Sights of Capmany

Phone: 972 531 765

Phone: 972 549 043

Visitor information
Address: Carrer Sant Climent, 33 | 17750 Capmany, Girona
Phone: + 34 626 64 72 51
E-mail: bonfill@capmany.com
Contact person: Bonfill
Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Saturdays 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Winery tour duration: 1 hour 30 min
Tour cost: 5€ (wine tasting included)
Min group size: 2
Max group size: 20
Languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, French

Visitor information
Address: Carrer de la Pujada, 6 | 17750 Capmany, Girona
Phone: + 34 972 54 91 60
E-mail: info@cellermpages.com
Contact person: Rosa
Tour cost: free
Min group size: 1
Max group size: 4
Languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, French

If you have spent some time eating and drinking your way around the Costa Brava, you are likely to know at least several local wine producers and brands. However, try putting a name to the face when it comes to the Oliveda winery in Capmany, and you will probably draw a blank. Celler Oliveda is not a brand you would know; it is not a brand at all, but a major wine producer whose wines have their own names and labels, and at least some of them you may have tasted even outside of Catalonia.

Grup Oliveda owns the following product lines: the so-called Mediterranean wines that include Rigau Ros, Clos Primat, Masia Oliveda (yes, this one might give you a clue); the Vins de Finca such as Finca Vilamaniscle, Finca Rabós, Finca Capmany; cavas and dessert wines. The cavas produced by Celler Oliveda include a whole range with their own product lines, most notably Familia Oliveda, OH! and Gran Rigau.

With such a massive product offering, you can expect a comprehensive store selection and an enjoyable shopping experience when you visit Celler Oliveda. The winery is open daily except for Sunday during set opening hours and welcomes tastings, guided tour reservations and even self-guided tours that require no prior notice. Visiting Celler Oliveda is fun — the premises form an attractive maze of interconnected tasting rooms, cellars, dimly lit hallways and even an upstairs museum that you are welcome to explore at your own pace.

The museum on the second floor is dedicated to barrel taps. Yes, barrel taps of all sizes, big and small, plus tools for making and fixing them, vessels they attach to and the artifacts from the winery that collects them. No explanations, notes of dates or producers in sight; just hundreds of objects grouped by one purpose — to let the good times (wine) flow!

Back downstairs, you may browse and sample the bottled wines that Celler Oliveda currently makes, plus table wine (white, red) and vermouth sold by litre straight from the barrel. In addition to Spanish and Catalan, the staff speaks excellent English and French, making a spur-of-the-moment visit all the more possible.

Visitor information
Address: Carrer de la Roca, 3 | 17750 Capmany, Girona
Phone: + 34 972 54 90 12
E-mail: comercial@grupoliveda.com
Contact person: Ingrid Teixidor Bech
Opening hours: Mondays to Saturdays 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Winery tour duration: 1.5 hours
Min group size: none
Max group size: 50
Languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, German

Coming to the small village of Capmany specifically for a wine tour puts you into the category of visitors who may appreciate the winery Cellers Santamaría, also known for its brand Gran Recosind. There is a caveat: despite the regular opening hours listed on the web it is open on-demand, at least in the off-season, and requires that you speak Spanish or Catalan. Making an appointment is done over the phone with the owner directly, who is the one likely to show you around. The winery is family-owned and operated, and despite being one of the oldest in Alt Empordà it is small and has an air of exclusivity.

Why visit Cellers Santamaría (Gran Recosind)? For starters, it boasts the oldest crianza wine cellar in the region, which dates back to the 16th century — if you come for a visit, you will most definitely be invited to take a peek inside. Second, there is a small museum on site — two rooms full of family archives, heirlooms, documents and other precious items that your guide will be happy to talk about in a slightly dispassionate, rehearsed way. Language skills are a must here once again — or just bring a friend who can translate!

The winery has a beautiful Art Nouveau tasting room with vaulted ceilings, a polished bar, and plenty of elbow room. Sadly, simply making an appointment for a tour does not guarantee a tasting. The owner, by his own admission, does not like visitors tasting his wines on site. His arguments — one is influenced by group dynamic when tasting here; wine is much better appreciated in a relaxed atmosphere at home; one shouldn’t rush when tasting — are compelling, but not to the visitor who drove from Barcelona for two hours hoping to have a taste before committing to a bottle purchase, even if inexpensive.

Even so, the price point is so good you risk little when buying a bottle or three. Crafted from estate-grown Garnatxa, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Syrah, the wines from Gran Recosind are well worth your attention. Balanced, tannic, and smooth, they are age-worthy and would make a beautiful addition to any dining table.

Visitor information
Address: Plaça Major, 6 | 17750 Capmany, Girona
Phone: + 34 972 54 90 33
E-mail: info@granrecosind.com
Opening hours: Mondays to Saturdays 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Sundays 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, but please call to confirm
Winery tour duration: 1 hour
Tour cost: free
Min group size: none
Max group size: 10
Languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, French

The Mirgoler dolmen (Dolmen del Mirgoler) is one of the dozen megalithic monuments along the hiking route near the village of Capmany that forms part of the Itinerànnia network.

The Querafumat dolmen (Dolmen del Querafumat) is one of the dozen megalithic monuments along the hiking route near the village of Capmany that forms part of the Itinerànnia network.

The menhir of Querafumat (Menhir del Querafumat) is one of the monuments of the megalithic era on the thematic hiking route around the village of Capmany that forms part of the Itinerànnia hiking network.

The museum of barrel taps, or Museu de les aixetes, in Capmany offers a rare opportunity to study and re-discover the form of a familiar object with no hurry or stress. The setting is more than suitable: the green landscapes of the historic region of Empordà, the relaxed walks around small Medieval towns, a growing number of wine bottles purchased at local Costa Brava wineries, and the anticipation of a hearty Catalan lunch all set the perfect scene for exploration.

Barrel taps on show at this Costa Brava museum have nothing to do with dripping sink taps or complicated shower tap systems in fancy hotels that require a user manual to operate. The barrel taps in question have more to do with winemaking than plumbing, but that is to be expected in Capmany, the heart of the wine region DO Empordà. The location of the museum (within a winery) is also a clear giveaway.

The building housing the barrel tap museum was built in 1764, and there is evidence to suggest that winemaking has been part of these walls ever since. In 1947, Josep Oliveda Casanovas, the grandfather of current owners, founded the winemaking enterprise Grup Oliveda that today produces over 1.5 million litres of wine per year. In 1955, Josep Oliveda had an idea to start collecting barrel taps for a small museum on-site.

The museum collection has over 4 thousand taps, most of which have been made locally and had been used at the Oliveda winery itself. There are foreign-made exhibits as well, brought in from elsewhere in Europe or gifted by colleagues in the industry, like, for example, the four antique taps donated by a liqueur factory in Rostoсk, Germany. The oldest items date back to the 18th century — these are the taps from Lombardy, an Italian region famed for its artful metallurgists. Size-wise, the largest and the smallest taps were made in the French county of Anjou.

Turns out that you can often tell the origins of a tap by its build and design. For example, a handle shaped like a lily betrays tap makers from France — the flower, a symbol of the French monarchy, was frequently present on the French coat of arms. Lilies on taps made before the French Revolution had three petals, while the taps made during Napoleon’s rule had only two. Another example is the shape of a military beret of the First Carlist War, popularized by Che Guevara — before the Cuban revolutionary, this headwear had inspired the casters from Navarre to create a tap called txapela, “beret”. Visitors of the barrel tap museum will easily identify the origins of the taps of that shape.

Besides countless taps, the museum is home to many other objects that surround a winemaker in her everyday life, from fun accessories to complex mechanisms — oak barrels, glass bottles, tin pitchers, machine tools and their parts, antique carpenter and locksmith tools, grandfather clocks, sewing machines, irons, diplomas commemorating wine awards, family photos… Everything but wine bottles themselves, which can be found aplenty in the next room.

Leaving the museum of barrel taps in Capmany, you may think that anyone could organize a similar museum dedicated to his or her work. Free space aside, finding and collecting things for the museum is the easy part; it is the founding of a successful multigenerational business that is able to weather the competition and various external cataclysms while sustaining the interest of the future generations in maintaining the collection that is the hard part! The Oliveda family can declare a resounding success in all of the above.

Visitor information

Address: Carrer de la Roca, 3 | Capmany
Phone: 972 549 012
Opening hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Phone: 972 193 161

The menhir Pedra dreta Comanera I is a key point of the megalithic route of Capmany that forms part of the Itinerànnia hiking network.

The menhir Pedra dreta Comanera II is one of the rest stops along the megalithic route of Capmany that forms part of the Itinerànnia hiking network.

Visitor information
Address: Carretera GI-602, km 2.9 | 17750 Capmany, Girona
Phone: + 34 972 54 90 96
E-mail: vins@pereguardiola.com
Contact person: Jordi Pairó
Winery tour duration: 1 hour 30 min
Min group size: 4
Max group size: 12
Languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, English, French

The menhir Quer Afumat I is one of the notable sights on the megalithic route around the village of Capmany that also belongs to Itinerànnia, a hiking route network.