Elegant, High-Altitude Reds from Bodegas Ponce

Tucked away in Manchuela, roughly two and a half hours south of Madrid, Juan Antonio Ponce is quietly producing some the best value Spanish wines. After honing his craft under Telmo Rodriguez and spending a formative stint in Beaujolais, Juan Antonio returned to his family's 80-year-old vineyards in Iniesta to prove that the often-maligned Bobal grape could be a vehicle for world-class elegance rather than just rustic bulk wine. By farming 70 hectares of high-altitude, dry-grown vines with incredibly low density, he maintains a meagre average yield of just 2 tonnes per hectare, resulting in a modest annual production of 170,000 bottles that prioritise concentration and freshness. His signature move is a 100% whole-cluster fermentation for all his reds, a technique that, combined with the region's nutrient-rich soils and 800m+ elevation, produces wines that are remarkably fragrant, poised, and powerful.