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Inland

Finca Bell-lloc, Palamós (Girona)

By Silvia Micolau 23.07.13

What can visitors expect to find on this estate, located within the Les Gavarres (in the Empordà) natural reserve among vineyards, olive groves and pine forests? On the one hand, as the name suggests, a ‘beautiful place’ which is quiet offering simple pleasures together with a philosophy based on respect for authenticity, the essence of things and valuing time. On the other, see the following.

1. Mas Salvà is a farm dating from the 13th C with no electricity or running water offering its guests an authentic experience with varying degrees of ‘rough luxury’.

 

2. A typical house of this region that accommodates a small hotel with six rooms and an elegant rustic bungalow and country kitchen serving food to guests using their own organic foods and ingredients which are also on sale at the shop at the La Fosca beach in Palamos; jams, honey, preserves, cheese, wine, oil (coupage made from the arbequina and argudell species, indigenous to the region).

3. The swimming pool

4. An extraordinary underground cellar with the unmistakable stamp of RCR Arquitectes. With top environmental credentials, all the Corten steel used in the construction was recycled from merchant ship hulls and no cement whatsoever was used. Light pours in through the gaps between the metal panels and the voids within the rocky landscape tracing a shadowy world below. Within the subterranean passageways, in a climate-controlled atmosphere, the unlabeled wines mature organically, all the information is recorded on metallic capsules (oxidized for the reds, and polished for the whites) with screen-printed graphics. Winemaker Josep Trallero looks after the vineyard using only organic techniques, the winery can be visited by anyone where visitors can also participate in wine tasting sessions.