Capital of the Baix Camp (Tarragona) and the second city of the province. It was resettled around 1150 by the Norman Robert d'Aguiló and received a settlement charter in 1183 from Bernat de Bell-lloc; in the 18th and 19th centuries it was a great centre of the brandy and wine trade.
popular saying about the aguardiente trade, 18th century; De Muller 1851; vermouths from c. 1871Reus, Paris and London: the city that set the price of aguardiente
In Reus everyone knows the saying “Reus, Paris and London”. It holds that in the 18th century the aguardiente distilled from the wine of the Camp de Tarragona was the town’s great business, that almost all of it was exported through the port of Salou and that its international price was set in three markets: Reus, Paris and London. That trade made Reus the second city of Catalonia. In the 19th century came the vermouths, with some thirty producers, and the house of De Muller, founded in Tarragona in 1851 by Augusto de Muller, who had come from Reims, and which went on to become purveyor of altar wine to the Pope. Since 1996 its century-old barrels have rested in Reus.
Alive today: Reus lies within the DO Tarragona area and is the commercial capital of the wine of the Camp. De Muller still makes DO Tarragona and Priorat wines, rancios, altar wine and vermouth on the Mas Valls estate. The city holds the Reus Viu el Vi fair, organised by the Chamber of Commerce, and keeps the Vermut de Reus brand alive.