Juan Antonio Ponce has found a way of extracting all the goodness offered by the Bobal grape grown in his native soil, Cuenca. His wines are honest, echoing the character of their individual plots, all of which are cultivated under the principles of biodynamics as regards vine husbandry; a philosophy which also governs in the bodega and seems to be generating excellent results. The best proof of which lies in the fact that his creations are wooing consumers and prescriptors alike, to become the advocates of quality for the Bobal variety under DO Manchuela.

Ponce belongs to a family which has worked with vines, under DO Manchuela, for generations, and consequently feels profoundly tied to his native soil. “My father taught me everything about husbandry, just as his father taught him, that’s to say, from planting the vine to pruning, working the land until you respect and venerate that one superlative moment: the harvest. After a whole year of work, every family member gave what they could to help gather in the eagerly awaited fruit”, recalled Ponce who, more than an oenologist regards himself as a viticulturist.

His start in life marked his childhood in such a way that no one was surprised, when the time came, that he chose to study at the Requena School of Viticulture and Oenology. “As a viticulturist I was always curious about what went on inside a bodega for the grapes, which I took there, to turn into such delicious wine, I wanted to study it”, Ponce explained.

As a result, he learnt all about the procedures needed to make wine and also finished his training in viticulture in Requena. After his two-year hands-on experience at the cooperative in Iniesta, his home town, he had the good fortune of working on a project led by the Telmo Rodríguez Wine Company. “I learnt to respect the varieties from every one of the thirteen regions where we worked, under the orders of Telmo and Pablo Eguzkiza, and I studied each region’s diverse viticulture in-depth”, stated Juan Antonio Ponce, who from 2001 to 2006 made wine in Rioja, Toro, La Mancha, Málaga, Alicante, and Cigales.

In addition, during 2005 and 2006 he made various trips to France to learn about the mysterious world of biodynamics and natural wines, deciding, from that moment on, to use those very same techniques on his vines, in his bodega and his wines. “I’m interested, not so much in the treatments, as in taking into account the phases of the moon when it comes to pruning or deciding when to harvest, as well as for the work carried out in the bodega” the viticulturist pointed out.