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“Ponce's wines overall could be the biggest bargains in Spain! Bravo!”
— Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
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Ponce
Manchuela (Esp.)
The Wine from La Mancha
“I was enormously impressed with the wines from Juan Antonio Ponce when I first tried them a few months ago. Why then, did I not immediately write this missive? Perhaps it is that I have spent the last year thoroughly distracted by my research into (by opening bottles), and then breathless praise of, the most orthodox Rioja.
I retried, to my luck and yours dear Readers, the below Ponce wine at a dinner over the long weekend. Enthusiasm was promptly rekindled.
Here at last, without perverting my expectations of classical Spanish winemaking, were wines that felt truly imbued with a sense of terroir (geophysical and human) as well as finesse. The wines gave enormous breath, pneuma - spirit, to varietals of which I had only tried poor lesser forms: Bobal, Abilla, Monastrell. This pneuma seems to inhabit every millilitre of these wines; they brim with energy.
If this endorsement is not enough: the white promptly disappeared from our shelves, and the red: well, 98pts may be more persuasive than my ramblings.”
— David
“Ponce works approximately 70 hectares of vineyards in the villages of Iniesta, Villanueva de la Jara, Villamalea, Mahora and Villagarcía de Llano, and all of the old vines are certified organic; so, most wines carry the certification, and for the others, it's just a matter of time, as they are in the process. He's planting the grapes he cannot find easily, Garnacha, Monastrell and the white Albilla. There's plenty of very good old-vine Bobal out there ... His wines are among the best values in Spain. Production averages 190,000 bottles per year.
I visited some vineyards, which I had not seen since 2016, and the new winery, which was built for the 2019 harvest, a simple and practical place where they don't have a destemmer and everything is vinified and aged in oak because he doesn't filter, fine or stabilize the wines.He has approximately 70 hectares in the villages of Iniesta, Villanueva de la Jara, Villamalea, Mahora and Villagarcía de Llano in Manchuela, all certified organic, and he produces 170,000 bottles per year. The wines have achieved a level of refinement, elegance and purity that makes them overdeliver for the prices asked. Ponce's wines overall could be the biggest bargains in Spain! Bravo!”
— Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
~ please note : discounts are automatically applied at checkout ~
Ponce 2022 Manchuela Tinto ‘Ponce'
(Shelf Price: $132.00)
Offer: $98.00
“The eponymous red 2022 Ponce was produced with 80% Bobal from granite soils and 20% Moravia Agria from limestone and clay. It fermented with 100% full clusters in open-top 4,500-liter oak vats and finished fermenting and aging in a single 7,000-liter oak vat for 11 months. It has 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.6 with 5.7 grams of acidity. This has something in common with the La Estrecha from this same vintage, with a more ethereal profile, both with changes in the elevage toward larger volumes that give the wines more relaxed, less tight personalities. Complete, balanced and harmonious from very early on, this is a great vintage for this wine. 7,000 bottles were filled in September 2023.”
98pts — Luis Guttierez, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
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“Perfumed Ponce!”
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