2024 Ponce P.F Bobal

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.

Other Reviews...
The 2024 P.F. is ungrafted Bobal ("P.F." stands for "pie franco" in the Spanish language and means "ungrafted") that fermented with full clusters in 4,500-liter oak vats, where it matured for 10 months. It comes in at 13.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.63 and 5.5 grams of acidity. This is somehow earthier and darker in character, complex and nuanced, serious, a little closed, showing the more austere profile of the year and the soils. This has nuance, complexity, depth and purity of flavors, with very good precision. This has the juiciness but with the concentration from the smaller bunches delivered by the ungrafted vines, with fine-grained, polished tannins. This is going to improve with time in bottle, which I think will be more in the direction of a Northern Rhône than a Burgundy. 12,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2025. Drink 2027-2035.
96 points
Luis Gutiérrez - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Deep yet very fresh nose, with a stemmy, herbal note to its complex melange of bramble and wild cherry fruit. Round, fleshy and full-bodied, with tight but melted tannins slowly making themselves felt on the palate. Chewy, powerful finish, with savory herbs and dark cherries. From organically grown grapes. Drink from 2026.
94 points
Zekun Shuai - JamesSuckling.com

PF for Pie Franco, indicating that the vines are still on their own roots. Around eighty years old for the parcel. Rugged bush vines of waist to chest height.
A very savoury number, dark cherry, salted plums, bitter herbs, bloody game meat characters, ferrous, turned earth notes, white pepper and some Autumn leaf notes. Quite gravelly and grippy in texture, a thick, plodding palate too. Rusticity found here, so too lift and crunch through the finish, but yes, a charm in the bric a brac feel to the wine. Traditional, per se. Drink 2026-2029.
93 points
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front