Hi,
It’s been a long time since I’ve written something like this.
Truth be told, I don’t even really know where to start. A lot has happened over the last few years, and although I’ve often thought about writing and sharing more, in the end, the winery and life in general took over.
And I also think I needed to live through certain experiences before I could talk about them.
Over past few years, we’ve worked really hard. Incredibly hard. They’ve been years of important work, but the kind of work that goes unnoticed by the outside world. We’ve recovered old mountain vineyards, vines that were almost completed abandoned that now make sense once again. We’ve bought new plots. We’ve planted trees. We’ve learned to listen more.
We also adopted Luna, our dog, who is now the heart and soul of Frontonio.
We became Demeter certified. And although for many people that is just a stamp, for us, it’s been a way of deepening our commitment to how we want to work the land and how we want to live.
We’ve also made plenty of mistakes.
And thank goodness for that.
Because I believe that many of the beautiful things happening now are born precisely from these hard knocks, from these doubts. From the days when you feel completely lost. From rethinking things you took for granted.
Myself, I’ve changed a lot.
I’ve travelled extensively over these years. I’ve spent more time away from home than I would like. But I’ve also had the opportunity to talk about the new wave of Spanish wine all over the world, and to defend something I deeply believe in: that in seemingly small places, huge things are happening.
And I’m grateful to those who have given me a voice in the world.
Every time I return to Alpartir, it becomes even clearer to me.
This village has changed my life.
I like living here. I like life in a rural village. I like learning. I like walking through the mountain vineyards of the Sierras del Jalón and experiencing places where things don’t move so fast.
I also feel like we’re in a very beautiful moment of our history.
Every day, we try to do things with more precision, more sensitivity, and less noise. Listening to the plots more closely. Better understanding the vintages. Accepting that wine shouldn’t look like a fixed idea, but like something alive.
For a long time in the wine world, there has been a lot of talk about “non-intervention,” and honestly, I believe less and less in that concept. It seems like a sort of modern fantasy to me. Of course we intervene. All the time.
The difference lies in how you do it.
I believe more in a sensitive intervention. In guiding. In interpreting a plot shaped by a specific vintage. In understanding that each vineyard needs something different every year, and that making wine isn’t about following dogmas, but about having sensitivity, courage, and honesty.
And I think that’s where we’re finding something very special.
Today, I feel I’m more sensitive and truer to myself. A stronger person. And certainly a happier one.
And maybe that’s why I felt like writing again.
Because I feel we’re living through a very special moment at Frontonio. And because I’m more excited than ever to share the wines of our land with you.
The wines from our mountains.
—
Fernando Mora MW
Bodegas Frontonio
For those of you living in Spain, who are curious about this place and the wines born here, you can get a little closer though The Garage Wine Club, designed to share our journey with you at an unhurried pace.