Bodegas Ponce - Pino Manchuela 2020

Manchuela, a lesser-known Spanish wine region that is inland from Valencia, is where the Bobal varietal thrives, Known for its thick skins and rusticity, controlling the Bobal’s vigor is what makes for a well-balanced and interesting wine. While there are very few defenders of this region and even fewer winemakers that are dedicated to this varietal, Juan Antonio Ponce stands proud as a master and interpreter of the Bobal grape.

Juan Antonio Ponce began his winery in 2005, at the age of 23. He works biodynamically in the vineyard, and in the winery he takes a natural approach, using low levels of sulfur dioxide. His philosophy is to make natural wines with wild yeast fermentation, to respect the local varietal Bobal and to express its terroir.

The winemaking process begins with hand harvesting. The bunches of grapes are then chilled to 8 °C and fermented whole-bunch, with the stems, in a type of fermentation known as ‘remango’, which was once popular in Rioja.

Juan Antonio Ponce worked as the right-hand man to Telmo Rodriguez at Cia de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez for 5 years. During this time he was in charge of winemaking, vineyard management, etc. His father, who owned some land in Manchuela, decided to start this project with him.

This wine is very special, with a complexity that makes it different from the rest of wines at the winery. The Pino is made from a single "Bobal vineyard." The wine has a magnificent and minerally personality because it grows on calcareous soil. With aromas of gypsum and wet chalk, the palate shows great acidity and dried rose petal notes, finishing with a delightful balsamic taste.

The single-vineyard red 2020 Pino is intense and pure, with character and balance. It was produced with the Bobal grapes from a plot of one hectare of 40-year-old vines at 800 meters in altitude, fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts in oak vas and matured in oval 3,500-liter oak foudre for 10 months. It's ripe at 14% alcohol and has mellow acidity and good freshness. This is very dark and radically different from the one-off 2019 I tasted next to it. This is powerful, intense and tannic, a wine that needs more time to polish the edges. This is more in the style of the 2018. It should make old bones. 4,000 bottles were filled in July 2021.