Barbastro

Barbastro is a city in the province of Huesca at the junction of the rivers Cinca and Vero, and the centre of wine production in the Somontano DOP, created in 1984. Somontano means beneath the mountain: its vineyards spread from the foothills of the Pyrenees down towards the Ebro valley, and grapes have been grown here since at least the 2nd century BC. Its Ruta del Vino is one of the 13 official wine routes recognised by ACEVIN. George Orwell stopped here on his way back from the front and, in Homage to Catalonia, remembered wine shops with great oozy barrels as tall as a man. The Sierra de Guara, famous for canyoning, is close by.