Celler Castellet winery

Celler Castellet is a family winery that was founded by three brothers in 2005 in Porrera, one of the nine villages that make up the DOQ Priorat. For those who love nature and wine tourism, Celler Castellet is the place to go: in the midst of nature and in harmony with the landscape.

The Castellet brothers resumed the work started by their great-grandparents, who were forced to leave their vineyards because of the phylloxera epidemic at the end of the 19th century. Today, the winery’s main focus is the quality of its wines and its vineyards, which is why they carry out the entire vinification process in a natural and environmentally friendly way.

In 1997, the family planted new vines, introducing foreign varieties in small quantities so as not to diminish the importance of native varieties. These initial years were dedicated to experimenting with cultivation and the combination of musts (unfermented grape juice). The first harvest and vinification took place in 2005, the year in which the winery was born, and the first wines – 1,500 bottles in total – were launched at the end of 2007. Production has risen since then and is presently at 14,000 bottles per year.

All their production comes from the 12-hectare estate La Solana de Mas d’en Pubill, of which 4.4 hectares have been planted. The estate is made up llicorella, a type of slate typical to the Priorat. This soil is particularly poor (which is why production is low) but it is of high quality, imbuing the wines with good minerality and perfect structure.

Celler Castellet has two small wineries located in the center of Porrera. One of them is used to make the wine and to age it in fine-grained French oak barrels. The other building offers conditions ideal for ageing in bottle before moving on to the final stages of labeling and marketing.

For the Celler Castellet family, the quality of the vineyard and the wines are essential, which is why they follow certain strict criteria: they are committed to controlling the temperatures of the two fermentations, they carry out pellicular macerations for a minimum of four weeks and a maximum of five, press the grapes gently, and keep bottles for the amount of time necessary before selling them. If the wine is not at its peak, it is not marketed.

The result of this careful elaboration process are three red wines, Empit Selecció, Empit Castellet and Ferral Castellet, all three of which transmit the mineral character that the llicorella gives them.

The winery offers guided tours of the estate and the cellar, led by the viticulturist and oenologist who is in charge of the whole process – from working the land to bottling.