Bodegas y Viñedos Ponce Buena Pinta 2015 - Moravia Agria/Garnacha; DOP Manchuela, Spain; 12,5% abv
Moravia Agria is an autochthonous grape from Manchuela. It is a tannic grape, capable of retaining high acidity even when very ripe and it rarely makes highly alcoholic wines. It has usually been seen as a nice blending grape with Garnacha in order to bring a bit of lightness and acidity to what can be a very weighty wine. But here the roles are reversed. Ponce used to make this wine as a roughly 50/50 blend of the two but this vintage is almost entirely Moravia Agria with just a dash of Garnacha to bring in some fruit and softness. Biodynamically grown, ambient yeasts, fermented with stems - I guess this means it's "hipster" wine?
I love trying these weird, autochthonous grapes from lesser known or lesser appreciated regions but I do confess that I often understand why the grape varieties are pretty much forgotten: often they just suck. But occasionally I do taste something stupendous and quite often I taste something very, very pleasant. This Buena Pinta is not in the stupendous category nor is it in the category that sucks, but it is very firmly in the category that I find charming, drinkable, interesting and just a great deal of fun.
Light colour, no purplosity. No aromas of new oak, which is nice. It smells of ripe red berries with an attractive wet soil aroma creeping in with air. Pleasantly light bodied, only 12,5% abv, yet still tastes sweetly fruity and ripe instead of astringent and green. It isn't as tannic or as acidic as I expected from my reading but it is not a sweet, fruity, soft mess either. It is a gentle, easygoing, approachable and fun wine. The evaporation rate is quite extraordinary.