Bodegas Frontonio Microcosmico Macabeo 2020

 Robert Parker, 92 pts The first certified organic vintage of their unoaked white 2020 Microcósmico Macabeo was produced with grapes from old vines on limestone soils between Campo de Borja and Épila. Wanting this to be a pure and direct Macabeo, it was fermented with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where it matured with lees for seven months. It has moderate alcohol and ripeness (13.5%), very good freshness and acidity and, in this vineyard, also a salty touch. It's a light expression of the variety, fresh, elegant and floral with great balance. 16,000 bottles produced.

Fernando Mora (Spanish Master of Wine), 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.