Cims de Porrera was founded in 1996 out of the restoration of century-old native vines of Porrera —samsó (carignan) and black grenache— growing in slate ('llicorella') soils on slopes with a 40-50% gradient. The project was set up together with members of the village cooperative, from whom the winery buys grapes with the aim of encouraging young farmers to keep up these prized old vines, aged between 60 and 105 years, covering about 4 hectares and yielding very low amounts (300-500 grams per vine).
The winery is linked to the Pérez family; cousins Marc and Adrià Pérez —who trained working at family estates such as Mas Martinet before spells at foreign wineries— also run, in parallel, the Les Cousins project. Ageing takes place in an underground cellar inside the old Porrera cooperative building, where historic wine presses are still on site.
Cims de Porrera's Clàssic wine is a blend of 70% samsó and 30% black grenache, representative of Porrera's terroir. Annual output is around 70,000 bottles. The winery offers visits (roughly 2-20 people, in Catalan, Spanish, English and French), including the chance to taste wines still ageing in barrel.
Imatge: Alberto-g-rovi · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sources: turismepriorat.org · enoguia.cat · cimsdeporrera.com