Frontonio

One of the most ambitious wine projects in recent decades in one of the most unlikely wine regions of Spain: Aragón, southwest of Zaragoza, in a dry challenging environment heavily influenced by its stark continental climate. Brainchild of two friends, Fernando Mora and Mario López. The former, a windmill engineer turned winemaker (and also WSET Master of Wine); the latter, an enologist with a long family tradition of local humble winemaking for regional consumption.

Bodegas Frontonio started out in 2008 and has since risen sharply both in its winemaking expertise and in prestige. The winery has devised its own clear-cut classification, with a three tier system: V1, village wines; V2, premier cru wines from classified vineyards; and V3, grand cru wines from classified vineyards. Frontonio currently tends more than 65 hectares of vineyard around the village of Alpartir, where its underground wine making facilities are located. And although the winery is mainly known for the subtle garnacha wines it has put on the map, other grape varieties in their plantings include cariñena, cribatinaja, provechón, robal, garnacha peluda and macabeo (also known as Viura). All of the wineries’ vineyards are certified in organic agriculture since 2021.

In the winery Mora and López work with an array of winemaking technics and deposits that include old french oak, cement, foudres, demi-muid, and large tanks among others, that result in wines with a light human touch and surprisingly low alcohol levels (considering the region and current climate). Bodegas Frontonio produces approximately 50.000 litres of wine per vintage in up to 45 separate parcel vinifications that are then used to compose each individual blend.

All of the wines in the current offering are from Frontonio’s impossible to find “garage” project, the winery’s (semi private) testing ground for its future V3 or grand cru releases.