Winemaker Notes
Bodegas Ponce La Xara is a Garnacha in the "Gredos" style. The wine is bright, mineral, and flowery, ripe but not overripe.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2024 La Xara is another different red. It's made from pure Garnacha, a variety able to adapt to the three consecutive warm and dry summers and keep the fresh and floral character. It fermented with full clusters in 4,500-liter oak vats and matured in an 11,000-liter vat and 600-liter barrels for seven months. They managed to make a serious wine, with some austerity but without any green notes. It has contained ripeness and good freshness and balance, with 13.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.65 and 5.5 grams of acidity. It started a little closed and took time to open up in the glass. It has more complexity and depth than in previous years, a more serious Garnacha. In 2026, the new Garnacha plantings will come into production.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
The Moors gave it the name, ‘Manxa,’ which fittingly means ‘parched earth.’ La Mancha, the largest Spanish wine producing region in all of Spain, is one of its hottest and driest. Sturdy and drought-resistant white varieietes like Airen, Viura and Verdejo thrive in this environment.