The Penedès is a broad, gently rolling basin between the coastal ranges and the Montserrat massif, and it is one of the great wine regions of Catalonia. Vilafranca del Penedès, its capital, is a lively town with a Gothic church, a wine museum and a passion for castells, the human towers that teams of men, women and children build in the main square on feast days. UNESCO added the castells to its list of intangible heritage in 2010. Can Ximet is a farm name on the fringe of this landscape, and the shelter nearby is a modest rock overhang associated with prehistoric art.
For a rider the Penedès is a pleasant, easy landscape, with vineyards in neat rows, small lanes through the fields, and the odd stone farmhouse with a tower. The roads vary from smooth to patched. Weekend traffic includes cyclists and cars heading for wine tastings, so go early. In autumn, after the grape harvest, the vines turn yellow and red and the air has a faint smell of fermentation. In spring the fields are green and the wind from the sea is mild.
This is also the home of cava. Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, just to the north, is the centre of Spanish sparkling wine, with huge cellars and long tours. A tasting is hard to combine with a motorbike, so ask for a non-alcoholic option or save it for the evening. Vilafranca is large enough to supply fuel, food and workshops. It is a town of thirty-eight thousand, and the old town is easy to wander on foot.
If you want more twisting roads, head south and west into the Garraf massif, a rugged limestone upland with scrub and caves, and a quick route down to the coast at Sitges. Barcelona is around fifty kilometres to the north-east, and the afternoon ride from there is a classic. The early evening light on the vine rows is the best sight of the day.