Bodegas Frontonio Microcosmico Garnacha 2020

Robert Parker, 92 pts

"The 2020 Microcósmico Garnacha was produced with grapes from old vines grown on slopes with slate soils at 650 to 700 meters in altitude in the village of Jarque in the IGP Valdejalón. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and 40% whole clusters that were foot trodden and matured in underground concrete vats for seven months. It’s varietal and juicy, with abundant, grainy tannins and a dry finish. This is now certified organic. 19,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2021. (Luis Gutiérrez)"."

Fernando Mora, one of Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia's personal recommendations for the future Spanish wine world, and his two partners, Mario Lopez (Borsao) and Daniel Latasa, Fernando have embraced, in 2008, the concept of "Garage Winery", that being a literal description of the facility where they craft their wines. Frontonio has been recovering old vineyards in the North-eastern Spanish Valdejalon area and producing single-vineyard Garnacha from old vines up to 100 years old (They earned organic certification in 2017). By the way, Fernando Mora became Master of Wine thanks to his treatise on Garnacha in the Campo de Borja Area.

This winery focuses on the little-known region of Valdejalon, centered around the village of Epila, on the banks of river Jalon, nestles north of Calatayud. The climate is Mediterranean, with significant diurnal temperature changes and limited rainfall. The vineyards lie at altitudes between 350 and 700 meters (2,300 feet) and benefit from loose soil structures with notable limestone content. Many of the best vineyards are also conspicuously schistous. The team's preference is for north-facing slopes, rich in stones, and planted to old vines. In their masterly hands, they give rise to Grenache wines (red AND white) of purity and intensity we rarely see, at a ridiculously fair price, which already have been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere