At Jean Leon we are taking a leap back to the origins on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the winery and we wanted to dress the four Qualified Estate Wines with labels that connect with the exciting history of our founder. The new sophisticated image of Vinya Gigi, Vinya Palau, Vinya Le Havre and Vinya La Scala recalls that of the winery’s first wines, with the emphasis on the exceptional vineyards from which they come. For us, this change represents a moving tribute to our roots, to the history of our winery and to the tireless passion that both Jean Leon and our current team dedicate to each wine.
Our Qualified Estate Wines are the result of decades of passionate work and respect for viticulture. Each bottle encapsulates the essence of our history and the legacy of our founder. Through this new collection, we invite wine lovers to join us on a journey of discovery, where each glass shows the essence of a story in a unique territory, the Penedès.
The history and legacy of Jean Leon
In 1963, Jean Leon, a Cantabrian born in Santander under the name of Ceferino Carrión and emigrated to the United States, acquired 150 hectares in the heart of the Penedès and began to plant the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varieties – and Chardonnay a few years later – that he had brought from France. This was the beginning of his winemaking dream. A few years earlier, he had already fulfilled his first dream, becoming a successful restaurateur in California with La Scala, a restaurant frequented by the cream of the golden Hollywood of the 1950s, such as Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Garbor, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Marlon Brandon and Robert Wagner.
The desire to produce a wine for his select clientele had led him to the Penedès, because he had been assured that this region had the ideal conditions for vines. He founded the winery in 1963, built in the style of a Bordeaux château, thus beginning a winemaking adventure, pioneering in many respects, under the guidance of winemaker Jaume Rovira, who dedicated his entire life to the project and became the alma mater of the winery.
Jean Leon’s legacy has been kept alive under the direction of winemaker Mireia Torres and her entire team, who not only continue to make the wines devised by the founder but have also made them worthy of the highest distinction awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the ‘Vino de Finca Calificada’ certification since 2013, being the first winery in the Penedès -and the second in Catalunya- to obtain this recognition.
Vinya Gigi Chardonnay 2021, Vinya Palau Merlot 2018, Vinya Le Havre Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2019 and Vinya La Scala Cabernet Sauvignon Gran Reserva 2016 commemorate with the current vintages the sixty years of the winery by reproducing on the label the original logo, a classic typography and an illustration of the winery and the surrounding vineyards.
The Gran Reserva continues to feature a pictorial work on the label, as it does with each new vintage; in the case of the 2016 vintage, the chosen artist is the Penedès painter August Rosell.
In addition to these four wines, there is also the special 60th anniversary edition of Jean Leon Vinya Le Havre Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2013, a small production that now sees the light again, demonstrating the great aging capacity of the wines of this Penedès winery.
We invite you to celebrate this 60th anniversary with us, tasting the history bottled in one of our Qualified Estate Wines.
