Bodega Frontonio was founded in 2010 by three friends: Francisco Latasa, an international business lawyer, Mario López, an oenologist, and Fernando Mora who, after completing his WSET Diploma, became a Master of Wine in just two years! Frontonio is the name of the patron saint of Épila, a town in the wine-making area of Valdejalón in the province of Zaragoza in north-east Spain, where the winery is located. Legend has it that Frontonio was beheaded by the Romans who threw his head into the River Ebro; however, his head miraculously appeared upstream in the town. The friends named their enterprise after him as going against the current seemed to epitomise their vision. Valdejalón is a little known area within the famous Aragón wine region, and does not have a DO; the Valdejalón wines are bottled VT [Vino de la Teirra,which falls under the category of IGP]. Frontonio grow Garnacha, Macabeo and other local varieties in two vineyards which together form 65 hectares. They are managed organically and all the grapes are hand-picked. The Valdejalón vineyard which dates back to 1898, is planted at between 450 and 1030 metres above sea level with traditional bush vines on clay, limestone and blue slate soils. Frontonio rescued their second vineyard, El Jardín de las Iguales, from the brink of extinction and this is where the fruit for their Grand Cru wines originate. Planted at between 600 and 1000 metres on red slate and limestone soils, a part of the vineyard was planted between 1898 and 1929. The first wines were produced in a garage, but now Frontonio have their own winery in a 200 year old house with an underground cave, and the first vintage to be completed entirely here was 2019. They use minimal intervention techniques, vinifying every parcel separately, and then blend. For their high-end wines they practice grape-stomping – trampled in vats by foot. At Bodega Frontonio they shun over-extraction to produce a fresher style of wine full of expressive fruit. This young and passionate team are dedicated to making garage wines, creating fine historical wines from gnarly old centenarian vines and the results are truly unique.