Juan Antonio Ponce enrolled at the Requena School of Viticulture and Oenology at 14, worked five years as Telmo Rodríguez's right-hand man across multiple Spanish regions, spent time in Beaujolais, and then came home to Manchuela in 2005 at 23, with his father's land and a clear idea of what he wanted to make. Nearly two decades on, he has done more to rehabilitate Bobal as a serious variety than anyone else working in Spain.
The vineyards sit on the high plateau of Manchuela, at 800 to 900 metres, on a patchwork of calcareous, granite and sandy soils. Vines here are old, ungrafted in the best parcels, dry-farmed and certified biodynamic. Yields are very low, averaging around two tonnes per hectare across the estate. That restraint is by design: wide plant spacing, no irrigation, and a commitment to working with what each site gives rather than supplementing it. In the cellar, whole-cluster fermentation in large open-top oak vats is standard across the red range, a technique Ponce absorbed in Beaujolais and has made entirely his own in this context. Wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered, with minimal sulphur.
The 2024 vintage produced some of the lowest yields Ponce has seen, which translated into concentrated, precisely defined fruit across every cuvée. The Albilla Blanco comes from old vines on limestone, fermented and aged in used French oak barrels, a wine of real mineral drive and a saline, mouthwatering finish. The Bobal range runs from the lively, accessible Clos Lojen through to the P.F., made from pre-phylloxera, ungrafted vines averaging 75 years of age on sandy soils at 900 metres, and Estrecha, from a single parcel of old vine Bobal on granite, a wine of unusual delicacy and precision for the variety.