When I first tasted PF 100% Bobal from Bodegas Juan Antonio Ponce in 2017 I decided to demote it to the penultimate wine in the forthcoming exclusive tasting of Bobals that I’d arranged for some friends, saving the best, a different wine, for end. This was contrary to my original plan.
Juan Antonio Ponce’s P.F Bobal 2016 is made from 88 year old Pie Franco vines grown, organically and indeed biodynamically, at altitude in DO Manchuela. The clue as to why I changed the order is in the vintage. Back in 2017 the wine from only the year before didn’t yet seem quite in balance for me. Its constituent parts were exactly that, parts that had not yet wholly harmonised. It seemed, I remember, that my slight doubt was correct. Though the wine was enjoyed by all tasters, it didn’t come out top of the straw poll I took on the night.
I determined that the wine needed some more time for its parts to integrate properly. I had a spare bottle, so on the small back label I wrote, ‘Drink from 2020’, and it’s been resting comfortably in my ‘la Sommeliére’ wine chiller ever since (they’re excellent for keeping wine at the right temperature, click on the Vinoteca logo on the homepage of my website www.colinharkness onwine.com).
It’s well into 2020 now, so I thought I’d check with one of my Spanish wine gurus, Victor de la Serna (@VictordelaSerna of www.elmundovino.elmundo.es) who knows most things about Spanish wine generally, as well as making wine in DO Manchuelo, from whence hails the PF pictured. Victor said I should bring Juan Antonio’s wine out to play now! That was good enough for me.
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