You want a bargain? I have a bargain : 2024 Clos Lojen from Ponce
Juan Antonio Ponce celebrated the 20th anniversary of his winery in Manchuela with the 2024 harvest. He was also very happy about the quality.
Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com, January 2025
2024 Clos Lojen, Ponce
£90 per 6 bottle case in bond
I was out for dinner in London the other night with family and we headed to the ever-dependable Andrew Edmunds in Soho – uncomplicated but delicious food cooked perfectly with an interesting and fairly priced wine list to boot. My kind of place. Having ordered a glass of Saumur-Champigny to accompany the main, I was pleased to see they served it lightly chilled, particularly as it was, after all, a sweltering evening in the city. The style of the wine matched the food brilliantly and the serving temperature brought the fruit into sharp focus. Simple pleasures.
That got me contemplating red wines to serve cool, as even in the height of summer heat I still like to drink reds. So, if you are looking for a bright, fresh, exuberant young red to drink lightly chilled with a whole variety of different dishes this summer, I have got the wine for you. Ponce (pronounced pon-thay) in Manchuela in southern-eastern Spain, produce a variety of different wines at different price levels and so many times I have been impressed. You should already know this if you have followed our offers.
The 2024 Clos Lojen, which I have just tasted this afternoon and is featured here, is no exception. It is made from Bobal, the grape variety responsible for the upper-level Ponce offerings, but this wine is made for early drinking and sells at a price level, which, in Larkin parlance, is termed a ‘snip’. No, this isn’t the most complex red, you’ll ever taste, nor are you going to be pondering its intricacies for hours over a leisurely lunch. This is a juicy, vibrant, highly appealing wine with enough concentration of spicy-edged dark raspberry and loganberry fruit, a mineral sensation to the finish and a textural impression that would signal a wine of a higher cost. It is an incredibly more-ish wine, particularly when served chilled.
Of the 2023, Luis Gutiérrez, Spanish reviewer for robertparker.com, commented that it is ‘even more of a bargain than in previous years, as the price is the same and the quality is even higher!!’. Well, Luis, I wonder what you might say about the 2024 in due course. And in case you think for this price (and I know I haven’t mentioned it yet) that it must be young vines or fruit considered unworthy of the leading wines in the stable, think again. The fruit for Clos Lojen comes from 60-year-old vines. The wine comes in at just 12.5% alcohol, is impeccably balanced by terrific freshness, given it was only aged for six months in very large old oak. And as Luis also commented with regard to the 2023, ‘this is way beyond what the price might suggest’.
Drinking now, but capable of being cellared for two to three years (but why wait?). Available in two weeks.
2024 Clos Lojen, Ponce
£90 per six bottle case in bond
Please let us know of your interest.
Simon
simon.larkin@atlasfinewines.com