320
labels on the active list, kept lean on purpose
The Wine Cellar
Three hundred and twenty reasons to come for the wine — and stay for the view.
Joan Casademont, WSET Diploma, has spent eleven years curating a cellar so deliberately regional that ninety-two percent of its labels come from within ninety kilometres of your table.
Joan Casademont — photographed in the original 1903 wine cave, Carrer de la Cala, 14.
A Regional Conviction
Why ninety-two percent of our labels are Empordà and Priorat.
There is a useful thought experiment that any sommelier on this coastline eventually runs. Sit a guest at a candlelit table overlooking Cala Racó, open a bottle grown in slate two thousand metres above the sea, and ask them what they taste. Almost always, the answer begins with the place — garriga, salt, sun-warmed stone. The bottle makes sense here in a way it simply does not in Madrid or Antwerp. Empordà and Priorat are not our cellar because they are local; they are our cellar because they belong to this coastline the way the cypresses and the salt wind do.
The remaining eight percent is not a concession; it is a careful edit. A village Champagne for anniversaries. A mature Rioja for the once-a-year guest who arrives with a memory. A handful of German Rieslings for the lobster nights in May. Beyond that, we have stopped apologising for the regional tilt, because the guests who find us tend to come precisely looking for it.
"The right bottle on this terrace is the one that tastes like the view."
— Joan Casademont, Head Sommelier
By the Numbers
The cellar, in honest figures.
92%
of bottles drawn from Empordà and Priorat DOs
3
full sommeliers on the floor every service
1903
the year the original fishermen's cave became a cellar
The list skews low-intervention and small-producer — every Empordà grower we list has been visited at least once by Joan or one of the sommeliers, and roughly two-thirds of the Priorat section is estate-bottled by families farming Garnacha and Cariñena bushvines older than the restaurant itself.
Tasting Flights
Three ways to taste the cellar.
Each flight is built around one specific story about this coastline. The flights pour at roughly fifty-millilitre measures; allow ninety minutes for the longer pairings.
Signature Flight
Empordà Discovery — Five Producers, One Coastline
€38 · five wines · ninety minutes
A horizontal of five small-production Empordà reds and one white from growers Joan has worked with for a decade or longer. Garnacha from Cap de Creus, Carinyena from the Albera foothills, a single white from Garriguella. The flight closes with a 2018 Cariñena old-vine from a producer farming pre-phylloxera vines.
Book this flightVertical
Priorat Through a Single Vineyard
€58 · six vintages · ninety minutes
Six consecutive vintages of one Priorat "vi de finca" from a producer in La Morera de Montsant, walked through chronologically. We open the most recent vintage first to set the estate's modern register, then move backward through the older, slower years. Limited to four guests per sitting.
Reserve a seatChef-Paired
Mar i Muntanya — Five Wines, Five Courses
€68 · five courses · two hours
Our weekly-changing tasting menu of Catalan surf-and-turf, each course paired with a single carefully chosen bottle from the cellar. The current menu runs a sea-bass carpaccio with a young Garnatxa Blanca, a slow-braised veal cheek with a 2016 Priorat, and ends with a brunyols dessert wine from Empordà.
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Meet the Cellar Master
Joan Casademont — head sommelier, third-generation steward.
Joan came to wine the long way around — through the kitchen, then through the WSET Diploma (2014), then through a four-year apprenticeship under the wine programme at El Celler de Can Roca between 2011 and 2015. He took over the list at Fanal Racou in 2016 and has rebuilt it twice since.
- Credential
- WSET Diploma, graduated 2014 with distinction
- Apprenticeship
- El Celler de Can Roca wine programme, 2011–2015
- At Fanal Racou
- Head sommelier since 2016 — second list revision released spring 2023
- Approach
- Curious first, suggestive second — guests are asked one question before any bottle is opened
"The best thing a sommelier can do is listen. The second-best thing is know when to stop talking. Everything else is reading and tasting and visiting the same fifty families every year."
Practical Notes
Honest answers before you commit.
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Do you pour flights by the glass?
Yes, all three signature flights are poured at the table from fresh bottles — not pre-poured carafes. Each glass is a measured fifty-millilitre pour. The Empordà Discovery can be split between two guests at the same table without surcharge; the Priorat Vertical and Mar i Muntanya flights are seated individually.
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What is the corkage policy?
Corkage is twenty-five euros per 750-millilitre bottle, with a two-bottle maximum per table. The fee is waived, with our encouragement, for guests bringing bottles from a winery that is not on our list — we use it as a chance to learn what we are missing. Sommelier-laid bottles from our own cellar are always presented and opened tableside.
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Are there options for non-drinkers or solo travellers?
Yes. We pour a five-glass alcohol-free flight of Catalan verjus, small-producer apple and quince ciders, and fermented teas from the Maresme, priced at €22. For solo guests, we seat at the bar counter facing the cellar pass — one of the better perches in the house to watch Joan work, and a frequent recommendation for travelling wine professionals visiting alone.
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Can hotel concierges arrange a private cellar tour?
Yes — concierges from any Platja d'Aro or Sant Feliu property can arrange a thirty-minute guided tour of the 1903 cave, paired with one flight, for guests with confirmed dinner reservations. Concierges should write directly to [email protected] at least seventy-two hours ahead with the guest name, party size and chosen date. There is no charge beyond the dinner's minimum spend.
Ready to taste the cellar? The Mar i Muntanya flight pairs particularly well with our weekly-changing menu.
Reserve a Tasting Flight