This review is woefully overdue as my trip to Gratallops was in May! But Slate was so wonderful to work with that I have had it on my to-do list this whole time! Back when we visited they had only recently launched their wine bar, Airbnb and tours but despite being relatively new, the service and knowledge of Katja (the wine bar manager) was GREAT!
When I was looking for wine tours for priorat, I had a really hard time finding anyone in the wine business who had a helpful website or who was fluent in English so when I stumbled upon Slate's website I emailed Craig (the owner) right away for either help setting up our winery visits or (ideally) a custom tour with him. He was out of town, but he put me in touch with Katja, their manager, and we booked a custom winery tour of Priorat wineries for four people, as well as a special tasting of wines from some of the wineries we didn't have time to visit at Slate with Katja. The cost was affordable in comparison to many of the similar experiences we looked at, as well as completely customizable!
Katja and I emailed back and forth a few times to design the exact tours, lunch and tastings that we wanted most and she gave excellent advice so that we had an experience we never could have set up ourselves. She also made our lunch reservations at Cellar de Gratallops which was a huge help as they were on our must-do list and they don't have a website for booking. Then when we toured the wineries, she translated at the places where there was no one who spoke English, and she even drove our rental car around the windy Priorat roads with much more confidence than we would have had (and it allowed us to indulge in all of the wonderful wines without worry).
Overall, we LOVED our time at Slate doing our personalized wine tasting, we LOVED our time touring with Katja and together that was one of the best days of our trip. I could not recommend Slate more highly!
And, as an aside, while we did not stay in the Air BnB above Slate as they were just finishing the renovations when we visited, we did see it and everything was beautiful! If/when I return to Gratallops, I absolutely plan to stay there. read more