Juan Antonio Ponce is a young gun winemaker making big waves in the southern part of Spain. His main claim to fame is bringing attention to the near forgotten grape Bobal, but he’s a dab hand with other varieties as well – just take this Monastrell for example. The grape (aka Mourvedre or Mataro) is known for its dark fruit, earthiness but also sometimes a chunkiness that can be difficult to handle. Not so here! This is a powerful red, filled with licquorice and spice, but with a soft, plush middle palate. Great concentration and a wide array of spices make this the perfect winter red.

It’s hard to believe that one of the most respected wineries in Spain’s Manchuela wine region was established by a 23-year-old, driven by a passion for the land and for the rising tide of natural viticulture that is spreading across Europe at the moment. Because Ponce (pronounced ‘pon-thay’) is exactly that: a project borne of passion and dedication, and a determination to bring some of Spain’s lesser known grape varietals and terroirs to the world’s attention. For Juan Antonio Ponce - the young winemaker in question - the natural approach is the only one that will allow him to reach the kind of expression he is after. This means working biodynamically with his vines, but it also means going the extra mile; using only grapes native to his region (the fascinating and underrated Bobal varietal, along with the more widely known Monastrell), refusing to trellis or train his vines, avoiding irrigation, and completely eschewing chemical intervention. On top of this, Ponce’s wines are fermented with whole bunches in a method which was once traditional in Spain, but which is now mostly forgotten, and foot-trodden in small vats - something which always sounds like great fun to us. The result is a set of wines which are a world away from Spain’s more renowned, refined and homogeneous bottles, but which have a lot to say about a particular time and place, and which are inextricably connected to a singular vision. Ponce wines are an introduction to a new direction in Spanish wine production, and which are blazing a new trail for Manchuela and Spain as a whole. Juan Antonio Ponce is a young gun winemaker making big waves in the southern part of Spain. His main claim to fame is bringing attention to the near forgotten grape Bobal, but he’s a dab hand with other varieties as well – just take this Monastrell for example. The grape (aka Mourvedre or Mataro) is known for its dark fruit, earthiness but also sometimes a chunkiness that can be difficult to handle. Not so here! This is a powerful red, filled with licquorice and spice, but with a soft, plush middle palate. Great concentration and a wide array of spices make this the perfect winter red.