watch your footing, up past the vines and more vines, and look down to the resort, because that's what it is. Yes, the resort that David Stein has created, is brilliantly establishing a strong persona. It’s become a meeting-point for Priorat professionals. One night, for instance, Sheri Perricone of Perrinet popped by. See below.
