Spain · Priorat

Celler Joan Simó

Celler Joan Simó began making its own Priorat wine in Porrera in 1999, after generations of family viticulture that had supplied grapes to the local cooperative. Garnacha and Carignan lead vineyards in cooler Porrera and La Garranxa and warmer Bellmunt del Priorat.

The producer

In 1999, Gerard Batllevell Simó moved his family's Priorat work from grape growing for the local cooperative into estate winemaking. The winery occupies the basement of Cal Ros, a historic house in Porrera, where an ageing room has capacity for 25,000 bottles. Gerard is responsible for the winery, with Josep Àngel Mestre as oenologist, and the estate handles the chain from pruning and vineyard care through harvest, vinification, ageing, bottling, labelling and final sale.

The range moves from Viatge al Priorat, a Grenache-led regional red with fresh acidity, ripe fruit and minerality, to wines tied to named places. Les Eres Vi de Vila is 100% Carignan from a 1920 Porrera vineyard, aged in new French oak with ripe fruit, mineral notes and refined tannins. Tros Nou comes from the Bellmunt plot named as the project's origin, combining Garnacha Peluda and Carignan with red fruit, blackberry, liquorice, herbs, fresh acidity and a long finish.

Known for

Porrera and Bellmunt del Priorat wines that put Garnacha and Carignan through dry-stone terraces, contrasting vineyard zones and estate cellar work from pruning to final sale.

Notable facts

The story

Five barrels for the first Les Eres

In 1999, Gerard Batllevell Simó began the Celler Joan Simó project with support from his family and advice from Josep Àngel Mestre and Toni Pena. The family had converted the basement of Cal Ros in Porrera into a winery and ageing room, and the first Les Eres was made that same year. For the new wine, five barrels were purchased from René Barbier. The first vintage therefore began with a newly converted cellar, a small set of barrels and a vineyard name that would become central to the range. Those five barrels held the first Les Eres made under the Celler Joan Simó name.

From the atlas

Celler Joan Simó

At A Glance

Celler Joan Simó is a Priorat producer based in Porrera, Catalonia, with vineyards in Porrera and Bellmunt del Priorat. Garnacha and Carignan lead the estate's plantings. Les Eres Vi de Vila is a 100% Carignan red from a historic Porrera vineyard, while Tros Nou Bellmunt Vi de Vila combines Garnacha Peluda and Carignan from a named Bellmunt plot. The range moves from the broader Viatge al Priorat to wines tied to specific villages and vineyards.

The Producer

In 1999, Gerard Batllevell Simó turned a family history of growing grapes into estate winemaking. His family had farmed vines in Priorat for generations, but sold the harvest to the local cooperative. Gerard began making wine under the Celler Joan Simó name with support from his father, advice from his uncle Josep, winemaker Josep Àngel Mestre and friend Toni Pena.

The winery occupies the basement of Cal Ros, a historic house in Porrera converted into a modern cellar and ageing room that year. Gerard is responsible for the winery and Josep Àngel Mestre is its oenologist. Les Eres connects that cellar to its signature Porrera wine, a Carignan red whose label names both the village and the old vineyard behind it.

Place

Priorat is the Catalan wine region and DOQ behind the bottles. Celler Joan Simó farms in two contrasting zones: cooler, higher vineyards around Porrera and La Garranxa, and warmer sites near Bellmunt del Priorat. Carignan can be harvested up to three weeks apart between Bellmunt and La Garranxa, so the place changes the calendar as well as the label.

La Garranxa sits above Porrera at 600 metres, on northeast-facing terraces. The estate planted 15,000 vines there between 1999 and 2001. Its altitude and exposure place La Garranxa in the cooler part of the estate, while Tros Nou's Bellmunt address brings the warmer low zone into the range.

Soil And Site

Les Eres is a 3.1-hectare slope in Porrera, shaped like an amphitheatre and held by dry-stone walls at 450 metres. The vineyard is listed as planted in 1920 on llicorella, with Carignan, Garnacha, White Garnacha and Picapoll. The current Les Eres Vi de Vila narrows that planting to a 100% Carignan wine, so the bottle carries the old slope through grape and place together.

Tros Nou is a five-hectare terraced plot with stone walls, planted in 1925 by the father of Gerard's grandfather with miners from Bellmunt. Its soils are listed as llicorella, granite and clay, with Garnacha Peluda and Carignan. The estate calls Tros Nou the origin of the project, and its Bellmunt Vi de Vila label carries that plot into the glass.

Story

For generations, the Batllevell family knew Priorat through vineyard work, not through bottles. Grapes went to the local cooperative, so the family farmed the vines without controlling the wine's final form. Gerard Batllevell Simó changed that arrangement in 1999, when family support and advice from Josep Àngel Mestre and Toni Pena helped turn the basement of Cal Ros into a working winery.

The new cellar gave the family room to handle the full chain, from pruning and vineyard care through harvest, vinification, ageing, bottling, labelling and final sale. The next step reached beyond the old plots: 15,000 vines went into La Garranxa's high terraces between 1999 and 2001, adding a northeast-facing site above Porrera to the family vineyards.

Vineyards And Cellar

Celler Joan Simó keeps vineyard and cellar work under one roof of responsibility. Cal Ros contains an ageing room with capacity for 25,000 bottles, while the estate manages the work from pruning to final sale. The cellar uses cold pre-fermentation maceration, controlled alcoholic fermentation and barrel malolactic fermentation in its named current reds.

Les Eres and Tros Nou each spend 18 months in new French oak, with the barrels giving the wines a clear ageing frame around ripe fruit, minerality and tannin. Viatge al Priorat spends 12 months in second and third-fill French oak, a shorter and softer oak imprint for the wider estate blend.

Wines

Viatge al Priorat is the broad regional red. It blends 75% Grenache Noir with 5% Carignan, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. The winery describes bright colour, fresh acidity, pronounced fruit and minerality, with 12 months in second and third-fill French oak. Its production is listed at 10,000 bottles and 300 magnums.

Les Eres Vi de Vila is the Porrera wine and the most direct Carignan statement in the current range. It is 100% Carignan from the Les Eres vineyard, with 18 months in new French oak. The estate describes ripe fruit, Priorat minerality, well-integrated oak and refined tannins. Production is listed at 2,100 bottles and 200 magnums.

Tros Nou is the Bellmunt wine, made from 80% Garnacha Peluda and 20% Carignan. The 18 months in new French oak sit behind a wine that shows deep cherry colour, raspberries, strawberries, ripe blackberries, currants, liquorice, herbs and mineral notes. Fresh acidity, rounded body and a long finish carry the wine beyond its 970-bottle production, with 100 magnums also listed.

In The Glass

Viatge al Priorat begins with bright colour and ripe Grenache fruit, then brings fresh acidity and a mineral edge through the middle of the palate. Its 12 months in older French oak keep the fruit in front, while the blend's Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot add dark-fruited breadth.

Les Eres moves from Carignan's ripe fruit into the mineral character associated with Priorat. New French oak gives the wine a firm frame, while 18 months of ageing and barrel malolactic fermentation soften the tannins into the refined texture described by the estate. The finish stays marked by fruit, oak and llicorella-linked minerality.

Tros Nou rises first in red fruit and balsamic liquorice, then adds blackberry, currant, herbs and dark chocolate. In the mouth, fresh acidity keeps the full body moving, and the tannins melt into a rounded, long finish. The warm Bellmunt site and the Garnacha Peluda led blend give this bottle a broader, softer register than the Carignan-led Les Eres.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Les Eres Vi de Vila. It is the current 100% Carignan from the 1920 Les Eres vineyard in Porrera, fermented with controlled temperature, aged for 18 months in new French oak and made in a listed production of 2,100 bottles and 200 magnums. Ripe fruit, Priorat minerality, integrated oak and refined tannins arrive in one bottle, with the grape, village, old slope and cellar method all named clearly on the way to the finish.

Anecdote

In 1999, Gerard Batllevell Simó began the Celler Joan Simó project with family support and advice from Josep Àngel Mestre and Toni Pena. The family had converted the basement of Cal Ros in Porrera into a winery and ageing room, and the first Les Eres was made that same year. For the new wine, five barrels were purchased from René Barbier, one of the early figures in modern Priorat. The first vintage therefore left the family cellar in five barrels before Les Eres had the long vineyard history attached to its label. The barrels held the first wine made under the new Celler Joan Simó name.

Final Word

Celler Joan Simó is easiest to follow through its two vineyard zones. Porrera supplies the high, cooler setting of Les Eres and La Garranxa, while Bellmunt supplies the warmer Tros Nou plot. Begin with Les Eres Vi de Vila for the clearest meeting of Carignan, old vines, Porrera and the Cal Ros cellar.

Sources

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