2020 Frontonio Elastico Blanco

"The new white 2020 Elástico was produced with a Macabeo field blend from an 80+-year-old, dry-farmed vineyard at 800 meters in altitude in conversion to organic in 2022. The juice fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts after a 20-hour maceration with the skins and matured in underground concrete vats with the fine lees and no bâtonnage for 12 months. It has only 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.26 and 6.44 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter of wine). This is really a field blend with many varieties—Palomino, Robal/Jaén, Garnacha Blanca and perhaps 50% Macabeo. The wine comes through as more Burgundian; it probably went through partial malolactic (which is something they do not want for their whites), and that gives it a little creaminess and makes it textured. There's freshness but also weight. 3,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2022. It's sold without appellation of origin as varietal wine. Drink 2023-2029"

Frontonio is now owned exclusively by Fernando Mora and Mario López, and they have moved all their operations to the village of Alpartir where the wines are now produced in their ancient cave. They keep working in their vineyards, and 11 hectares of them (from a total of 65) are now worked with biodynamics and 16 of them worked with horses. They have stopped using 225-liter barrels and have no new oak and have bought some more oak foudres, tinajas and glass demijohns. They have also purchased a further eight hectares of mountain vineyards between 40 and 90 years of age. And it's not only old vines, they have also restored 800 meters of dry stone walls and replanted some five hectares in their Jardín de las Iguales vineyard. And they have their first wines from the vineyards they bought in the Vircort Mountains. It's a very dynamic project, and they are continuously learning and improving; they are doing a geological study of their zone that they have renamed Sierras del Jalón (Jalón Mountains) and have also hired a historian to understand the zone, the structure and the people. They have started working with concrete eggs and have revamped the winery, creating a library to store all their wines and vintages. This is a fascinating name in constant evolution and at the top of the quality hierarchy, quite an achievement when you consider that they only started in 2010. They produce a total of only 175,000 bottles. The 2021s are superb, the finest collection they have produced so far, a vintage in line with 2018, very complete. This is a winery that's still on its way up, when every year the wines are better than the previous ones... right at the top of the hierarchy in Aragón. Bravo!