2018 Buena Pinta---von alten Reben-- Bodegas y Vinedos Ponce

The 2018 Buena Pinta is a different red, as it's a blend of 85% Moravia Agria with 15% Garnacha fermented and matured in 4,500-liter oak vats. It's light, with 12% alcohol, and has very good freshness. It's pale, but not as pale as La Xara, and slightly reductive/flinty, a character of Moravia Agria, an ancient variety, but it soon opens up to reveal bright red fruit and high-pitched tones. This character is more obvious in cooler years like 2010 or 2013. It has a mixture of floral and peppery aromas and a pumice-like stoniness with something balsamic. The palate is light and the tannins are fine; there is good freshness and a supple, tasty finish. Decant in advance. This should develop nicely in bottle. Awesome value. 8,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2019.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the winery, the Ponce family has released from the excellent 2018 vintage a new top of the range that carries their surname. The family owns 50 hectares in the villages of Iniesta, Villanueva de la Jara, Villamalea and Mahora, from which they produce 120,000 bottles of some of the best wines from Manchuela. 2018 is an exceptional vintage, which Juan Antonio Ponce compares with 2008, 2010 or 2013, with lower alcohol and more elegant wines. 2019 is a very good year, very Mediterranean, with a warm summer and a cold spell during the harvest that perhaps produced more immediate wines than 2018, a little in the style of 2016 or 2017.