Graphic

Today we went to Barbastro, the centre of the Somontano wine industry. It's an unassuming sort of place; large chunks of the centre have been demolished and not rebuilt, and what's left consists mostly of pedestrianised streets with shops that haven't changed much since the 1950s. It's all rather charming in a low-key way, with residents strolling the streets or sitting chatting over coffee. 

My research on Trip Advisor was not all that successful since most of the lunch spots I'd identified turned out to be either closed or not that enticing. We ended up at a smart wine and tapas bar that we thought would be too expensive, but they turned out to have a menu del dia for 15.50. And, yet again, it was good value for money! We seem to have struck lucky again. The waitress reeled off the desserts, and S chose the tarta de remolacha. "What's remolacha?" I asked him. "No idea," he replied. The word was familiar and when I looked it up on my phone it turned out he'd ordered beetroot cake. It was very nice though, two layers of deep purply red with generous cream cheese frosting. My nut-and-honey topped puff pastry was very good too.

Somehow we failed to get around to any wine tasting, and most of the shops were closed when we finished lunch. We made a brief visit to the Sommos winery, a (very) sub-Gehry construction too boxy and symmetrical to be interesting (see extras). The other extra is a typical street in Barbastro.