There is a freshness and crisp honesty to the taste of a great natural bottle of wine. At its best… under the care of a talented winemaker, something pure is coaxed from the grape and the wine becomes a signature of a particular place.

This is certainly true for Juan Antonio Ponce and this bottle of Bobal.

After generations of growing high altitude grapes in the Manchuela region of Spain, east of La Mancha and north of Jumilla, Juan Ponce started making wine from select family plots of ancient Bobal vines in 2005. The results have been remarkable.

Bobal is an obscure grape, high in tannins and acidity, usually low in alcohol and most often blended into house wines. Mostly unknown, this is my first experience with it as it rarely is carried and almost never highlighted in quality wine shops…until Ponce, that is.

Juan Ponce is known locally as the ‘prophet of Bobal’ because almost single-handedly he has found uniqueness in this grape and brought international attention to Manchuela and his wine.

After a formal education in winemaking and time as an apprentice and student of the biodynamic wineries in France, then 5 years as a winemaker in Rioja, he decided to return home, focus on Bobal, the Manchuela terroir and his family vineyards of old vines.

I really like this winemaker and his approach.

Terroir to Juan Ponce, starts with the ground and the vine…not with an idea of a taste or a concept of the finished wine itself. He believes in micro-terroir, in the plot-by-plot uniqueness and addresses each small plot separately…vinified individually, different barrel types for different plots, unique harvest schedules and overall an approach seeking to discover the cycles of the vines where they grow.

Biodynamic in the vineyard. Traditional methods of growing and harvesting. Natural yeast. And natural in the cave as well.

The ’08 La Casilla is made from 30-70 year old vines, grown in chalky soil. It’s challenging to describe the Bobal grape, as it’s a completely new taste to me. But this bottle of rich and complex red wine is quite unique from anything I’ve drunk from Spain…rippled with a mineral character and infused with a gentle touch of fruit.

I found La Casilla dark and strong but still fresh and vivacious. It is great with food…. olives or cheese or a plate of whole wheat pasta. Or with something off the grill.

Organic. Full bodied. Approachable. A meal’s perfect complement.

Available from Chambers Street Wines for $18 a bottle.

Thanks to my wine guide, Chris Barnes @ Chambers Street for nudging me to taste this.

Ribeira Sacra is an adventure in terroir…varied and unique and surprising from one hillside to another.

This northwestern corner of Spain is a landscape of remote extremes. Too steep for modern machinery and too harsh for modern varietals, it has been abandoned for generations but unchanged since the Romans terraced and planted it some 2000 years ago to make wines for their armies marching to the sea.

Today, a new generation of winemakers have taken over tending the hillsides and cliffs and are making remarkable wine, as individual and spectacular as the landscape itself.

The Dominio do Bibei vineyard is my first experience with the Quiroga-Bibei subregion, the most southern of the five wine growing regions in Ribeira Sacra. The Bibei hillsides are impossibly steep, from 55 to 100% grades, arid and hot and challenging to farm. The earth is clay and slate and rock hard and a microclimate considerably different from the other areas of Ribeira Sacra. Many, if not most of the ancient vineyards here were abandoned for a generation or more.

Javier Dominguez, armed with vision, patience and funding, is the force behind the Dominio do Bibei vineyard. With his wife, he set out to rebuild an ancient vineyard on this mountain side in the Bibei Valley that had been deserted for a decade but had scattered plantings of ancient vines, many of them over 100 years old.

Dominguez wanted to create wine that spoke of the hillside and valley he built his vineyard on. His approach to discovering terroir was to interfere with the vines to the most minimal amount possible. Everything in the winery is done naturally with gravity fed processes, natural yeasts, and fermentation in carved stone or cement ‘foudres’ or tanks. He was looking for a subtler, mineral taste from the Mencia grape that let the fruit sink to the background and the mineral and acidity carry the lighter tannin flavors.

Congratulations Javier….this is a great bottle of wine. An aficionado’s dream!

The Lalama ’06 Ribiera Sacra is a blend of 85% Mencia and equal parts of Garnacha, Brancellao, and Mouraton made from a mixture of vines as young as 15 years and as old as 100. This is a traditional blend for Ribiera Sacra but Javier added one modern touch, fermenting the grapes separately then blending them all together. In the past, the vines were grown and harvested and fermented together.

This Mencia blend is spicy and light, remarkably medium bodied, savory with a gentle balance between the spice and citrus. Even with a high alcohol content, it tastes fresh and aerated and ready to drink.

This bottle is quite luscious…weightless and aromatic and fulfilling. Really a great wine with food and cheese. Certain to surprise and satisfy at any dinner party.

Available at $36 a bottle from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa NYC and online wine merchants.

Check out posts on other wines from Ribeira Sacra here and here and here.

Olivier Riviere the winemaker, is young, mostly unknown and new to the wine world. Watch out! This winemaker is a star in the making.

Olivier is from the Cognac region of France, studied enology in Montagne St-Emillion, and is devoted to biodynamic vineyard techniques and natural winemaking with a focus on unsulfured wines.

This bottle is named Gabacho, the derogatory Spanish term for border jumper, namely French folks coming to Spain, namely Olivier himself.

If you have any preconceptions of wine from Rioja and Tempranillo, it is time to throw them away. Gabacho is a blend of 50% Tempranillo, 35% Garnacha, and 15% Graciano and is well…distinctly its own bottle in every way. And a great one at that.

Olivier focuses on terroir, old vines (the Tempranillo vines are 75 years old) and altitude. He believes that the cool night air purifies the acidity in the grapes and lets the taste be both rich and structured. Sounds like a handshake between Spanish and French wine cultures to me.

It’s a great bottle at $22. It’s a great bottle period.

Fruit forward and balanced. A medly of grape tastes and a really exciting blend of rich and subtle, wow and restrained, forward and structure. Bottled talent and taste here.

It is really difficult to find this bottle. But bookmark his name and keep an open eye. If there were wine futures for Olivier, I’d buy today.

My thanks to my wine guide and mentor, Christopher Barnes @ Chambers Street Wines for sending me home with this great bottle.

Ribeira Sacra never ceases to amaze and satisfy.

I’ve blogged on the Roman roots of this ancient region. The impossible terrain and biodynamic vineyards. The new generation of winemakers returning to their deserted family vineyards to make shatteringly unique wine.

But the real testament to this obscure region is that with every new vineyard and bottle I drink, the wine continues to amaze and excite me.

This bottle of Mencia from Enologica Temera is no exception. Made organically, from 30+ year old vines climbing steeply from the River Sil (in the photo) and aged in Cherry casks, this is a seriously great bottle.

100% Mencia, I find this bottle more fruit forward and intense than Pena do Lobo from D. Ventura but still balanced, refined and with a lingering finish. There is an unmistakable aroma of cherry, subtle tannins and a dark ruby color.

Don’t rush this wine. Let it hang in the glass or open bottle for a bit. Almost gets stronger and more interesting as it opens. And as usual, the acidity, juicy in this Mencia carries the flavor.

I love this bottle. Bright fruit. Transparent flavor. Fascinating wine.

Available from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa for $34 or online for $40. Not easy to find. More than worth the effort.

Wines from the Canary Islands?

Geography and history were never this much fun before.

The Lanzarote wine region is on the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa and some 70 miles from the Iberian Peninsula of Spain. It is a tiny area with only 18 active wineries.

I admit, I had to look at a map to understand where this was. And I had to do some research to discover that while today very small quantities of wine are exported, in Shakespearean times wines from the Canary Archipelago defined excellence in taste and were shipped worldwide.

The geographical uniqueness (and agricultural harshness) of this place is astounding. Lanzarote has approx 250 volcanos…some not so inactive. There is no irrigation in the vineyards and the grapes are grown in small man-made craters about a foot high that mimic the larger volcanic craters that cover the island. These conical structures capture the moisture from the ocean winds, which collects in the porous volcanic ash and sand. There is little rain and these odd, so weird, agricultural cones, are the sustaining ecosystem for the grape vines.

I had heard of the Malvasia vine for white wine but the Listan Negro, the red grape from which the Bermejo Lanzarote Tinto is made was a new one to me. And unusual and local and surprising are the key words to describe this wine.

I really enjoyed this bottle. Rich. Velvety. Concentrated yet delicate. It’s a completely unusual taste.

The highlight of this bottling is that it drives me to think of geography, the history of viniculture and the incredible diversity of winemaking from one location in Spain to another. The dreamy taste of the Bermejo is a world away from the complex Mencias made on the terraced slopes of the River Sil in the Northwestern corner of Spain.

For the curious. For the broad of palate. And for the individual who loves wine and relishes in the relationship of wine to location to climate and history, you need to give this one a try.

I guarantee that you will end up with a curious satisfaction to the palate and immediate Google the place, the varietal, and the history to try and put it all together.

$26 a bottle from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, NYC.