Bodegas Frontonio

The story

From the bathtub to the mountain

Fernando Mora was still employed as a wind energy engineer when he decided he needed to understand fermentation from the inside. He bought a home winemaking kit and set up in his flat. Temperature control was the immediate problem: fermentation runs hot without it, and his flat had no cellar. He filled the bathtub with ice and placed the fermentation vessel inside it. That cooling system ran until he understood what he was doing. He enrolled in the WSET Diploma in 2013 and passed it, then became a Master of Wine two years later. By that point he had already made the first Frontonio wine with Mario López in 2010, in López's family winery in Épila, directly behind the small shop where López's mother was still selling bulk wine by the litre to locals. The project took its name before either founder had a building of their own, after Saint Frontonio, the patron saint of Épila, a figure whose legend involves swimming against the current.

From the atlas

Bodegas Frontonio

At A Glance

The Producer

Fernando Mora had been building wind turbines for a living when he decided he wanted to make wine. He bought a home kit and set up fermentation temperature control in his bathtub using bags of ice. That was the laboratory. He passed the WSET Diploma in 2013 and became a Master of Wine two years after that. By 2010 he had already made the first Frontonio wine alongside oenologist Mario López, in the López family winery in Épila, directly behind the small shop where López's mother sold bulk wine by the litre to locals.

The gap between that bulk tank and what Frontonio became is the whole story. Within a decade, Mora and López had assembled 65 hectares of old, dry-farmed, goblet-trained vines across the Valdejalón IGP and surrounding Aragónese villages. In 2019, after finding old vines in the foothills of the Sierra de Algairén, they moved premium production to Alpartir and into a 200-year-old building at the mountain's edge. The estate has been fully organic since 2022. Critical attention from Luis Gutiérrez and Jancis Robinson followed, but the wines are easier to understand through their vineyards than through their reviews.

Place

Valdejalón is not a DO. It holds IGP status, which gives Frontonio label freedom that a stricter appellation designation would not allow, and that flexibility matters for a range built around elevation variation and mixed-grape co-plantings. The IGP sits within Aragón, in the province of Zaragoza, between the Iberian mountain ranges and the Ebro valley.

Elevation is the defining variable. Frontonio's vineyards run from 300 metres on the valley floor to 1,030 metres on slate at the top of the estate. At the higher elevations, the continental climate sharpens: cold nights slow ripening, retain acidity naturally, and produce grapes with less fruit weight than the valley. Lower parcels need more intervention, earlier picking, and whole-bunch work to hold freshness. The mountain parcels arrive with it already in place.

Soil And Site

Slate soils run through the most distinctive parcels in the range. The Supersónico Garnacha comes from 90-year-old vines at 1,030 metres on slate, and the El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo sits on north-west-facing slate plots planted between 1898 and 1908. That north-west exposure slows the morning warm-up, extends the growing window, and keeps the Macabeo delicate rather than flat. The slate itself drains well and stresses the vines towards smaller berries and more concentrated juice. At mid-altitude, the Microcosmico Garnacha grows on slate at 650 to 700 metres in the village of Jarque, on terrain that is warmer than the summit but still cool enough to need only light touch in the cellar.

Story

Frontonio is named for Saint Frontonio, the patron saint of Épila, a figure whose legend involves swimming against the current. The name was chosen before either founder had a building to work in.

The winery's first decade was built around finding old vines rather than planting new ones. Aragón had an abundance of goblet-trained, dry-farmed parcels that dated to the early twentieth century or earlier, abandoned or undervalued because the market for heavy, extracted regional red wine had collapsed. Mora and López began working these parcels and built a corrective philosophy around what they found: Valdejalón Garnacha has naturally low acidity and high fruit weight, so every decision in vineyard and cellar runs against those tendencies. Early picking to preserve freshness. Co-fermentations of red and white grapes where they occur together in the same parcel. Whole bunches for reds to add grip and slow the pace of extraction.

The 2019 move from Épila to Alpartir marked the shift from project to estate. The new cellar in the Sierra de Algairén foothills had three levels and no need for pumps: gravity moved the fruit from crush to vessel. The mountain location also put the winery closer to the high-altitude parcels that define the top of the range.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 65 hectares are goblet-trained and dry-farmed. Goblet training without irrigation produces low yields and concentrates flavour in the berry. Dry farming forces the roots down and keeps the vine in balance with the site rather than with the tap. Organic certification across the full estate since 2022 means no synthetic inputs anywhere in the range.

In the cellar, the 200-year-old building in Alpartir works by gravity across three levels. Fruit goes in at the top and moves down through fermentation and into vessel without mechanical pumping, which reduces oxidation and physical stress on the must. Fermentation vessels include large-format foudres, 500-litre barrels, and cement vats. The cement vats keep temperature stable without the oxygen exchange that wood provides, and they are the primary vessel for the Microcosmico. The Supersónico goes into 500-litre barrels for 14 months after 70 days of maceration. Minimal intervention across the range means no heavy fining or filtration.

Wines

The range divides into two observable layers: wines made to drink early and wines tied to specific parcels, elevations, and vine ages.

Supersónico Garnacha is the flagship red. Ninety-year-old vines at 1,030 metres on slate, with small amounts of co-planted Macabeo fermented in alongside the Garnacha. One hundred percent whole bunches, 70 days of maceration, 14 months in 500-litre barrels. It undergoes 70 days of maceration and ages for 14 months in 500-litre barrels. It is the most structured wine in the range and the one that asks for the most time.

Microcosmico Garnacha comes from 100% Garnacha on slate at 650 to 700 metres in Jarque. Ten percent whole bunches, mainly aged in cement. Lighter grip than the Supersónico, more forward fruit, and a more immediate texture, though the mountain elevation keeps the acidity present and the finish clean.

El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo is from the parcels planted between 1898 and 1908 on north-west-facing slate. Century-old Macabeo vines are almost absent from modern Aragón, and this wine behaves accordingly: delicate, very fine in texture, citrus-pure, with a saline quality and a grainy, mineral finish that comes from the slate subsoil and the age of the vines. It earned 94 points.

El Jardín de las Iguales Garnacha draws from the same early-twentieth-century plantings on slate. It is the red counterpart in the old-vine parcel tier.

La Loma y Las Santos is a white blend led by Garnacha Blanca with Macabeo completing it. Lively and mineral, with juicy citrus and a lemony acid note on the finish, with a touch of salinity. It sits at a more accessible entry point than the single-parcel whites.

In The Glass

The reds at Frontonio carry a signature that runs against what most people expect from Aragón. No jammy fruit, no extracted weight, no alcoholic heat on the finish. Whole-bunch fermentation introduces a faint leafy grip and a spice note that sits behind the Garnacha fruit. The tannins are present but fine, shaped by long maceration at altitude rather than by new oak. On the palate, the mountain origin shows up as a mid-weight freshness: the fruit is red-berried and clear, not dark or compacted, and the acidity holds through to the finish rather than fading mid-mouth.

The whites are built around salinity and citrus. In the Macabeo, especially from the older parcels, the texture is almost grainy: a mineral quality on the tongue that comes from the slate and the vine age working together. Acidity is the backbone across all the whites, keeping the citrus defined and the finish long. The Garnacha Blanca blend is looser and more generous, but the saline thread runs through it as well.

Both colours reflect the corrective winemaking: early picking keeps the sugar from building too high, whole-bunch and co-fermentation choices add complexity without weight, and the gravity-flow cellar keeps the wines clean without stripping them.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo. The vines were planted between 1898 and 1908 on north-west-facing slate in the Valdejalón hills, and they have never been replanted. Macabeo from century-old vines on slate is not a common object. The wine is pale and fine-textured, with concentrated citrus on the nose, a saline quality that rises mid-palate, and a grainy mineral finish that lingers. No oak, no weight, no excess fruit. It is precise and long. Earning 94 points is one signal; drinking it against conventional Aragón white wine is a clearer one. It explains what Frontonio is correcting and why the mountain location and the old vines matter.

Anecdote

Fernando Mora was still working as a wind energy engineer when he decided he needed to understand fermentation. He could not get to a winery, so he bought a home winemaking kit and set up in his flat. The temperature problem was real: fermentation runs too warm without control, and his flat had no cellar. He filled his bathtub with ice and placed the fermentation vessel inside it. That was the cooling system. He ran it that way until he understood what he was doing, then enrolled in the WSET Diploma in 2013 and completed it. He became a Master of Wine two years later. By that point he had already made the first Frontonio wine with Mario López, in 2010, in a family winery in Épila directly behind the shop where López's mother was still selling bulk wine by the litre. The project was named Frontonio before either of them had a building to work in, after the patron saint of Épila, a figure known for swimming against the current.

Final Word

Frontonio is a winery built on correction: against the heavy style that Aragón carried for decades, against low-altitude ripeness, against bulk wine culture, and against the idea that a Spanish IGP cannot produce wines worth serious attention. The mountain parcels, the old vines, and the minimal-intervention cellar are all in service of wines that taste of where they come from rather than of how they were made. The Macabeo and the Garnacha from the oldest parcels are the clearest expression of that aim.

Sources

• https://www.skurnik.com/producer/frontonio-bodegas/
• https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/frontonio
• https://wineanorak.com/2023/03/07/the-wines-of-bodega-frontonio-aragon-spain/