Bodegas y Vinedos Ponce ‘Clos Lojen’ D.O. Manchuela 2023

100% Bobal from DO Manchuela near Cuenca.

Bodegas Ponce has been at the forefront of modern Spanish wine since their inception in 2005.

Juan Antonio Ponce’s dream was to make wines with the old vineyards of his native Manchuela. He attended viticulture and enology school when he was 14 years old, and after five years of working with Telmo Rodriguez after his graduation he started his own winery Bodegas Ponce when he was 23 years old. Inspired by his years with Telmo and the growing minimal intervention movement in France. He approached his native varietal Bobal in a way unlike that of neighbors. Farming sustainably, with organic and biodynamic principles and harvesting the grapes weeks before his neighbors. In the winery he works simply and cleanly, whole bunch fermentation, native yeast fermentation and aging in old wood vats. His wines are more like those from Beaujolais and the Loire Valley than Rioja and Priorat. What is fascinating is that Manchuela is a region where the locals joke that there are nine months of winter and three months of hell, which sounds nothing like the bucolic hills of Beaujolais nor Frances garden, the Loire valley. The P.F. stands for Pie Franco. The vineyards for this wine range in age from 40 to 90 years old and they are all ungrafted. Juan Antonios wines are some of the most elegant wines being made in Spain.