Frontonio sets new heights for white wines in Aragón

Last week, wine producer Fernando Mora MW visited Madrid to launch the 2022 vintage of his wines made in the Sierra de Algairén and nearby mountainous areas of Aragón, sold under the Frontonio brand. The project, which began with the 2010 vintage, has helped to put Aragón on the map of Spain’s fine wines.

An inquisitive figure, Mora shared his personal journey and evolution in recent years, centred around the concept of "precision amidst chaos", which he likened to Bosch's work The Garden of Earthly Delights. There are more variables in wine than in that painting; we must learn to manage that chaos and flow through it," he said. Mora also admitted to consciously stepping away from the Burgundian influence in an effort to encourage his team to "do what we want to do, rather than what others tell us to do."

In the reds, this philosophy has resulted in a more austere expression of Garnacha, moving away from sweet tones and placing greater emphasis on structure rather than mid-palate weight. By avoiding Garnacha's inherent sweetness, the wines offer fresher, more contemporary flavours and, predictably, greater potential to develop in the bottle. This was particularly evident in Supersónico, sourced from Frontonio's highest plot at over 1,000m in Viver de la Sierra, in the Sierra de Vicor, and less so in the energetic Psicodélico, a field blend with 60% white grapes. Among the top single-vineyard wines, the refinement and depth of El Jardín de las Iguales remains a pinnacle for Garnacha in Aragón.

A bright future for whites

However, it was the whites in this tasting that caught our attention, both for their originality and for the quality of the best examples. The winery produces three premium white wines, each with a distinct profile, complementing its six reds.

The first,  Elástico, is a field blend (and the white counterpart to Psicodélico) combining Macabeo, Garnacha Blanca, Palomino, Robal and other white varieties grown in 60-year-old vineyards at 800 m elevation in Inogés, a small village in the heart of the Sierra de Vicor. According to Mora, "the key lies in the timing of the harvest, which takes place at different stages of ripeness". The blend works beautifully, with hints of citrus and stone fruit, a lively mouthfeel and an energetic edge -likely due to the  absence of oak (the wine is fermented and aged in concrete vats) and the vineyard’s late-ripening location, which allowed the grapes to be picked on 2 October.

The second white, La Loma y Los Santos, is regarded as a grand cru. It blends two plots, one of Garnacha Blanca on limestone soil and another of Macabeo on slate with some limestone. Conceptually, it represents an evolution from Frontonio's first ambitious white, which was based entirely on Garnacha Blanca. According to Mora, one of the most important lessons he learned in the region was the rediscovery of Macabeo as a top quality grape -here it makes up 60% of the blend. Ageing in 500- and 900-litre oak casks for 12 months lends the wine a slightly creamier texture and more structure, while it retains its citrus character, with dried herb notes adding complexity. Overall, the 2022 whites were more expressive than the reds.

The standout of the tasting was the 2021 El Jardín de las Iguales, the only wine not from the 2022 vintage, benefitting from extra time in bottle. With only 797 bottles filled this vintage, this is arguably Frontonio’s finest expression yet from its oldest vineyard. This Macabeo, planted in 1890 in Alpartir, has redefined perceptions of this grape’s potential in the area. 

The wine is stunning: complex, intense and deep, with a slightly riper citrus expression yet vibrant and rounded. Priced above €200, it is one of those wines to be tasted at least once in a lifetime -though much more affordable if you split the bill between several people. Alongside the rest of the winery's whites,  it stands as a testament to the quality potential of white wine in Aragón.