Bodegas Frontonio Garnacha Microcosimo 2023

93 Points, Parker’s Wine Advocate
The 2023 Microcósmico Garnacha was produced with grapes from older vines grown on slopes with slate soils at 650 to 700 meters in altitude in the village of Jarque in the IGP Valdejalón. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and 20% to 25% whole clusters that were foot trodden, and it matured in underground concrete vats for seven months. It has a little more complexity and depth than the Botijo Rojo and is varietal and juicy, with fine tannins and a dry finish. It has only 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.21 and 5.9 grams of acidity.

Frontonio has 25-plus hectares of certified organic vineyards, and from 2022 onward, all the wines are certified organic; and they are working toward their biodynamic certification (hopefully for 2024). The Botijo and Microcósmico range come from certified organic grapes from the family of Mario López, one of the members of Frontonio. They have been fine-tuning their harvest dates and making a stricter selection of their grapes to gain precision, and the wines are a little more austere.

tasted 2022s and some 2023s (plus one 2021, as the top white is still maturing in bottle and is sold one year later), two warm and dry years but with rains during the harvest. But if you managed those years well, they produced balanced and fresher wines that seem to transcend the vintages, especially in the case of the old vines, as the younger ones suffered after two years of heat and drought. The last few years have seen long harvests, with many starts and stops because of these rains.