Festa de la Verema
Malvasia de Sitges is a sweet wine that was once the main reason for the town's international reputation. Today, Sitges is a favourite hang out for the global jet-setting gay crowd, where the nightlife vibrates until dawn along Calle del Pecado (Sin Street). On the third Sunday of every September, though, wine fans descend on the town for a programme the organizers describe in Catalan as consisting of: 'Concurs de Trepitjadores de Raim, Font del Vi i Sardanes'. In other words, a grape stamping competition, a wine fountain and the dancing of the Sardana, that peculiar expression of Calalunyan identity which moved Santiago Rusiñol to observe 'the heart dances but the head calculates'.
Anyway, while the music played, ten teams of strong-thighed young men pounded the first fruit of the local harvest with their bare feet and a beautiful Pubilla, or harvest queen, was selected after being placed on a scales that used bottles of Malmsey wine as counterweights. Once the winning team had been announced, after treading nine litres of grape juice, the sponsors, Torres, turned on the 'wine fountain' — a plaster figure in the shape of a classical goddess on whose shoulder rested a barrel, which poured forth a steady stream of robust red until midnight. Thrifty locals filled plastic containers from the stream and visitors were encouraged to fill themselves. Remarkably, and impressively, there was neither drunkenness nor disorder.
