Barcelona Highlights

 El Xampanyet.

This is a must. Ignore the fact that this is a tourist hang out and focus on what they put in front of you: high quality tapas and house cava served in a coupe. Sure, four plates and a bunch of drinks ran 20 euro, but house bubble out of some inconspicuous bottle paired with serrano ham that's glistening with tasty goodness is too amazing to pass up.

 A Casa.

I'd like to draw your attention to a Portuguese dessert and wine bar in the Gracia area of Barcelona, north of the city centre.  It's a neighbourhood far from the bustle of things, but tucked away, there seems to be a suave kicky/tony thing going down. Now those are some adjectives I don't think I've used before. At any rate, A Casa serves eclectic sweets and loads of wine. If you don't want high end Vinho Verde or port by the glass, then there is a a wall of wine by the bottle to choose from, and they only mark up 2 euro over the retail price. 

?

 I can't even recall the name of this super chic and horribly touristic tapas stop. The sole interesting function was the bottle of cava we ordered that boasted 100% vinified on site, 100% Penedes, 100% old vines. It registered only 11.5% abv and tasted a tad sparse and like fancy mineral water, but they do seem proud of their claims. Cava: we drank a lot of it--what two days worth would allow--but were never bowled over by finesse. I suppose that's not what it's about, but there must be some operations out there making champagne-fighting stuff?