Ponce - The Young Man on Manchuela

2/1/11 -

At the young age of 29 an ambitious Manchuelan is quietly leading Spain's viticultural renaissance. Born into a vine-tending family, Juan Antonio Ponce received an oenology degree at just 17 years old. He worked for the local co-op for a short time, and then along with his natural wine-making peers Olivier Riviere (Rioja) and Fernando Garcia (Vinos de Madrid) worked in a variety of Spain's most important wine regions for Telmo Rodriguez - a renaissance man in his own right. During this time Juan Antonio developed a passion for organic farming, and while traveling in France he became enamored with the natural wine methods of Maxime Magnon and Marcel Lapierre among others.  Feeling homesick he returned to his family’s land in 2005 determined to start a winery sourcing fruit from their estate old vine holdings.

Juan Antonio primarily works with the high acid/tannin-laced Bobal grape variety. His vines are farmed under bio-dynamic methods. He believes in identifying the micro-terrunos, and then vinifies each plot separately using partial carbonic maceration (to tame those tannins). Foudres are used as fermentation vessels and  only wild yeasts are employed. The wines are then aged in a variety of different sized wood - very little of it new.  The result is some of the most pure, brightly fruited wines of place that I have encountered from Iberia. I have been following Juan Antonio's wines since his first vintage, and they have shown a consistent signature dense, fresh fruit, striking soil tones and a fine backbone of acidity. His newest offering is Buena Pinta which is a bottling focusing on a small plot of Moravia Agria and Garnacha grapes - this wine in particular has an amazingly alive quality.  It is slightly effervescent with aromas of crushed strawberries, flowers, and a striking Calcar minerality that is shocking to the senses.  Blind I would have supposed this wine to be a fine Rose Champagne, Egly or such, and on day two the mineral tones emerged even further with a wild quality that is nearly indescribable. What a wine...

P.S. It is easy to dismiss Manchuela as a region that is too hot to make fine wines, but viticulturally speaking Manchuela is not all that challenged. In the northern part where Juan Antonio works there are high elevations, calcareous soils, and, although fairly dry and warm, there is a humid wind that blows here that cools down the grapes. It's all clearly in the glass… the vine thrives here!