Jean Leon

From Hollywood dream to pioneer project in the Penedès

Behind Jean Leon lies one of the most unlikely founding stories in European viticulture. Ceferino Carrión, born in Santander, emigrated to the USA as a young man, called himself Jean Leon, and opened the restaurant La Scala in Hollywood — a meeting place for Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and the film star establishment of the 1950s and 1960s. Dissatisfied with the wines on his menu, he traveled through France and Spain to find the right answer. In 1962, he bought 150 hectares of land in Torrelavit in the heart of the Penedès and had a winery built in the style of a Bordeaux château, which was completed in 1963.

What followed then was truly without precedent for Spain: Leon planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay — grape varieties he sourced from renowned French estates. The first vintage, vinified in 1969, resulted in the first single-varietal Cabernet Sauvignon to be bottled in Spain. In 1994, for health reasons, Jean Leon handed over the winery to the Torres family, who committed themselves to preserving his spirit. Since 2010, Mireia Torres, the fifth generation of the Torres winemaking dynasty and Director of Innovation at Familia Torres, has led the winery.

65 hectares of single vineyards, organic certification, and regenerative viticulture

Today, the winery covers 65 hectares of vineyards on calcareous and clayey soils with stone deposits, divided into clearly defined single vineyards with their own names: Vinya La Scala, Vinya Le Havre, Vinya Gigi, and Vinya Palau. All plots are south-facing on gentle slopes, embedded in one of the most pristine landscapes of the Penedès. Since the 2012 vintage, all of the estate's wines have been organically certified. Furthermore, the team under Mireia Torres is actively working on the transition to regenerative viticulture — with the goal of improving soil health, biodiversity, and the carbon footprint in the long term.

In the cellar, winemaker Roser Catasús and the team combine precision with a spirit of experimentation. In addition to the main range, there is a limited Experimental Wines series, in which individual grape varieties and terroir expressions are examined through micro-vinification — a direct legacy of the founder's spirit. For four of his wines, Jean Leon was the first winery in the DO Penedès to receive the Vi de Finca award, the highest single-vineyard classification of the Catalan government.

Cabernet depth, Chardonnay power, and the character of the Penedès

The range consistently revolves around the strengths of the house: Cabernet Sauvignon in various stages of aging — from the accessible 3055 line to the Reserva and the flagship Vinya La Scala, which matures for at least 24 months in French oak barrels and then waits for another three years in the bottle. Vinya Le Havre, named after the port from which Leon once set off for the USA, shows Cabernet Sauvignon with a portion of Cabernet Franc in a clear, structured aroma. Vinya Gigi Chardonnay — named after Leon's daughter — was Spain's first barrel-fermented Chardonnay and remains the estate's characterful white wine reference. Vinya Palau brings Merlot from a single vineyard, while the 3055 Merlot-Petit Verdot combines two Bordeaux varieties that have proven to be particularly adaptable in the Penedès climate.

What connects all Jean Leon wines is the close bond to their origin plot: each site has a name, a history, and its own soil profile. This makes the bottles from Torrelavit something other than generic Penedès wines — they are the result of a project that has been specifically geared towards depth, identity, and aging potential since 1963.