One of the first private cellars in the region, Balcona was established at the end of the 1990s and focused on quality rather than quantity. The winery and its vineyards are located at an elevation of over 800 meters in the Aceniche, a narrow valley surrounded by mountains which is regarded as one of the coldest spots in Bullas and with higher levels of rainfall. The area’s groundwater reserves set a difference with other areas and helped to protect the vineyards during the severe drought suffered between 2013 and 2015.
The Fernández family is behind the winery. The six siblings are grape growers except for Pepa, who is in charge of winemaking, sales, communication and winery tours. She always wanted to make wine and didn't stop until she got it. “As a wine producing region, Bullas lacks wine culture,” she complaints. “When the cooperative was founded, the winemaking tradition disappeared.”
Part of the family vineyards are located in the property acquired by their grandmother when she became a widow. A resolute woman, she asked for a loan and worked hard to support her family and leave a legacy. Balcona was her nickname (people started calling her like that simply because her house had a balcony). Her son was a founding member of the cooperative Bodegas del Rosario. After a wine congress was held in the area, the family decided to set up on their own.
The vineyards are grown organically and have been certificated as such since the 2017 vintage. The family keep the best vineyards for themselves and sell the rest of the grapes. Some of Pepa’s favourite plots include the 70-year-old Viña Vieja (old vine), planted on clay soils near the winery and El Lomillo, an old two-hectare plot planted with Monastrell which ripens early given its location on a sun-drenched slope. Their youngest Monastrell vines are 40 years old.
The family also grows small quantities of Tempranillo, Syrah, Cabernet, Merlot and white Macabeo. Most of them were planted in the late 1990s. “Monastrell has the character, but why shouldn’t we use other grapes providing they adapt well to the area?” asks Pepa. A woman who doesn’t mince her words, she thinks that Bullas is “a great wine producing region located in the wrong place.”
Fermentation takes place with natural yeasts and they do not add bacteria to start malolactic fermentation. This fact, together with the valley’s distinctive features results in wines with higher levels of tannins and acidity. Balcona’s wines benefit from some cellaring as we saw when we tasted a Partal 2006.
They used to produce 50,000 bottles but the economic downturn in the late 2000s reduced the figures to 12,000 to 20,000 bottles. The wines are mostly sold locally or at the cellar door -Pepa has been offering wine tours for a long time.
Mabal is the name of the brand for the young wines, a name that works almost as an acronym for all of them: Mamá Balcona for the deep, juicy, organic red Monastrell (€7.5) which, according to Pepa, is a tribute to the women in the family; Macabeo Balcona for the white and Merlot Aceniche Balcona for the rosé. The latter two can be found in Spain for €12.5.
There is another Monastrell aged for six months in oak called 37 Barricas (€11). The top red is Partal (€16), a blend of Monastrell (85%) with small amounts of Syrah and Tempranillo that develops nicely with time. The new label displays the shadow of a mountain with the names used by Pepa’s mother to refer to the mountains surrounding the Aceniche valley.
