Spain · Priorat

Giol Porrera

Family-owned winery in Porrera farming 11 hectares of terraced licorella slopes for Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena, producing 4,000 bottles a year from a rehabilitated spirit factory under a great-grandfather's name.

The producer

Jonàs Macip Simó is a viticulturist from Porrera, a village in the Priorat hills of southern Catalonia, where DOQ Priorat, one of only two Denominació d'Origen Qualificada appellations in Spain, covers steep ridges of dark fractured slate called licorella. In 2018 he opened a winery inside a stone building his family had once used as a spirit factory, took his great-grandfather's surname Giol for the label, and began bottling the fruit from 11 hectares of terraced mountain parcels.

The range is built on two native varieties: Garnatxa Negra, the local Grenache Noir, and Carinyena, the Catalan name for Carignan. Both come from two named parcels, Mas d'en Caçador and Les Sentius, farmed on the terraced licorella slopes that define Porrera's landscape. Annual production is approximately 4,000 bottles across all wines. The core bottle, the Garnatxa Negra i Carinyena blend, carries bright acidity from Carinyena, ripe dark fruit from Garnatxa Negra, and the dry mineral finish that licorella soils pull into every glass from this corner of Priorat.

Known for

Mountain viticulture on licorella slate in Porrera; native Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena; very small production at 4,000 bottles a year.

Notable facts

The story

The Factory and the Name

When Jonàs Macip Simó decided to open a winery in 2018, he had a building in Porrera that most people had stopped thinking about. The old Giol spirit factory had been out of use for years, the name barely attached to any active memory of what had been made there. Giol was his great-grandfather's surname, part of the family's agricultural and commercial life in the village, and then it had not been, and the name had drifted. Macip Simó rehabilitated the building and used the Giol name for the winery.

From the atlas

Giol Porrera

At A Glance

The Producer

In Porrera, a village in the Priorat hills of southern Catalonia, there is an old stone building that once distilled spirits under a family name. Jonàs Macip Simó is the family's current generation. In 2018 he opened a winery inside that building, using the name Giol, his great-grandfather's surname.

The winery is small by any measure: 11 hectares of terraced mountain vineyards, approximately 4,000 bottles a year, and a range built entirely on Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena, the two autochthonous red varieties that Priorat's licorella slate suits best. Macip Simó is a viticulturist by training, and Giol Porrera is conceived as a farming project before a commercial one. The bottles exist to sustain the land and the agrarian tradition it represents, not to expand.

DOQ Priorat is one of only two Denominació d'Origen Qualificada appellations in Spain, a classification reserved for wine regions whose quality controls exceed the standard DO level. Porrera is one of twelve villages that may carry the Priorat name, and it is part of an ongoing Vi de Vila project that aims to establish village-level distinctions within the appellation, the Priorat equivalent of a commune designation.

Place

Priorat sits inland from the Catalan coast in the Tarragona province, in a landscape of steep ridges and narrow valleys carved by the Siurana river and its tributaries. The terrain forces viticulture onto terraced slopes, and the soils are licorella, a Catalan term for the dark, fractured slate and quartz schist that defines this hill country. Licorella drains fast, holds heat, and offers vines almost no organic matter to draw from. Roots push deep into the fractured rock to find water. Fruit is concentrated by stress rather than by warmth alone.

Porrera sits in the eastern part of the Priorat zone. Its vineyards produce wines with the mineral signature common to the appellation, dry and earthy in character, with the acidity that high-altitude, low-yield mountain farming preserves even in warm growing seasons. The DOQ appellation rules require minimum alcohol levels and vine density standards that push producers toward old vines and low yields. Giol Porrera operates within those parameters by farming heritage parcels, not by pushing output.

Soil And Site

Giol Porrera draws fruit from two named parcels: Mas d'en Caçador and Les Sentius. Both sit on licorella-dominated slopes within the Porrera sub-zone, farmed on the terraced systems that allow cultivation on gradients that would be impossible without them. Licorella is poor and the water retention is minimal, which limits canopy growth and keeps yields low. The mineral character it lends to the wine is direct: a dry, stony quality in the mid-palate and on the finish that distinguishes Priorat wines from richer, flatter terrains.

The combination of altitude, terraced exposure, and licorella soils favours Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena over the international varieties that entered the appellation in the 1990s. Both grapes have deep roots in these slopes and tolerate the stress of thin, rocky soils without losing concentration.

Story

The building at the centre of Giol Porrera existed long before the winery did. The Giol family had operated a spirit factory from the same site in Porrera, and when that commercial activity ended, the building sat empty. By the time Jonàs Macip Simó's generation came to make wine, the Giol name was local history rather than a living business.

Macip Simó founded the winery in 2018 as a direct argument for family farming. The wider Priorat story of the 1990s and 2000s was driven largely by outside investment and ambitious cellar programmes. Giol Porrera's founding is the opposite argument: a small-scale viticulturist choosing to bottle his own fruit rather than sell grapes in bulk, using a building and a surname from his family's agricultural past. At 4,000 bottles a year across 11 hectares, the scale is intentional. Growth is not the purpose. Continuation is.

The DOQ Priorat appellation itself underwent significant transformation from the late 1980s onward, when a small group of producers drew international attention to what licorella soils and old Garnatxa vines could produce. Porrera's Vi de Vila designation project reflects the next stage of that evolution: the attempt to distinguish not just Priorat from other Spanish wine but individual villages from each other within it. Giol Porrera's Porrera address and its focus on native varieties put it squarely within that village-identification argument.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 11 hectares across Mas d'en Caçador and Les Sentius are farmed as terraced mountain vineyards, the traditional form for this landscape. Terraces allow mechanisation to reach certain parcels while protecting the slope from erosion; others require hand work entirely. The licorella soils and the DOQ Priorat vine density requirements mean that yields per hectare are low, which concentrates the fruit character in each cluster.

Garnatxa Negra, the local name for Grenache Noir, is a warm-climate variety that on licorella produces wines with body and ripe red fruit but with lower colour extraction than Carinyena. Carinyena, Carignan, provides the darker pigment, firmer tannins, and the high natural acidity that keeps Priorat wines fresh and supports ageing. Blended, the two varieties balance each other: the weight and fruit of Garnatxa Negra with the acidity and grip of Carinyena.

Winemaking details beyond the vineyard work are not confirmed from available sources, and Giol Porrera has not published information about barrel ageing, fermentation method, or cellar programme for individual wines.

Wines

The range at Giol Porrera is built from two grape varieties across two parcels. The confirmed wines are the Garnatxa Negra i Carinyena blend, available across multiple vintages from 2018 onward, and a wine labelled as autochthonous variety from the 2020 vintage. Total production across both wines is approximately 4,000 bottles a year.

The Garnatxa Negra i Carinyena blend is the core wine. It carries the mineral character of licorella in the mid-palate and on the finish, with the ripe red fruit from Garnatxa Negra balanced by Carinyena's firmer tannins and natural acidity. The 2022 vintage shows bright acidity that keeps the wine vibrant despite the ripeness of the fruit, with tannins that are present without hardness and a finish that runs earthy and long. The autochthonous variety wine from 2020 falls within the same grape and appellation framework, though no detailed tasting notes are available from confirmed sources.

At 4,000 bottles a year, Giol Porrera is one of the smallest producers within the DOQ Priorat appellation. Volume is not expected to grow significantly; the farming philosophy and parcel size set a natural ceiling.

In The Glass

The Garnatxa Negra i Carinyena blend rises from the glass with ripe red fruit, dark cherry and plum from the Garnatxa Negra component, alongside a dry, stony mineral note that comes from the licorella soils rather than from any cellar addition. Carinyena sharpens what could otherwise be a heavy wine: the acidity is bright, lifting the mid-palate and keeping the fruit from reading as overripe or soft.

In the mouth the tannins are firm and present but well-integrated, giving the wine grip without roughness. The mid-palate carries concentrated fruit and the dry mineral quality of the slate. The finish runs long and earthy, with the ripe fruit note fading into something drier and more mineral. There is no confirmed oak or sweetness character from available sources; what the glass presents is the direct expression of the grape blend and the licorella slope.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Garnatxa Negra i Carinyena blend is the right first bottle. It is the wine Jonàs Macip Simó has produced across the most vintages, and it is the one with confirmed tasting character. Choose the most recent available vintage.

In the glass it is a medium-to-full-bodied red with bright acidity, firm integrated tannins, and a finish that moves from ripe dark fruit toward a dry, stony mineral note. That mineral finish is the licorella speaking directly. The blend is made from Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena, two autochthonous Priorat varieties. Serve it with lamb, aged sheep's milk cheese, or anything with a salt and fat element that the acidity can work against.

Anecdote

When Jonàs Macip Simó decided to open a winery in 2018, he had a building available that most people had stopped thinking about. The old Giol spirit factory in Porrera had been out of use for years, its name barely attached to any active memory of what had been made there. Giol was his great-grandfather's surname. The factory had been part of the family's agricultural and commercial life in Porrera, and then it had not been, and the name had drifted into the background. Macip Simó rehabilitated the building and used the Giol name for the winery. The name that had gone quiet in Porrera came back as an appellation wine, stamped on 4,000 bottles a year of Garnatxa Negra and Carinyena grown on the same licorella slopes the family had worked for generations before him.

Final Word

Giol Porrera is a viticulturist's winery operating at small scale in one of Spain's most demanding mountain appellations. Eleven hectares, two parcels, two native varieties, 4,000 bottles. The wines carry the direct mineral character of Porrera's licorella soils and the acidity of high-altitude Priorat viticulture. There is no ambiguity about what Jonàs Macip Simó is trying to do: farm the land his family farmed, bottle it under a family name, and keep the agrarian tradition alive at a scale the land can sustain.

Sources

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