Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby color with violet hues and impressive aromas of cherry, sour cherry, raspberry, plum, vanilla, pepper, tea, lavender, licorice, and bitter chocolate. On the palate, it has a medium body, medium tannins, and refreshing acidity. Juicy red and black fruits are mixed with notes of sweet spices, violet, cocoa, and dried herbs.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 P.F. shows the purity and potential of Bobal from ancient ungrafted vines (P.F. stand for "pie franco," which in the Spanish language means "ungrafted") from limestone-rich soils at 900 meters in altitude in a textbook Mediterranean vintage. The wine is complex and mineral with a chalky sensation, with supple tannins and great length. It fermented with 100% full clusters in open-top 4,500-liter French oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in those same vats for 10 months. It has 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.55. This has the depth of the nose, with terrific balance. For Juan Antonio Ponce, this is his more precise vintage, a little above the 2018, a year with great balance. Rating : 95+
Bobal is enjoying a mini renaissance in Spain today as high-elevation vineyards in its homeland of Utiel-Requena produce dense and velvety wines dominated by dark berry and cocoa characteristics. However, its function as Spain’s second most planted red grape variety was once only for bulk wine and concentrate. Since it is drought-resistant, it does well grown as unirrigated bush vines and acts as a fine voice of terroir. Somm Secret—Bobal also shows great potential for rosé and sparkling wines because of its high levels of acidity and anthocyanins.
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.