Bodegas Frontonio, Valdejalon, El Jardin de Las Iguales Macabeo 2020 - 75cl

Fernando Mora passed the Master of Wine exams within a couple of years of leaving his engineering job, then went looking for the old vines everyone else in Aragon had forgotten. El Jardin de las Iguales comes from one of his finds: a small plot of Macabeo in Valdejalon, in north-east Spain, planted around the turn of the last century on slate and limestone at roughly 700 metres.

Old vines, high ground and a long, cool ripening give this wine its shape. The grapes see a short skin maceration, then a whole-cluster press and a wild-yeast fermentation in large old wooden foudres. It stays there on the lees for about a year before a spell in used 500-litre barrels, so the oak lends structure rather than flavour. Bottled under the Valdejalon regional designation, it is the opposite of the anonymous Macabeo that usually props up cava.

Expect a nose of dried yellow flowers and pollen, ripe green apple, a nutty edge and a whiff of sea air. The palate is broad and textured, chalky and saline, with the herbal, faintly vermouth-like note that old-vine Macabeo can carry. Acidity holds it upright and the finish runs long and stony. There is plenty here now, though a couple of years will let the texture settle and the mineral length stretch further.

How to Serve

Serve at 11-12°C in a broad glass; this is a textural white and cold mutes it. A young bottle opens up nicely with a short decant or twenty minutes in the glass.

Where to Drink It

Sabor in Mayfair, whose cooking runs from Andalusia to the Spanish north coast. Barrafina for its seafood counter. Brat in Shoreditch, where the wood grill suits that saline, smoky texture.

Food Pairings

Grilled turbot or monkfish is where I'd take this, something with enough flesh to meet the texture. It also handles roast pork belly, salt cod croquetas, or a wedge of aged sheep's cheese.