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We are a young winery, but with a lot of family history!
First of all they are a family of farmers
The most important milestones
1895
Joan Pons Casas is born
The 1st generation of Joan Grill.
1927
Joan Pons Vinyals is born
The 2nd generation of Joan Grill
1931
Cal Joan Grill
The farmhouse is built in the neighborhood of Can Cendra
1932
First vinifications
Wine was made to sell in bulk
1954
Joan Pons Sendra is born
The 3rd generation of Joan Grill
1979
Dolors joins the family farm
Joan and Dolors wedding
1980
Mainly winegrowers
Winemaking is stopped to supply the large Penedès wineries
1981
Xavier Pons Luis is born
The 4th generation of Joan Grill and current winemaker of the winery
1984
Sergi Pons Luis is born
The 4th generation of Joan Grill and current head of the winery
2006
Xavier Pons winemaker
The first tests are made by making red, rosé and white wine for own consumption
2023
Nursery of cellars
We make wine in the new winery nursery in Vilafranca del Penedès
Our history in detail
Cal Joan Grill was founded in 1931 with Joan Pons Casas, the first Joan Grill, known to us as the “old godfather” at the helm. He had the unconditional support of his son Joan Pons Vinyals, known as “Joan Grill”.
They were the homesteaders of the Cal Cendra estate, on the outskirts of Pla de Manlleu where, apart from cultivating the vines like most of the farmhouses in the area, they made wine by the barrel to sell.
The cellar that was there allowed a production of about 200 loads (each load was about 120 litres), distributed with 1 cup of 80 loads and 2 of 60 loads.
Mainly red wine was made, which was kept in the cups and sold by the draft.
Soon they began to combine the production of their own wine with the supply of grapes to the various wineries that were emerging throughout the Penedès.
1979 was a bad harvest year and the Penedès wineries decided to pay for the grapes at a very low price, so much so that it did not even cover the cost of production.
Joan Grill and his son, Joan Pons Sendra, current family winegrower, who were in charge of the farm, decided that they would not sell the grapes at that price and risked vinifying them themselves.
The results were not the desired because from that year no more wine was made at home and all the grapes were supplied to the large wineries of the Penedès, which were increasing their production every time and needed to buy some .
Since then, around 30 hectares of vines have been cultivated at Cal Joan Grill, mainly of the Montònega variety (parellada d’alçada) as masovers from the Cal Cendra estate.
Although on some occasions wine was made with some Cal Cendra residents, as a hobby, it was not until 2006 that wine was made again at home, the result of the concerns aroused by Xavier Pons in his studies of oenology at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV).
During Xavier’s studies at the URV, they met his wife, Francesca Permanyer, a pharmacist and oenologist, who also helped to test the different wines made from the grapes at home.
As a result of those concerns of the family’s oenologists, vines of other varieties were planted that could be interesting when making new wines.
The amount of work during the harvest was very important, as part of the family was waiting to harvest and Xavier was busy making wine for the winery he works for. This situation led to the production of only 2 monovarietal white wines, one from Chardonnay and one from Parellada Montonega, which we have been repeating and perfecting over the last 15 years.
Every year the same story repeated itself, just before the harvest, Sergi mixed everything up to make new wine. At home, everyone complained because it was a time of a lot of work, but in the end they gave in and the whole family ended up going to harvest on a Sunday, making the harvest a party in which young and old participated. Together we skidded, pressed, and began the vinification process, which later a few of us were controlling to, at the end, bottle a new vintage of our wine. From year to year we have enjoyed our wines.
Since our wine was only for our own consumption, we had always shared it with family and friends, and on many occasions we were asked if we had it for sale or where it could be bought, but the answer was always that for now only it was for our own consumption, and that one day, we hoped to be able to sell it.
After almost 20 years of testing and making our wine at home, in 2023 the opportunity presented itself that would allow us to carry out that idea that we had always had in our heads, which was to be able to make our wines and be able to market them.
In Vilafranca del Penedès, the Viver de Cellers opened, a space promoted by the City Council, the Regional Council and the Penedès Denomination of Origin, with all the necessary infrastructure where we can make our wines for 4 years. Our candidacy was one of the 7 chosen, and in 2023 we have started making our wines there, with the aim of eventually setting up our own cellar in Cal Joan Grill, where we can continue to make our wines after the Viver de Cellers experience.
